It Came Upon the Midnight Clear 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 5 3̇ 7 2̇ 1̇ 6 5 6 (G4 E5 B4 D5 C5 A4 G4 A4).
• 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

Edmund Sears wrote the words in 1849. This is the tune sung in the United States, “Carol” by Richard Storrs Willis (1850). In Britain the carol is usually sung to a different tune. The melody is in the public domain.

About this tab

• What it covers. Whole tune (Richard Storrs Willis’s US tune CAROL).
• Key. C major (printed in B-flat major).
• Simplified. In “Peace on the earth” the melody climbs E, F sharp, G sharp, A; a kalimba in C has no F sharp or G sharp, so those two notes are played as F and G.
• Source. Transcribed from Wikipedia score of CAROL (melody).