Ashoken Farewell Tutorial

This is a great piece to end summer sessions.

Most of us know it from the Ken Burns Civil War documentary series, and it seems old. But actually it's not. (Here's a clip from the doc with the tune under it.)

It was composed by Jay Unger in 1982, and became a closing tune for fiddle camps run by he and his wife Molly in upstate New York.

Here's a link to Jay & Molly and friends playing it:

Ashoken Farewell video

This tune, whether done simply or more complex, stops folks in their tracks. So why not learn it!

Here in an audio track of the melody that you can strum along to:

Ashoken Farewell - melody track, guitar picked

It's done slow to be easier for playing along with. Remember to turn the volume down on the online player.

Just added - melody track on mandolin. About 54 bpm. Metronome is kind of loud. Entire tune repeated twice with different ending. Excuse the duffer tremolo. 

I developed this tutorial for a new uke student (with piano training) who wanted to fingerpick this tune in key of D on uke. We encountered the uke dilemma of how to pick notes below High G on 4th string of soprano uke without wanting to re-string to Low G. Here's the link to a post about experimenting with DROP TUNING ON UKE as a possible workaround for this.

Below is the sheet music. Chords indicated. You can also try to pick out the notes. Have fun with the rest of your summer!

Wellerman Tutorial 2 - Real treat

Susannah and Cameron, of Vivo Violin Studio, were home for a lovely long month this summer (and will be missed :'(   While here, they recorded an audio file with a local lad who is a keen on Wellerman as I am.

Their track is so sweet it deserves its own posting.

Strummers can also play along to these vocals. It's in the same key as Nathan Evans' Tiktok version.

Guitar players - put capo on 8th fret and play same chords that i indicated in Tutorial 1.  (Basically Em, Am, C, G).

Here's the link to the audio file:

Wellerman w M. Eldridge, S, McKenzie-Sutter, C. MacLellan

Wellerman Tutorial

The minute I saw the clip of Nathan Evans doing 'Wellerman,'  I knew I needed it. With the rhythm beat out on the back of his guitar and simple tune, i felt it would be perfect for beginner uke players.

So my idea was, get the kids to do the beat on percussion instrument of choice. For strummers, it's hard to do the minor chords for beginners on uke. But they can do the chorus.  It will sound fine using C, G and F major in the chorus if guitar supports with minor chords. So strummers would wait for the chorus and then come in.

 

The Wellerman is a long folksong/working song with many verses. So i picked 4 verses. The pattern in the audio files is 2 X verses, 1 x chorus, 2X verses, 2x chorus.

 

It's done here to guitar chords. Use any stringed, lute family instrument, with its own fingering for  corresponding chord name.

 

Also i didnt select these chords so that they would jive with  Nathan on Tiktok. I workd backwards from simple uke chords at chorus for beginners, and kept is simple, no capos or complicated chords in verses.

Here are links to audio files (remember to turn volume down on online player before hitting play)-

Wellerman picking only (play along with this if you are chording):

 

My picking is a bit choppy. But pretend you are accompanying someone who's had 1 too many in a pub. I also found doing single strums helped with being able to hear and wait for the picking line.

 

Wellerman pick & strum (to hear what they sound like together)

 

Here's a lyric sheet with notes on chording:

 

 

 

 

Here are the notes for the tune jotted down pretty roughly. It's a working song, so improvising goes with the territory.

With these pics, if they aren't readable, take a screen cap and enlarge it in Preview or your own photo viewer program.

I have a couple of devices to make chord playing easier for new players until they get up to speed. Or for folks with arthritis, muscular challenge, who just want to be able to play along. Pics below.

1. Chord Buddy (only give 3 chords)

 

 

2. Chord changer. From Troubador Music.  Gives option for more chords.

 

 

So there you go. A song anyone can learn this summer.