Ashokan Farewell

Old-time Waltz in D Major

Here’s a classic waltz by Jay Ungar made popular by the Ken Burns Civil War documentary. It’s a good way to learn raised third finger. Listen for the sound of the D major triad in the second quarter.

If you want more of a challenge, then go to the “Learn It By Ear 👂” below for a call-and-response lesson on the tune.

Directly below is a traditional tutorial on the tune. 👇🏼

Learning Chunks

I’ve made some “Learning Chunks” to help you learn more easily. These focused exercises contain sheet music, tabs and mp3 snippets to guide you on your fiddle journey. The idea is to start with small musical bits, get good at those, and then put them together into bigger pieces until you have the whole tune. I call it Micro-practice.

For those of you who read (or want to read), all snippets use this key and time signature:

Preparation

Warm up with D major scale using D drone.

A part, first quarter

First quarter: (A0-2)-3-2-1-0-D2-1-2-3-2-1-0-G2-D0-G2

A part, second quarter

A part, third quarter

A part, fourth quarter

B part, first quarter

B part, second quarter

B part, third quarter

B part, fourth quarter

Learn It By Ear 👂

Let’s learn and practice Ashokan Farewell with call-and-response.

Use the video below to learn the tune for the first time, deepen your practice or review it.

This is a great way to develop your ear which will help you learn tunes more easily as well as play in jam sessions.

Learning steps

I’ll play a little Chunk, and then leave you a space to play it back.

If you don’t quite get a Chunk, then just rewind. Keep trying, even if you struggle a bit. It’s good ear-training.

If you’re totally stuck, then take my step-by-step tutorial on YouTube and then grab the free sheet music from the FiddleHed site.

And if you like this style of learning, then check out the FH course, because CAR learning is the beating heart of the FH method.

Further Practice

Learn Ashokan Farewell by Ear!

Learn Ashokan Farewell by Ear with me!

Here are the notes for this Chunk of the song:

G2-D0-2-3-A0-1-2-3

It’s in A Major.

Here’s the first bit

Your turn.

Then

Now you…

Put it together

Practice the song at your own pace with this drone track.

Drone in D – No Beat

Full Tabs, Audio & Sheet Music

A part

First quarter: (A0-2)-3-2-1-0-D2-1-2-3-2-1-0-G2-D0-G2

Second quarter: G1-D0-2-A0-3-E1-1-L2-1-0

Third quarter: (A0-2)-3-2-1-0-D2-1-2-3-2-1-0-G2-D0-G2

Fourth quarter: G1-D0-2-A0-3-E1-A0-2-E0-A3

B part

First quarter: (D2-3)-A0-D2-0-A3-0-1-2-3-0-D2-1

Second quarter: D2-1-0-G2-0-1-H3-A0-0-D2-1

Third quarter: D0-2-A0-L2-3-1-2-3-0-D2-0

Fourth quarter: G1-D0-2-A0-3-D2-1-0-GH3-D0