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SongsGood King Wenceslas
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2 more songs need notes this instrument does not have. Changing the tuning or capo brings some of them into reach.

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

3 strings · D3–D6 · No capo · D · Today’s standard — Mixolydian from the open string, and the tuning every modern tab is written for.

Tap a string, or drag down across them to strum. On a keyboard the letters on the strings are the ones to press — they follow the strings, melody first.

DulcimerFree · printable · plays in your browser

Good King Wenceslas — Dulcimer Tab

Good King Wenceslas, written out for the dulcimer as fret numbers for the melody string and set up above on the DAD. Press Play to hear it, Practice to learn it one note at a time — the dulcimer waits for you — or Play along to keep time with it.

  • Notes53, 8 pitches
  • RangeA4–A5
  • Key hereD major
  • Tempo120 bpm · about 34 s
  • LevelEasy

Can a dulcimer play Good King Wenceslas?

Yes — every one on this page plays it. The check is made note by note against what each one can actually sound. Where the tune does not fit as the library writes it, another key or octave is tried, and the table says which; where nothing fits, it names the notes that are missing.

  • DAD✓ Plays as writtenIn D major, A4–A5 · loaded above
  • DAA✓ Plays as writtenIn D major, A4–A5 · load it

Good King Wenceslas: dulcimer tab

The large line is the fret, on the melody string unless a string is named; the small line under it is the note. 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 — dulcimer tab (DAD) · 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.

  • 4A4×7
  • 5B4×7
  • 6½C♯5×4
  • 7D5×21
  • 8E5×6
  • 9F♯5×3
  • 10G5×3
  • 11A5×2

What to expect on a dulcimer

  • It runs from A4 to A5, an octave, using 8 different notes. That leaves 19 semitones unused below and 5 above.
  • 85% of its moves are a step or a repeated note. The widest is a fifth, D5 to A5, at note 27.
  • It uses 8 fret positions: 4, 5, 6½, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11.
  • The whole tune is on the melody string, so it can be played with a noter while the other strings drone.
  • It needs the 6½ fret, which dulcimers built before about 1980 often lack.

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 dulcimer

All 35 dulcimer songs · Christmas songs for dulcimer · The online dulcimer on its own

Playing it on a real dulcimer?

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

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