The Water is Wide

by Unknown · posted by gene

How hard is it?

Listen to the song— a recording linked by the tab’s author

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How to read this tab — notation key

+: Blow note
−: Draw note
b or ': Half-step bend
bb or '': Two half-step bend
bbb or ''': Three half-step bend
(###): Chord — relevant hole numbers in parentheses
< or *: Push the button in (chromatic harmonica)

Full reference and posting tips in the tab guide.

Tab


 -2  4  4  -4  5    -4  4    -3’’  -2
The wa-ter is wide, I can’t cross o’er 

 -2  4    -3  4  -4   5 -5  -4
Nei-ther have I wings  to   fly

 -4  5  -5  6    -5   5   -4 4   5
Give me a  boat that can car-ry two

-4   4    -3’’ -2   -2 -3’’  4  4
And both shall row, my love and I

 

A ship there is and she sails the sea 
She's loaded deep as deep can be 
But not so deep as the love I'm in 
I know not if I sink or swim 

I leaned my back against an oak 
Thinking it was a trusty tree 
But first it bent and then it broke 
So did my love prove false to me 

I reached my finger into some soft bush 
Thinking the fairest flower to find 
I pricked my finger to the bone 
And left the fairest flower behind 

Oh love be handsome and love be kind 
Gay as a jewel when first it is new 
But love grows old and waxes cold 
And fades away like the morning dew 

Must I go bound while you go free 
Must I love a man who doesn't love me 
Must I be born with so little art 
As to love a man who'll break my heart 

When cockle shells turn silver bells 
Then will my love come back to me 
When roses bloom in winter's gloom 
Then will my love return to me

Play on a harmonica— watch which holes to blow & draw, with sound