Follow these links to go to Part 2, Part 3 and Part 4 of this lesson.

Here we are with this traditional classic Christmas and New Year’s song! It’s never too early to get into the holiday spirit, is it? This song was actually part of the Xmas Special 2007 that was once available on YouTube, though I don't think it's there anymore.

I really like this fingerstyle arrangement of the song. It sounds great just played on its own at a party or with vocals over top. If you’re not used to fingerstyle, this might just take a bit more practice than you may be used to, but it really helps to tackle it slowly. That way, you can make sure all of your fingers are in the right place at the right time, and you can focus on coordinating your left and right hands.

For this song, I’ve broken it up into four different lessons to help you focus on a small chunk of the song at a time. In Lesson 1, we’re only going to be looking at the first two bars.

On your picking hand, you’re going to be using fingers 1, 2, and 3 to pluck the thinner strings of the chord, while your thumb takes care of the rest of the notes. This is pretty standard for fingerstyle playing.

For your fretting hand, we’re just looking at the C and G chords, so nothing too crazy there. There are a few ornamentations that work through the melody, though, so just be aware of those.

This song actually starts off with an anacrusis, also known as a pickup note. This is just a fancy word for a note that starts on beat 4 of a previous imaginary bar. It’s meant to lead into the first beat of the first bar of the song.

TAB and Notes

Download the TAB for Auld Lang Syne here.