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SongsHark! The Herald Angels Sing
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  1. 5,
  2. 1
  3. 1
  4. 7,
  5. 1
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  72. 5
  73. 1
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  75. 2
  76. 1

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

6 strings · E2–E5 · A steel-string acoustic, played with a pick — the guitar most people are handed first.

Tap a string, or tap a chord and drag across them to strum. On a keyboard the letters on the strings are the ones to press — Q to Y are the six strings, high E first; 1 to 7 hold the chords of the key, Space strums, and 0 lets go.

GuitarFree · printable · plays in your browser

Hark! The Herald Angels Sing — Guitar Tab

Hark! The Herald Angels Sing, written out for the guitar as easy melody tab with the string and fret for every note and set up above on the Acoustic. Press Play to hear it, Practice to learn it one note at a time — the guitar 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 guitar play Hark! The Herald Angels Sing?

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 as writtenIn G major, D4–E5 · loaded above
  • Classical✓ Plays as writtenIn G major, D4–E5 · load it

Hark! The Herald Angels Sing: 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

Hark! The Herald Angels Sing — guitar tab (Acoustic) · tonalics.com

Hark! The Herald Angels Sing 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.

e|---3-3-2-|-3-7-7-5-|-10-10-10-8-|-7-5-7--|---3-3-2-|
B|-3-------|---------|------------|--------|-3-------|
G|---------|---------|------------|--------|---------|
D|---------|---------|------------|--------|---------|
A|---------|---------|------------|--------|---------|
E|---------|---------|------------|--------|---------|

e|-3-7-7-5-|-10-5-5-2-|-2-0----|-10-10-10-3-|
B|---------|----------|-----3--|------------|
G|---------|----------|--------|------------|
D|---------|----------|--------|------------|
A|---------|----------|--------|------------|
E|---------|----------|--------|------------|

e|-8-7-7-5-|-10-10-10-3-|-8-7-7-5-|-12-12-12-10-|
B|---------|------------|---------|-------------|
G|---------|------------|---------|-------------|
D|---------|------------|---------|-------------|
A|---------|------------|---------|-------------|
E|---------|------------|---------|-------------|

e|-8-7-8--|-5-7-8-10-3-|-3-5-7--|-12-12-12-10-|
B|--------|------------|--------|-------------|
G|--------|------------|--------|-------------|
D|--------|------------|--------|-------------|
A|--------|------------|--------|-------------|
E|--------|------------|--------|-------------|

e|-8-7-8--|-5-7-8-10-3-|-3-5-3--|
B|--------|------------|--------|
G|--------|------------|--------|
D|--------|------------|--------|
A|--------|------------|--------|
E|--------|------------|--------|

Are there chords for it?

Not on this page. The chords here are chosen by rule — the three chords of the key — and they are only offered where that rule can be checked against a published harmonisation and agrees with it on most bars. For Hark! The Herald Angels Sing it matched the chords printed in Paul Hardy’s Xmas Tunebook, 2019 (2024) on 13 of 23 bars and half bars: the harmony moves through more chords than three, and strumming only those would sound wrong under it. The tab above is the whole tune.

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.

  • 3B×3
  • 0High E×1
  • 2High E×4
  • 3High E×13
  • 5High E×11
  • 7High E×15
  • 8High E×9
  • 10High E×14
  • 12High E×6

What to expect on a guitar

  • It runs from D4 to E5, an octave and a whole step, using 9 different notes. Its top note is the highest this instrument has.
  • 72% of its moves are a step or a repeated note. The widest is an octave, D4 to D5, at note 31.
  • The highest note is at fret 12, so the hand has to leave first position for it.
  • It is played on 2 strings (B and High E), and 1 note is an open string.
  • The picking hand changes string 5 times.

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 guitar

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

Playing it on a real guitar?

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

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