Download the TAB to Niel Gow’s Lament
My friend Jim introduced me to this hauntingly lovely SCOTTISH tune. Niel Gow’s Lament for the Death of his Second Wife. Niel Gow was Scottish. I call it Irish because some people searching for Irish ukulele songs would be happy to find something like this. No offense to anyone.
From Niel’s wikipedia page, “After having been widowed, Niel married Margaret Urquhart from Perth in 1768, and they went on to share a happy married life until she died in 1805. Niel was deeply hurt by her death, and stopped playing the fiddle for a while. His friends finally convinced him to pick it up again, and the first thing he played was his ‘…Lament for the Death of his Second Wife’.”
Jim and I were mostly moved by the classical guitar versions we found on youtube but when we arranged it as such, very slow with almost no rhythm, it still lacked a little.. at least for the ukulele. So I added more open sounding chords and some rhythmic ‘ghost’ notes to give it depth because the ukulele’s range isn’t as lush as a classical guitar. The ghost notes in the TAB are in (parenthesis). Play them very softly as I do in the video.
Also, the TAB is in straight time so I encourage you to interpret it with feeling and sensitivity. I am sure everyone will play it a little differently and that is a good thing. It should be personal.
ukulelesecrets 
April 19th, 2011 at 11:27 pm
A beautiful tune, Tim, and nicely played with feeling. And thanks for posting the tab.
Frank
April 20th, 2011 at 5:24 pm
yes…thanks for this and your other postings.
May 7th, 2011 at 3:12 am
I’m still plugging away at this – you make it look so effortless!
May 28th, 2011 at 4:04 pm
LOVE this tab. Thanks so much! you should publish an ebook!!!
June 4th, 2011 at 6:52 am
Tim I am so loving your blog and offerings you really bring the word badass to a new level. Especially grateful for showing us the tricks and the slow examples so helpful and inspiring. Peace Up
July 18th, 2011 at 10:15 pm
Thank you, everyone!
October 29th, 2018 at 7:58 pm
Just needed to say you did a beautiful job on this tune. Thank you so much for providing tabs as well! Hopefully with enough practice I can get this down!