- Rangeoctave and a whole step
- Notes56, 7 different
- ScalePentatonic
- Time4/4
- Length hereabout 40 s
- Source editionF major
About Auld Lang Syne
Robert Burns sent the words to the Scots Musical Museum in 1788, describing them as an old song he had taken down from an old man’s singing. The melody now sung was paired with them in 1799; it is a Scottish dance tune, and it is sung at midnight on New Year’s Eve across the English-speaking world.
The tune is pentatonic — it has no fourth and no seventh — so it can be played on the black keys of a piano, and on instruments tuned to a five-note scale.
Play Auld Lang Syne on your instrument
25 of the 27 playable instruments here have every note it needs. 24 play it where the library writes it; the rest move it to another key or octave, and each page says which. Every page has the instrument itself, with the song loaded, above the notes.
- Kalimba tabs
- Piano letter notes
- Mbira tabs
- Guzheng tabs
- Oud notes
- Violin notes
- Cello notes
- Erhu notes
- Dulcimer tab
- Xylophone letter notes
- Marimba letter notes
- Glockenspiel letter notes
- Steel Drum letter notes
- Harmonica tabs
- Trumpet notes
- Clarinet notes
- Saxophone notes
- Flute notes
- Recorder notes
- Tuba notes
- Euphonium notes
- Trombone notes
- Accordion letter notes
- Harp letter notes
- Lyre tabs
Instruments that cannot play it
- Handpan — it would need G3, which it does not have in any size or key here.
- Ocarina — it would need G3, which it does not have in any size or key here.
Auld Lang Syne letter notes
Written in C major, from G4 to A5, with each note’s number in the scale under it — the form that transfers to any instrument. A dash holds a note another beat, an underline is half a beat, and each line is one phrase.
Auld Lang Syne — letter notes · tonalics.com
Where these notes come from
Scottish traditional melody, sung to these words since 1799. Public domain.
The melody was not written down from memory. It is derived from a published transcription and compared, note for note, with independent ones:
- Followed: Wikipedia, “Auld Lang Syne” (engraved score)
- Checked against: Paul Hardy’s Songs Tunebook — 1 of 30 notes differ, as variants of a traditional tune do
The pentatonic tune, verse and chorus. This is the melody removed from the library once for a leading note it does not contain: the engraved score has none.