Music You Can Read®

"Tom Dooley"
       
     
"Tom Dooley"
 


"Tom Dooley," Lyrics, Text Format



Limited range, syncopated rhythms, and submediant
arpeggios (vi, Dm) using the pentatonic scale.

Click to hear melody.
 


Description
 
  • Grade: Fifth

  • Origin: USA - Traditional Ballad - 1866

  • Key: F Major

  • Time: 4/4

  • Form: ABA - chorus/verse/chorus

  • Rhythm: intermediate: | ti ta ti ta ta | syncopation, | ta/a ta/a | ta/a/a/a | ta/a/a ta |
    | ti ta/ ta ta | syncopation, | ta ta/a ta | ta ta ti ta/ | syncopation

  • Pitches: beginners: So La Do Re Mi - pentatonic scale

  • Intervals: intermediate: La/Do/Mi ascending submediant arpeggio (vi, Dm), Mi\So (M6), Re\So (P5), Mi\Do\La descending submediant arpeggio (vi, Dm), Do\So (P4), La/Do (m3)

  • Musical Elements: notes: whole, dotted half, half, dotted quarter, quarter, eighth; pickup beat, syncopation, chorus/verse/chorus, D.C. al Fine, Fine, two double barlines; note: use of the minor arpeggio (vi, Dm) and ending with a minor third gives the tune a minor quality using the pentatonic scale

  • Key Words: USA history; USA geography: Wilkes County, North Carolina, Tennessee; murder of Laura Foster by Tom Dula (Dooley); hanging, tomorrow, Grayson (Tom's boss who turned him in), lonesome, white oak tree; contractions: I'll (I will), hadn't (had not), I'd (I would); abbreviation: hangin' (hanging);
    southern USA vocabulary: reckon (thought)

  • Recorder: intermediate: playing in F Major, syncopation, ascending and descending submediant arpeggios (vi, Dm), pentatonic scale, practicing pitches in the lower register

Based on the 1866 murder of a woman named Laura Foster in Wilkes County, North Carolina. Col. James Grayson, a Tennessee politician, had hired Tom Dula (Dooley) on his farm when he fled North Carolina.

 
 


"Tom Dooley"

           
      Chorus:    
   
Hang down your head Tom Dooley,
Hang down your head and cry.
Hang down your head Tom Dooley,
Poor boy, you're bound to die.
   
    1. I met her on the mountain,
And there I took her life.
I met her on the mountain,
And stabbed her with my knife.
   
      Chorus    
   
2.
Come this time tomorrow,
Reckon where I'll be?
Hadn't a-been for Grayson,
I'd a-been in Tennessee.
   
      Chorus    
    3. Come this time tomorrow,
Reckon where I'll be?
Down in some lonesome valley,
Hangin' from a white oak tree.
   
      Chorus    
           


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Additional Formats


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"Tom Dooley," Music Format
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beats

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rhythm

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pitch numbers

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solfeggio

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letter names

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