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1 more song needs notes this instrument does not have. Changing the guitar brings some of them into reach.

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Ludwig van Beethoven, Symphony No. 9, 1824. 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

Ode to Joy — Guitar Tab

Ode to Joy, 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.

  • Notes30, 5 pitches
  • RangeG3–D4
  • Key hereG major
  • Tempo112 bpm · about 17 s
  • LevelEasy

Can a guitar play Ode to Joy?

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–D4 · loaded above
  • Classical✓ Plays as writtenIn G major, G3–D4 · load it

Ode to Joy: 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

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

Ode to Joy 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|-0-0-1-3-3-1-0---------0-0------0-0-1-3-3-1-|
G|---------------2-0-0-2-----2-2--------------|
D|--------------------------------------------|
A|--------------------------------------------|
E|--------------------------------------------|

e|--------------------|
B|-0---------0--------|
G|---2-0-0-2---2-0-0--|
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 5 notes it uses

Lowest to highest, with how many times each is played. Learn these 5 and you can play the whole tune.

  • 0G×6
  • 2G×7
  • 0B×9
  • 1B×4
  • 3B×4

What to expect on a guitar

  • It runs from G3 to D4, a fifth, using 5 different notes. That leaves 15 semitones unused below and 14 above.
  • Every move is a step or a repeated note — there is no leap anywhere in it.
  • The whole tune sits in first position: nothing above the 3rd fret, one finger per fret.
  • It is played on 2 strings (G and B), and 15 notes are an open string.
  • The picking hand changes string 7 times.

About the tune

The theme of the last movement of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, first performed in Vienna in 1824, where a choir joins the orchestra to sing Schiller’s poem “An die Freude”. An instrumental arrangement of it has been the anthem of the Council of Europe since 1972 and of the European Union since 1985.

Ludwig van Beethoven, Symphony No. 9, 1824. Public domain. More about Ode to Joy →

Ode to Joy on other instruments

The same melody, in each instrument’s own notation. It is not offered for the guzheng, which does 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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