This fingerpicking arrangement of Shady Grove features simple chords as well as a melody that is easy to fit into this style. Notice that in every measure the thumb is constantly moving, alternating between the 4th string on the 1st and 3rd beats and and 3rd string on the 2nd and 4th beats. This is similar to the way Travis picking works on the guitar except on the guitar you alternate between bass notes on the 4th, 5th, and 6th strings. Although the uke doesn’t have booming bass notes like the guitar, it still works fine for this style of playing and with the high 4th string it has a uniqueness of its own that I like.

In this arrangement I have started out with the melody arrangement in the first 8 measures that could be used between any verses. The entire song is really just 8 measures that keep repeating. Beginning in the 9th measure the top tablature line is a fingerpicking pattern that is just repeated over and over. The tablature line below contains the melody of the song as you would sing it. This was added more as a reference so you could keep up with the melody as you play the fingerpicking pattern, but it can be played on the uke as well. It might sound pretty good to play as a duet if you’ve got a friend with a uke.