Robert Burns · Key of G · Public domain
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This chart is written in G. Tap any key above the chart to see the whole song in that key, with every chord already worked out. To stay in G with different chord shapes, play it capo 3 with the E shapes, or capo 5 with the D shapes, or capo 7 with the C shapes. Singing with a group? Pick the key where the highest note is comfortable for everyone, then print that page.
In 1788 Robert Burns sent a song to the Scots Musical Museum with a note saying he had taken it down "from an old man's singing." That was partly modesty. An older ballad with the same refrain had been in print since 1711, but most of the verses we sing are Burns's own. The title means "old long since," or more naturally "for the sake of old times."
The melody is not the one Burns first had in mind. The tune everyone knows was matched to his words by the Edinburgh publisher George Thomson in 1799, three years after the poet's death. Scots carried the song around the world as the way to see out the old year, and in North America it was fixed in place by the bandleader Guy Lombardo, whose New Year's Eve broadcasts played it at midnight every year from 1929. A few of the Scots words: a "pint-stoup" is a pint tankard, a "fiere" is a friend, and a "gude-willie waught" is a hearty drink taken in goodwill. Words and melody are in the public domain.
Four chords: G, D, C, and Em. It moves in a relaxed 4/4, and every verse and the chorus use the same progression, so there is only one thing to learn. Each line begins with a pickup word ("Should," "And," "For") sung just before the first strum. The pattern is G to D, G to C, G to D, and then the closing phrase walks Em, C, G across the three words "auld lang syne." Start it slowly, the way it is sung at midnight, and if the room joins in, let the last chorus pick up speed. If G is high for your group, the key of F is one tap away.
Tap any chord for its diagram, other voicings, and the notes inside it.
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Further reading: Auld Lang Syne (Wikipedia)
