Funny How Time Slips Away

In this lesson I am offering up some ideas for playing Willie Nelson’s Funny How Time Slips Away on mandolin.

My Goal in providing this is to encourage others, especially amateurs, to learn a way to play this. Use my arrangement if it helps you to get going, and practice on playing it musically in your own way. Happy mandolinning, everybody!

Funny How Time Slips Away Performance

I recorded Funny How Time Slips Away with only a mandolin for rhythm, solos and fills, a sparse midi drumbeat, and vocals. The parts were recorded individually and mixed in my Ableton Lite DAW.

The tempo is incredibly slow on this arrangement as recorded, but it could be sped up a little using the same or similar ideas and work well. I recorded the midi drum track, followed by two mandolin tracks: one was primarily the fills and solos, the other was primarily rhythm harmony, although I crossed over on the two tracks here and there as I felt the need.

Sheet Music for This Arrangement

I’ve transcribed the sheet music to aid anyone who is interested in learning this arrangement of Willie’s classic song, please feel free to download and use the sheet.

Transcription of Verses & Solo:

Funny How Time Slips Away PDF

Funny How Time Slips Away TEF*

Chord charts:

Download Chord Charts PDF

Chords Used in This Arrangement

Following is a little video run-through of the chords I use for this arrangement. These are the chords that are shown in the chord chart PDF that you can download with the above link.

I could easily change the thumbnail for this video, but I’m thinking that my really goofy looking grin in this thumbnail may compel someone to actually watch the video, lol.

Verses: Demonstrations and Commentary

This video offers some thoughts on measures 1 -16 of the transcription.

Solo: Demonstrations and Commentary

Due to my aging and meningioma-encrusted brain, the video I was making went way too long even after extensive editing, so I had to split it and cover the solo in two videos. Notation for the solo can be found in the links above, just beneath the performance video.

Here is the breakdown of the solo, two measures at a time. Directly beneath these two videos, you will find targeted links to each specific section at YouTube, which can be very helpful in bypassing the entire video in order to focus on a specific area.

SOLO: PART 1, MEASURES 18 – 23