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The melody on its own, as a tab.
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Traditional Cornish carol, first printed in 1823 and with this tune in 1833. 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

The First Noel — Guitar Tab

The First Noel, 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.

  • Notes72, 8 pitches
  • RangeG3–G4
  • Key hereG major
  • Tempo104 bpm · about 42 s
  • LevelIntermediate

Can a guitar play The First Noel?

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

The First Noel: 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

The First Noel — guitar tab (Acoustic) · tonalics.com

The First Noel 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       C       D7       C
e|-----|---------|----0-2-|-3-2-0-|----0-2-|-3-2-0-|
B|-0---|-----0-1-|-3------|-------|-3------|-------|
G|---2-|-0-2-----|--------|-------|--------|-------|
D|-----|---------|--------|-------|--------|-------|
A|-----|---------|--------|-------|--------|-------|
E|-----|---------|--------|-------|--------|-------|

   D7      G                          D7
e|---0-2-|-3-----|--------|---------|----0-2-|
B|-3-----|---3-1-|-0--0---|-----0-1-|-3------|
G|-------|-------|------2-|-0-2-----|--------|
D|-------|-------|--------|---------|--------|
A|-------|-------|--------|---------|--------|
E|-------|-------|--------|---------|--------|

   C       D7       C       D7      G
e|-3-2-0-|----0-2-|-3-2-0-|---0-2-|-3-----|--------|
B|-------|-3------|-------|-3-----|---3-1-|-0--0---|
G|-------|--------|-------|-------|-------|------2-|
D|-------|--------|-------|-------|-------|--------|
A|-------|--------|-------|-------|-------|--------|
E|-------|--------|-------|-------|-------|--------|

                      C      G     C       D7
e|---------|----3-2-|-0--0-|-----|-3-2-0-|---0-2-|
B|-----0-1-|-3------|------|-3---|-------|-3-----|
G|-0-2-----|--------|------|-----|-------|-------|
D|---------|--------|------|-----|-------|-------|
A|---------|--------|------|-----|-------|-------|
E|---------|--------|------|-----|-------|-------|

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

The First Noel 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 Paul Hardy’s Xmas Tunebook, 2019 (2024), the rule puts the same chord on 21 of the 24 bars and half bars the two share. A fuller arrangement would use more chords than three.

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×6
  • 0B×9
  • 1B×6
  • 3B×12
  • 0High E×14
  • 2High E×13
  • 3High E×9

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 a fourth, G4 to D4, at note 23.
  • 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 26 notes are an open string.
  • The picking hand changes string 24 times.

About the tune

A Cornish carol, first printed in 1823 and given with this tune in William Sandys’s collection of 1833. It is unusual among carols in that its verse and its refrain are nearly the same phrase, sung three times over — some scholars think the tune is a descant that outlived the melody it was written against.

Traditional Cornish carol, first printed in 1823 and with this tune in 1833. Public domain. The notes follow Paul Hardy’s Xmas Tunebook, 2019 (2024), cross-checked against 1 other transcription. More about The First Noel →

The First Noel 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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