Deck the Halls on Guitar — Tab, Chords & Play Online

Notes68, 9 pitches
RangeF♯3–G4
Key hereG major
Tempo132 bpm · about 29 s
LevelIntermediate

Can a guitar play Deck the Halls?

Yes — every one 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.

Acoustic↕ Plays, movedPlayed an octave lower: G major, F♯3–G4 · loaded above
Classical↕ Plays, movedPlayed an octave lower: G major, F♯3–G4 · load it

Deck the Halls: guitar tab

The large line is the fret — 0 is the open string; the small line under it is the string it is on. 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 — guitar tab (Acoustic) · tonalics.com

3B1B0B2G0G2G0B0G2G0B1B2G0B2G0G4D

0G–3B1B0B2G0G2G0B0G2G0B1B2G0B2G0G

4D0G–2G0B1B2G0B1B3B2G0B1B3B0High E2High E3High E

2High E0High E3B–3B1B0B2G0G2G0B0G0High E0High E0High E0High E3B1B0B2G0G–

Deck the Halls guitar tab as text

The same notes as tablature: one line per string, the thin high E on top, and each number the fret to press on that line — 0 is the open string. Read it left to right, one note at a time. The letters above the lines are the chord to strum from that note on.

   G                   D7      G
e|---------|---------|-------------|--------|
B|-3-1-0---|-----0---|---0-1---0---|--------|
G|-------2-|-0-2---0-|-2-----2---2-|-0---0--|
D|---------|---------|-------------|---4----|
A|---------|---------|-------------|--------|
E|---------|---------|-------------|--------|

                       D7      G
e|---------|---------|-------------|--------|
B|-3-1-0---|-----0---|---0-1---0---|--------|
G|-------2-|-0-2---0-|-2-----2---2-|-0---0--|
D|---------|---------|-------------|---4----|
A|---------|---------|-------------|--------|
E|---------|---------|-------------|--------|

   D7        G                       D7
e|---------|---------|-------0-2-3-|-2-0----|
B|---0-1---|-0-1-3---|-0-1-3-------|-----3--|
G|-2-----2-|-------2-|-------------|--------|
D|---------|---------|-------------|--------|
A|---------|---------|-------------|--------|
E|---------|---------|-------------|--------|

   G                   C       D7    G
e|---------|---------|-0-0-0-0-----|--------|
B|-3-1-0---|-----0---|---------3-1-|-0------|
G|-------2-|-0-2---0-|-------------|---2-0--|
D|---------|---------|-------------|--------|
A|---------|---------|-------------|--------|
E|---------|---------|-------------|--------|

Deck the Halls chords for guitar

To accompany the tune rather than pick it out, strum three chords: G, D7, C. Change where the name appears over the tab and strum once or twice a bar; somebody else — or the guitar above — plays the melody.

▶ Hear the melody with the chords strummed, above

These chords are an arrangement, not part of the tune: they are chosen by rule from the melody, giving each bar whichever of the three chords of the key holds most of its notes. Compared with the chord symbols printed in Paul Hardy’s Xmas Tunebook, 2019 (2024), the rule puts the same chord on 14 of the 19 bars and half bars the two share. A fuller arrangement would use more chords than three.

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.

4D×2
0G×11
2G×16
0B×14
1B×9
3B×7
0High E×6
2High E×2
3High E×1

What to expect on a guitar

It runs from F♯3 to G4, an octave and a semitone, using 9 different notes. That leaves 14 semitones unused below and 9 above.
87% of its moves are a step or a repeated note. The widest is a major sixth, G3 to E4, at note 60.
The whole tune sits in first position: nothing above the 4th fret, one finger per fret.
It is played on 4 strings (D, G, B and High E), and 31 notes are an open string.
The picking hand changes string 32 times.

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 guitar

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