Learning Supplement for Intermediate Song 1: All the Pretty Little Horses Version 2

from 30 Progressive Duets for Low-G Ukulele

History and Background

Here's some information about the history of the American folk lullaby All the Pretty Little Horses:

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• Origin
  The song is commonly thought to be of African-American origin. The first published version was in Maud McKnight Lindsay's 1903 kindergarten story A White Dove.
  Many arrangements of the song have been composed or recorded, including one by Aaron Copland for his Old American Songs in 1952.
  In 1971, Angela Davis commented on a version similar to the Lomaxes': “All the Pretty Little Horses is an authentic slave lullaby; it reveals the bitter feelings of Negro mothers who had to watch over their white charges while neglecting their own children.”

Lyrics

• Hush you bye, Don't you cry

  Go to sleep, my little baby.

  When you wake, you shall have

  All the pretty lit-tle horses

  Blacks and bays, Dapples and grays,

  Coach and six little horses.

  Hush you bye, Don't you cry,

  Go to sleepy little baby

  When you wake, you'll have sweet cake, and

  All the pretty little horses

  A brown and a gray and a black and a bay

  and a Coach and six little horses

  A black and a bay and a brown and a gray and a Coach

  and six little horses.

  Hush you bye, Don't you cry,

  Oh you pretty little baby.

  Go to sleep little baby.

  Oh, you pretty little baby.

Learning Supplements: Useful Scale

Audio Play-Along

This is the second of two arrangements of All the Pretty Little Horses 2 from 30 Progressive Duets for Low-G Ukulele. This once again finds us in the key of D minor and includes just the notes from the D (natural) minor scale. Both parts work well played in the 1st position. This version is in 4/4 time and is entirely diatonic. It also includes some counterpoint and double stops (2 notes played simultaneously) in Uke 2.

Uke 1 Audio

Uke 2 Audio

Both Parts Audio

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