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SongsJoy to the World
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  57. 1,

The tune “Antioch”, arranged by Lowell Mason in the 1830s. 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

Joy to the World — Guitar Tab

Joy to the World, 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.

  • Notes57, 8 pitches
  • RangeG3–G4
  • Key hereG major
  • Tempo92 bpm · about 25 s
  • LevelIntermediate

Can a guitar play Joy to the World?

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–G4 · loaded above
  • Classical✓ Plays as writtenIn G major, G3–G4 · load it

Joy to the World: 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

Joy to the World — guitar tab (Acoustic) · tonalics.com

Joy to the World 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|-3-2-0-|-----|-----|-----|-0-0-|-2-2-|-3-3-|
B|-------|-3-1-|-0---|---3-|-----|-----|-----|
G|-------|-----|---2-|-0---|-----|-----|-----|
D|-------|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|
A|-------|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|
E|-------|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|

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

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

e|-----|----|
B|-0---|----|
G|---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. For Joy to the World it matched the chords printed in Paul Hardy’s Xmas Tunebook, 2019 (2024) on 10 of 19 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 8 notes it uses

Lowest to highest, with how many times each is played. Learn these 8 and you can play the whole tune.

  • 0G×3
  • 2G×7
  • 0B×13
  • 1B×8
  • 3B×8
  • 0High E×6
  • 2High E×5
  • 3High E×7

What to expect on a guitar

  • It runs from G3 to G4, an octave, using 8 different notes. That leaves 15 semitones unused below and 9 above.
  • 93% of its moves are a step or a repeated note. The widest is an octave, G3 to G4, at note 49.
  • The whole tune sits in first position: nothing above the 3rd fret, one finger per fret.
  • It is played on 3 strings (G, B and High E), and 22 notes are an open string.
  • The picking hand changes string 13 times.

About the tune

The tune is called “Antioch”. The Boston hymn composer Lowell Mason published it in the 1830s, describing it as “from Handel”; the resemblance is to a few phrases of Messiah rather than to any one piece. It has been sung to Isaac Watts’s 1719 text ever since.

The tune “Antioch”, arranged by Lowell Mason in the 1830s. 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 Joy to the World →

Joy to the World 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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