Ashokan Farewell

[Chris Keth]

I learned and recorded this nice slow waltz this evening. It's a beautiful tune with a lot of nice opportunities for embellishments. It's fun to slow down and wring all that nice tone out of the instrument!

Enjoy, and hopefully some of you will learn it and post your cuts. It's easy enough that beginners can tackle it and sound good and more experienced players will learn it fast and be able to embellish.

[woodwizard]

Nice one Chris. Your A9 really has that sweet Gibson sound and tone I love.
That song always reminds me of the Burns - Civil War documentary. A lot of Jay Ungar's tunes sound like they were written a hundred years ago. Kind of like Norman Blake. "Round the Horn" is another good tune by him that is fun to pick. There's a cool version of it at Mandozine if you want to try it.

[jim_n_virginia]

Yeah I hear it played at all the jams around my way. I found the tab for twin mandolin parts for it a few years ago and me and a friend learned the harmony parts for it play it occasionally. It's a great tune.

To me though it loses something on the mandolin ... I like it better played on the fiddle with a lot of vibrato.

I learned it off the Mandolin Extravganza CD and there are some cool ornamentals thrown it that version. :mandosmiley:

[Stephanie Reiser]

I agree, Jim. the long bowing really enhances the tone of the tune. I like to play it first with single notes, then a second time around with double stops and hitting the high D toward the end. Another great Unger tune is Lovers Waltz.

[Barb Friedland]

With lots of well done tremolo and embellishments, Ashokan Farewell can be gorgeous on Mandolin.