Auld Lang Syne

12/23/2016

Hi,
The song of the week is 'Auld Lang Syne' in the key of G. We will play this mostly as an instrumental at next week's jam, but perhaps sing a verse and chorus near the end of it.

The chord progression I use for Auld Lang Syne is:

1155
1144
1155
4411

Each break will run through the progression twice (32 measures in total) so that each instrument gets to play a break based upon the melody for both the verse and the chorus.

Here are two good bluegrass versions of 'Auld Lang Syne' to take a listen to and play along with:

Bill Keith: key of G
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5HZZGeXp0mE

David Grisman: key of G:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7-HjnZ8PqhA

These arrangements of Auld Lang Syne (once you get past the intro in the first version) make for good examples of what can be done with any number of non-bluegrass songs in 4/4 time to convert them to a bluegrass rhythm and feel. I suggest listening to these back to back with any non-bluegrass versions of the song that you might have in your music collection or that you might bring up on youtube and study closely how they differ in rhythm and feel from the bluegrass versions. In this connection, you might find it interesting to compare the melody sheets attached here for 'Auld Lang Syne' with the melody sheets you will find on the internet if you google "Auld Lang Syne sheet music".

Have a Merry Christmas!
Jason