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SongsGood King Wenceslas
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The spring carol “Tempus adest floridum”, from Piae Cantiones, 1582. Public domain.

4 strings · C2–A3 open · E5 up the A string in thumb position · Perfect fifths, exactly an octave below a viola. The C string is the deepest note in a string quartet.

Tap a string, or slide along a string and the pitch follows your finger, under a bow that never stops. On a keyboard the letters on the strings are the ones to press — they run down the strings, the A at the top — hold a key and the note holds.

CelloFree · printable · plays in your browser

Good King Wenceslas — Cello Notes

Good King Wenceslas, written out for the cello as every note with its string and how far up it. Press Play to hear it, Practice to learn it one note at a time — the cello waits for you — or Play along to keep time with it.

  • Notes53, 8 pitches
  • RangeG3–G4
  • Key hereC major
  • Tempo120 bpm · about 34 s
  • LevelEasy

Can a cello play Good King Wenceslas?

✓ Plays as written Every note of it is on the cello, in C major from G3 to G4. The check is made note by note against what the instrument can actually sound.

Good King Wenceslas: cello notes

The large line is the note; the small line under it is the string, and how many semitones above its open note to stop it. A dash holds the note another beat, an underline is half a beat, and a dot beside a note makes it half as long again. Each line is one phrase.

▶ Play it above

Good King Wenceslas — cello notes · tonalics.com

The 8 notes it uses

Lowest to highest, with how many times each is played. Learn these 8 and you can play the whole tune.

  • GD·5×7
  • AA·0×7
  • BA·2×4
  • CA·3×21
  • DA·5×6
  • EA·7×3
  • FA·8×3
  • GA·10×2

What to expect on a cello

  • It runs from G3 to G4, an octave, using 8 different notes. That leaves 19 semitones unused below and 9 above.
  • 85% of its moves are a step or a repeated note. The widest is a fifth, C4 to G4, at note 27.
  • It is played on 2 strings (D and A), crossing between strings 12 times.
  • 7 notes are an open string, and the highest stop is 10 semitones above the open string.

About the tune

The tune is a 13th-century spring carol, “Tempus adest floridum”, printed in the Finnish songbook Piae Cantiones in 1582. In 1853 the English hymn writer John Mason Neale wrote new words for it about the Bohemian duke Wenceslas, and a song about flowers became a song about snow.

The spring carol “Tempus adest floridum”, from Piae Cantiones, 1582. Public domain. The notes follow Douglas D. Anderson, The Hymns and Carols of Christmas (sequence released to the public domain), cross-checked against 2 other transcriptions. More about Good King Wenceslas →

Good King Wenceslas on other instruments

The same melody, in each instrument’s own notation. It is not offered for the guzheng, handpan or ocarina, which do not have the notes.

More songs for the cello

All 36 cello songs · Christmas songs for cello · The online cello on its own

Playing it on a real cello?

If it sounds wrong, check the instrument before the notes. The cello tuner listens through your microphone and names what each note is actually sounding.

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