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SongsHark! The Herald Angels Sing
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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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  1. 5,
  2. 1
  3. 1
  4. 7,
  5. 1
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  19. 7,
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  24. 5
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  27. 7,
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  72. 5
  73. 1
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  76. 1

Felix Mendelssohn, 1840, adapted to the carol by William H. Cummings in 1855. 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

Hark! The Herald Angels Sing — Erhu Notes

Hark! The Herald Angels Sing, 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.

  • Notes76, 9 pitches
  • RangeD4–E5
  • Key hereG major
  • Tempo112 bpm · about 43 s
  • LevelIntermediate

Can a erhu play Hark! The Herald Angels Sing?

↕ Plays, moved Not where the library writes it, but it fits in G key, an octave lower: G major, D4 to E5. That is the version loaded above and printed below. The check is made note by note against what the instrument can actually sound.

Hark! The Herald Angels Sing: 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

Hark! The Herald Angels Sing — 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.

  • DD·0×3
  • ED·2×1
  • F♯D·4×4
  • GD·5×13
  • AA·0×11
  • BA·2×15
  • CA·3×9
  • DA·5×14
  • EA·7×6

What to expect on a erhu

  • It runs from D4 to E5, an octave and a whole step, using 9 different notes. Its lowest note is the lowest this instrument has, and 5 semitones of range are left above it.
  • 72% of its moves are a step or a repeated note. The widest is an octave, D4 to D5, at note 31.
  • It is played on 2 strings (D and A), crossing between strings 14 times.
  • 14 notes are an open string, and the highest stop is 7 semitones above the open string — it never leaves the bottom of the neck.

About the tune

Mendelssohn wrote this melody in 1840 as part of a cantata marking four hundred years of printing, and said he thought it unsuitable for sacred words. In 1855 the English musician William H. Cummings fitted it to Charles Wesley’s carol anyway, and the pairing has been standard ever since.

Felix Mendelssohn, 1840, adapted to the carol by William H. Cummings in 1855. Public domain. The notes follow Sudbury Ancient Fyfe & Drum Companie carol book, transcribed by John Chambers, cross-checked against 2 other transcriptions. More about Hark! The Herald Angels Sing →

Hark! The Herald Angels Sing 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.

🎙 Open the Erhu Tuner