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SongsDeck the Halls
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16 more songs need notes this instrument does not have. Changing the tuning brings some of them into reach.

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  68. 1

Welsh traditional air “Nos Galan”, in print by the 1790s. Public domain.

2 strings · D4–A4 open · A5 at the octave · G key · 1 = G · A perfect fifth, the same interval a violin uses between neighbours. Those two notes are the entire tuning; everything above them is your hand.

Tap a string, or slide along a string and the pitch follows your finger, under a bow that never leaves the strings. On a keyboard the letters on the strings are the ones to press — the inner string is the upper key — hold one and the note holds.

ErhuFree · printable · plays in your browser

Deck the Halls — Erhu Notes

Deck the Halls, written out for the erhu as every note with its string and how far up it, in G key, an octave lower. Press Play to hear it, Practice to learn it one note at a time — the erhu waits for you — or Play along to keep time with it.

  • Notes68, 9 pitches
  • RangeF♯4–G5
  • Key hereG major
  • Tempo132 bpm · about 29 s
  • LevelIntermediate

Can a erhu play Deck the Halls?

↕ Plays, moved Not where the library writes it, but it fits in G key, an octave lower: G major, F♯4 to G5. That is the version loaded above and printed below. The check is made note by note against what the instrument can actually sound.

Deck the Halls: erhu 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

Deck the Halls — erhu notes · tonalics.com

The 9 notes it uses

Lowest to highest, with how many times each is played. Learn these 9 and you can play the whole tune.

  • F♯D·4×2
  • GD·5×11
  • AA·0×16
  • BA·2×14
  • CA·3×9
  • DA·5×7
  • EA·7×6
  • F♯A·9×2
  • GA·10×1

What to expect on a erhu

  • It runs from F♯4 to G5, an octave and a semitone, using 9 different notes. That leaves 4 semitones unused below and 2 above.
  • 87% of its moves are a step or a repeated note. The widest is a major sixth, G4 to E5, at note 60.
  • It is played on 2 strings (D and A), crossing between strings 17 times.
  • 16 notes are an open string, and the highest stop is 10 semitones above the open string.

About the tune

The tune is the Welsh winter air “Nos Galan” — New Year’s Eve — a dance melody that was sung with improvised verses and a harp answering each line. It was in print by the 1790s, and the English Christmas words were added in 1862.

Welsh traditional air “Nos Galan”, in print by the 1790s. Public domain. The notes follow Paul Hardy’s Xmas Tunebook, 2019 (2024), cross-checked against 2 other transcriptions. More about Deck the Halls →

Deck the Halls on other instruments

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

More songs for the erhu

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

Playing it on a real erhu?

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

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