Hot Cross Buns on Guitar — Tab, Chords & Play Online

Notes17, 3 pitches
RangeG3–B3
Key hereG major
Tempo100 bpm · about 10 s
LevelEasy

Can a guitar play Hot Cross Buns?

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, G3–B3 · loaded above
Classical✓ Plays as writtenIn G major, G3–B3 · load it

Hot Cross Buns: 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

Hot Cross Buns — guitar tab (Acoustic) · tonalics.com

0B2G0G–0B2G0G–

0G0G0G0G2G2G2G2G0B2G0G–

Hot Cross Buns 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|--------------------------------------|
B|-0------0----------------------0------|
G|---2-0----2-0--0-0-0-0-2-2-2-2---2-0--|
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. This melody has no barred score in its sources to hang chords on. The tab above is the whole tune.

The 3 notes it uses

Lowest to highest, with how many times each is played. Learn these 3 and you can play the whole tune.

0G×7
2G×7
0B×3

What to expect on a guitar

It runs from G3 to B3, a major third, using 3 different notes. That leaves 15 semitones unused below and 17 above.
94% of its moves are a step or a repeated note. The widest is a major third, G3 to B3, at note 4.
The whole tune sits in first position: nothing above the 2nd fret, one finger per fret.
It is played on 2 strings (G and B), and 10 notes are an open string.
The picking hand changes string 5 times.

About the tune

Hot Cross Buns began as a street cry: the call of London bakers selling spiced buns on Good Friday. It was in print as a rhyme by the end of the 18th century, and the tune it settled on is about as small as a tune can be — three neighbouring notes, most of it a single falling step repeated.

Traditional English street cry and nursery rhyme, 18th century. Public domain. More about Hot Cross Buns →

Hot Cross Buns on other instruments

The same melody, in each instrument’s own notation.

More songs for the guitar

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