Stephen Foster

About Stephen Foster. Working primarily in the 1848 era, Stephen Foster contributed to the folk repertoire that beginning acoustic guitar players still draw from today. Songs attributed to Stephen Foster (or arranged in their style for this catalog) sit well under open chord shapes and tend to move at conversational tempos — making them ideal first material for new players.

FretMapper currently lists 20 songs under this attribution. Each one is presented in a beginner-friendly key with full chord charts, a verse and chorus progression, a recommended strumming pattern, and a step-by-step practice plan. The arrangements reflect common voicings used by acoustic players — they're not transcriptions of any one specific recording.

If this is your first song from Stephen Foster, start with whichever piece in the list below is marked 'beginner.' Spend a week with it. Once the chord changes feel automatic, move on to one of the 'easy' or 'intermediate' arrangements — you'll find your fingers already know most of the shapes, and the new song will come together in a fraction of the time.