The Black Nag — Mandolin Tab

Mandolin tab and sheet music with synced audio · Key of Bm · 120 BPM · 6/8 time · English jig · Intermediate

Chords used in this arrangement: Bm, A, D, Em, F#m.

"The Black Nag" first showed up in print as "The Galloping Nag" in the 1657 third edition of John Playford's Dancing Master, and it was popular enough that it stayed in every subsequent edition of that book all the way through the 18th and final edition in 1728. That's over 70 years of unbroken print life for a single tune, which is a pretty good sign somebody really liked it. The tune is only 24 bars long, but the actual country dance it was written for is 72 bars — so you'd play the whole thing through three times just to get dancers once through the figures.

This page includes mandolin tablature, standard music notation, and a chord chart — printable as PDF and playable in sync with the original recording. Change the key, slow the tempo down, and loop the bars you want to practise.