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The melody on its own, as a tab.
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American, 19th century; the music was first published in 1874. 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

Jolly Old Saint Nicholas — Guitar Tab

Jolly Old Saint Nicholas, 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.

  • Notes48, 6 pitches
  • RangeD4–B4
  • Key hereG major
  • Tempo100 bpm · about 19 s
  • LevelEasy

Can a guitar play Jolly Old Saint Nicholas?

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–B4 · loaded above
  • Classical✓ Plays as writtenIn G major, D4–B4 · load it

Jolly Old Saint Nicholas: 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

Jolly Old Saint Nicholas — guitar tab (Acoustic) · tonalics.com

Jolly Old Saint Nicholas 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              C
e|-7-7-7-7-|-5-5-5-|-3-3-3-3-|-7--|-0-0-0-0-|
B|---------|-------|---------|----|---------|
G|---------|-------|---------|----|---------|
D|---------|-------|---------|----|---------|
A|---------|-------|---------|----|---------|
E|---------|-------|---------|----|---------|

   G       D7             G         D7      G
e|-----3-|-2-3-5-7-|-5--|-7-7-7-7-|-5-5-5-|-3-3-3-3-|
B|-3-3---|---------|----|---------|-------|---------|
G|-------|---------|----|---------|-------|---------|
D|-------|---------|----|---------|-------|---------|
A|-------|---------|----|---------|-------|---------|
E|-------|---------|----|---------|-------|---------|

        C         G       D7        G
e|-7--|-0-0-0-0-|-----3-|-5-3-5-7-|-3--|
B|----|---------|-3-3---|---------|----|
G|----|---------|-------|---------|----|
D|----|---------|-------|---------|----|
A|----|---------|-------|---------|----|
E|----|---------|-------|---------|----|

Jolly Old Saint Nicholas 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.

  • G213EADGBe
  • D7××213EADGBe
  • C×321EADGBe
▶ 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 Thornton Rose, An Online Christmas Songbook (2001), the rule puts the same chord on 13 of the 16 bars and half bars the two share. A fuller arrangement would use more chords than three.

The 6 notes it uses

Lowest to highest, with how many times each is played. Learn these 6 and you can play the whole tune.

  • 3B×4
  • 0High E×8
  • 2High E×1
  • 3High E×13
  • 5High E×10
  • 7High E×12

What to expect on a guitar

  • It runs from D4 to B4, a major sixth, using 6 different notes. That leaves 22 semitones unused below and 5 above.
  • 85% of its moves are a step or a repeated note. The widest is a fifth, B4 to E4, at note 13.
  • The highest note is at fret 7, so the hand has to leave first position for it.
  • It is played on 2 strings (B and High E), and 8 notes are an open string.
  • The picking hand changes string 4 times.

About the tune

An American children’s song whose words appeared as a poem in the 1860s. The music was first published in 1874 and is generally attributed to James R. Murray, the composer of the “Mueller” tune for Away in a Manger.

American, 19th century; the music was first published in 1874. Public domain. The notes follow Douglas D. Anderson, The Hymns and Carols of Christmas (sequence released to the public domain), cross-checked against 2 other transcriptions. More about Jolly Old Saint Nicholas →

Jolly Old Saint Nicholas 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

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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