Josefin’s Waltz / Josephine’s Waltz

Here’s a beautiful waltz written by Swedish guitarist Roger Tallroth. Normally it is known as Josephine’s Waltz here in England; or I’ve seen it called Josefin’s Waltz in many places.

But it’s name as given by Roger himself is “Johsefins dopvals”. It’s a lovely but simple melody. I believe it was written for his niece’s christening.

Roger is an amazing guitar player, who plays in some unusual – even unique – tunings. This is by far his most well known composition, and is a popular tune in sessions.

I will be making a full video tutorial on Josephine’s Waltz, so do sign up to my newsletter to hear when I post new tutorials.

Josephine’s Waltz (Josefin’s waltz) Sheet Music

I have transcribed the sheet music for Josephine’s (or Josefin’s) waltz – you can see it below. This is how I play the tune, but without any of the drones, chords or ornamentation I would use.

There are different ways that you could write out the sheet music for this tune, since it has a slightly unusual structure. The third and fourth lines on the sheet music are identical – so I could have used a repeat sign. In which case you can think of the tune as having an A part that repeats, a B part that repeats, and a C part that doesn’t (or a kind of ‘coda’). This is how I think of the tune; but it is easier to read on the page when the B part is written out I believe. So that is how I have done it.



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