auld lang syne

Here’s a version we did for a holiday party at Laurel Circle this year. Very fortunate to play with the trio, plus drums, baritone and tenor sax.

If you’re hanging with friends for New Years and a guitar is handy, you’re pretty much obligated to do this tune :-)

The pdf below is the notation for Auld Lang Syne and will show you how to play auld lang syne on guitar. The notes are written in MuseScore and we can output a pdf of the sheet music/tablature and an audio file directly from that! The video on this page is in the key of F but if you’re looking for an easier version, use the chord, tab and lyric sheet in C below.

Musescore, btw is an excellent tool for any guitarist and it is completely free, which is amazing to me considering what you can do with it. Find out for yourself- download the program from musescore.org

Auld Lang Syne tabs and chords part 1 in F

“Auld Lang Syne” (Scots: [ˈɔːl(d) lɑŋ ˈsəi̯n]) is a Scottish song. In the English-speaking world it is traditionally sung to bid farewell to the old year at the stroke of midnight on Hogmanay/New Year’s Eve. It is also often heard at funerals and graduations and as a farewell or ending to other occasions; for instance, many branches of the Scouting movement use it to close jamborees and other functions.

The text is a Scots-language poem written by Robert Burns in 1788, but based on an older Scottish folk song. In 1799 it was set to a traditional pentatonic tune, which has since become standard. “Auld Lang Syne” is listed as numbers 6294 and 13892 in the Roud Folk Song Index.

Its Scots title may be translated into standard English as “old long since” or, less literally, “long long ago”, “days gone by”, “times long past” or “old times”. Consequently, “For auld lang syne”, as it appears in the first line of the chorus, might be loosely translated as “for the sake of old times”. The phrase “Auld Lang Syne” is also used in similar poems by Robert Ayton (1570–1638), Allan Ramsay (1686–1757) and James Watson (1711), as well as older folk songs predating Burns.

Auld Lang Syne in C audio file from musescore (same as above)

Auld Lang Syne in C, chords, tabs and lyrics