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

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

2 strings · D4–A4 open · A5 at the octave · D key · 1 = D · 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

Good King Wenceslas — Erhu Notes

Good King Wenceslas, written out for the erhu 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 erhu 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 erhu play Good King Wenceslas?

✓ Plays as written Every note of it is on the erhu, in D major from A4 to A5. The check is made note by note against what the instrument can actually sound.

Good King Wenceslas: 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

Good King Wenceslas — erhu 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.

  • AA·0×7
  • BA·2×7
  • C♯A·4×4
  • DA·5×21
  • EA·7×6
  • F♯A·9×3
  • GA·10×3
  • AA·12×2

What to expect on a erhu

  • It runs from A4 to A5, an octave, using 8 different notes. Its top note is the highest this instrument has.
  • 85% of its moves are a step or a repeated note. The widest is a fifth, D5 to A5, at note 27.
  • It is played on 1 string (A), crossing between strings 0 times.
  • 7 notes are an open string, and the highest stop is 12 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 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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