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SongsLinstead Market
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17 more songs need notes this instrument does not have. Changing the tuning brings some of them into reach.

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Jamaican traditional; as printed by Walter Jekyll in “Jamaican Song and Story”, 1907, No. 121. 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

Linstead Market — Erhu Notes

Linstead Market, written out for the erhu as every note with its string and how far up it, in G key. 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.

  • Notes58, 7 pitches
  • RangeF♯4–E5
  • Key hereG major
  • Tempo190 bpm · about 30 s
  • LevelIntermediate

Can a erhu play Linstead Market?

↕ Plays, moved Not where the library writes it, but it fits in G key: G major, F♯4 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.

Linstead Market: 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

Linstead Market — erhu notes · tonalics.com

The 7 notes it uses

Lowest to highest, with how many times each is played. Learn these 7 and you can play the whole tune.

  • F♯D·4×2
  • GD·5×6
  • AA·0×9
  • BA·2×15
  • CA·3×8
  • DA·5×14
  • EA·7×4

What to expect on a erhu

  • It runs from F♯4 to E5, a minor seventh, using 7 different notes. That leaves 4 semitones unused below and 5 above.
  • 88% of its moves are a step or a repeated note. The widest is a major third, G4 to B4, at note 29.
  • It is played on 2 strings (D and A), crossing between strings 7 times.
  • 9 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

A Jamaican folk song about a market woman who carries her ackee to Linstead on a Saturday night and sells none of it. The tab follows the earliest printed version, No. 121 in Walter Jekyll’s Jamaican Song and Story of 1907.

Jamaican traditional; as printed by Walter Jekyll in “Jamaican Song and Story”, 1907, No. 121. Public domain. More about Linstead Market →

Linstead Market 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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