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

30 bars · written G3–C6, sounds G5–C8 · The orchestra’s glockenspiel: thirty thick steel bars, struck with hard mallets, ringing for seconds.

Tap a bar, or drag across them for a glissando. On a keyboard the letters on the bars are the ones to press — they run up the bars from the lowest note.

GlockenspielFree · printable · plays in your browser

Deck the Halls — Glockenspiel Letter Notes

Deck the Halls, written out for the glockenspiel as letter notes, phrase by phrase and set up above on the Orchestral · 2½ octaves. Press Play to hear it, Practice to learn it one note at a time — the glockenspiel waits for you — or Play along to keep time with it.

  • Notes68, 9 pitches
  • RangeB4–C6
  • Key hereC major
  • Tempo132 bpm · about 29 s
  • LevelIntermediate

Can a glockenspiel play Deck the Halls?

Yes — every size 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.

  • Orchestral · 2½ octaves✓ Plays as writtenIn C major, B4–C6 · loaded above
  • Bell kit · 32 bars✓ Plays as writtenIn C major, B4–C6 · load it

Deck the Halls: glockenspiel letter notes

The large line is the note printed on the bar; the small line under it is its number in the scale. 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 — glockenspiel letter notes (Orchestral · 2½ octaves) · 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.

  • B7×2
  • C1×11
  • D2×16
  • E3×14
  • F4×9
  • G5×7
  • A6×6
  • B7×2
  • C1×1

What to expect on a glockenspiel

  • It runs from B4 to C6, an octave and a semitone, using 9 different notes. Its top note is the highest this instrument has.
  • 87% of its moves are a step or a repeated note. The widest is a major sixth, C5 to A5, at note 60.
  • It uses only the front row — no sharps or flats in this key.

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 glockenspiel

All 36 glockenspiel songs · Christmas songs for glockenspiel · The online glockenspiel on its own

Playing it on a real glockenspiel?

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

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