Deck the Halls kalimba tabs

How to read this tab

• Numbers are steps of the scale. 1 is C, 2 is D, up to 7 for B. A dot above a number means one octave higher; two dots, two octaves higher. The song starts 5̇ 4̇ 3̇ 2̇ 1̇ 2̇ 3̇ 1̇ (G5 F5 E5 D5 C5 D5 E5 C5).
• Gaps mark bars. Each group is one bar of music. The tab shows which tine to play, not how long to hold it; press Listen on the play-along page to hear the rhythm.
• Other kalimbas. On an 8-, 10- or 21-key kalimba in C the numbers mean the same notes, as long as the tines you need are there.

About the song

The melody is the Welsh New Year’s Eve song “Nos Galan”, printed in 1794. The English words are by Thomas Oliphant (1862), in the form revised in the United States in 1877. The melody is in the public domain.

About this tab

• What it covers. Whole tune: the first line twice, then “Don we now our gay apparel” and the last line with its own closing run.
• Key. C major (printed in F major).
• Simplified. In “Fa la la” after “Don we now our gay apparel” the original rises through a sharpened note (B natural in F major, F sharp here); a kalimba in C has no F sharp, so it is played as F.
• Source. Transcribed from The Blue Book of Favorite Songs (Hall & McCreary, Chicago, 1928), p. 66, “Deck The Halls” (Old Welsh Air). The closing run follows the Pennsylvania School Journal of December 1877, p. 226, because the 1928 book repeats the ending of the first line there.