How to read these tabs
Each number is a note of the scale, not a tine position. 1 is the longest tine in the middle of a 17-key kalimba (middle C), 2 is the next note up, and so on to 7. The tines alternate outward from the centre — 2 just left of it, 3 just right, 4 next on the left — so a scale rocks between your thumbs rather than running across the instrument.
The small letter under each number is the note on a kalimba tuned to C major, which is how almost every kalimba ships, with its octave number — so C4 is the centre tine and C5 the one marked with a dot. Not sure where a number lives on your instrument? The kalimba tuner has the full tine map for every size, and tapping a tine there plays it.
Songs for your size of kalimba
Every size in C major is the same scale — they only cover different amounts of it — so a song fits your kalimba if every note it uses has a tine. That is exactly how this list is sorted: nothing is marked by guesswork, and each size names what it cannot reach.
7-note kalimba songs (C4–B4) — 11 of 21
Seven tines, middle C up to B, and no C at the top. It plays anything that stays inside one octave, which covers more of the nursery repertoire than you might expect. Row, Row, Row Your Boat, Sakura Sakura (さくらさくら), Brahms' Lullaby miss out on that one missing tine alone — which is the whole case for an 8-key.
- Hot Cross Buns
- Lightly Row
- Going Home (Largo, New World Symphony)
- Ode to Joy
- Mary Had a Little Lamb
- Jingle Bells
- When the Saints Go Marching In
- Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star
- London Bridge Is Falling Down
- Old MacDonald Had a Farm
- Frère Jacques
Out of reach on a 7-note: Row, Row, Row Your Boat (climbs to C5); We Wish You a Merry Christmas (climbs to F5); Yankee Doodle (climbs to F5); Happy Birthday to You (climbs to G5); Sakura Sakura (さくらさくら) (climbs to C5); Brahms' Lullaby (climbs to C5); Canon in D (climbs to E5); Amazing Grace (climbs to G5); Silent Night (climbs to F5); Mo Li Hua · Jasmine Flower (茉莉花) (needs G3, A3 and C5).
8-key kalimba songs (C4–C5) — 14 of 21
The 8-key and 8-note kalimbas — most of the mini kalimbas sold as gifts — close the octave with the upper C. That tine matters more than it sounds: a great many melodies end on it or leap up to it, so an 8-key plays 3 more songs from this page than a 7-note. Most minis ship in C major; if the letters stamped on your tines are different, the numbers in these tabs still work.
- Hot Cross Buns
- Lightly Row
- Going Home (Largo, New World Symphony)
- Ode to Joy
- Mary Had a Little Lamb
- Jingle Bells
- When the Saints Go Marching In
- Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star
- London Bridge Is Falling Down
- Old MacDonald Had a Farm
- Frère Jacques
- Row, Row, Row Your Boat
- Sakura Sakura (さくらさくら)
- Brahms' Lullaby
Out of reach on a 8-key: We Wish You a Merry Christmas (climbs to F5); Yankee Doodle (climbs to F5); Happy Birthday to You (climbs to G5); Canon in D (climbs to E5); Amazing Grace (climbs to G5); Silent Night (climbs to F5); Mo Li Hua · Jasmine Flower (茉莉花) (drops to G3).
10-key kalimba songs (C4–E5) — 15 of 21
Ten tines, five per thumb: middle C up to the E above the octave. Those two extra notes are what let a tune go past its own home note and come back, which is where most folk songs spend their high points. What stops a 10-key is the F and G at the top of songs like Happy Birthday.
- Hot Cross Buns
- Lightly Row
- Going Home (Largo, New World Symphony)
- Ode to Joy
- Mary Had a Little Lamb
- Jingle Bells
- When the Saints Go Marching In
- Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star
- London Bridge Is Falling Down
- Old MacDonald Had a Farm
- Frère Jacques
- Row, Row, Row Your Boat
- Sakura Sakura (さくらさくら)
- Brahms' Lullaby
- Canon in D
Out of reach on a 10-key: We Wish You a Merry Christmas (climbs to F5); Yankee Doodle (climbs to F5); Happy Birthday to You (climbs to G5); Amazing Grace (climbs to G5); Silent Night (climbs to F5); Mo Li Hua · Jasmine Flower (茉莉花) (drops to G3).
17-key kalimba songs (C4–E6) — 20 of 21
The standard kalimba, two octaves and a third from middle C to the E two octaves up — and the size almost every kalimba tab online is written for, including these. It plays everything here but one song, and that one needs notes below middle C rather than above.
- Hot Cross Buns
- Lightly Row
- Going Home (Largo, New World Symphony)
- Ode to Joy
- Mary Had a Little Lamb
- Jingle Bells
- When the Saints Go Marching In
- Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star
- London Bridge Is Falling Down
- Old MacDonald Had a Farm
- Frère Jacques
- Row, Row, Row Your Boat
- We Wish You a Merry Christmas
- Yankee Doodle
- Happy Birthday to You
- Sakura Sakura (さくらさくら)
- Brahms' Lullaby
- Canon in D
- Amazing Grace
- Silent Night
Out of reach on a 17-key: Mo Li Hua · Jasmine Flower (茉莉花) (drops to G3).
21-key kalimba songs (F3–E6) — 21 of 21
A 17-key with four bass tines added underneath — F, G, A and B below middle C. Every 17-key tab plays on it unchanged, note for note, though no tine sits in the same physical place, because the extra tines push the others one place outward. The bass tines are what Mo Li Hua needs, and what the dots below its numbers point to.
- Hot Cross Buns
- Lightly Row
- Going Home (Largo, New World Symphony)
- Ode to Joy
- Mary Had a Little Lamb
- Jingle Bells
- When the Saints Go Marching In
- Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star
- London Bridge Is Falling Down
- Old MacDonald Had a Farm
- Frère Jacques
- Row, Row, Row Your Boat
- We Wish You a Merry Christmas
- Yankee Doodle
- Happy Birthday to You
- Sakura Sakura (さくらさくら)
- Brahms' Lullaby
- Canon in D
- Amazing Grace
- Silent Night
- Mo Li Hua · Jasmine Flower (茉莉花)
Easy kalimba songs for beginners
In the order worth learning them: fewest tines first, then the ones that stretch a little further. Press Play along on any song to hear it on the online kalimba — the tines light up as it plays, and Practice mode waits for you to find each note before moving on.
Hot Cross Buns
Traditional English street cry and nursery rhyme, 18th century. Public domain.
▶ Play alongLightly Row
German folk song “Hänschen klein”, 19th century; the English “Lightly Row” uses the same melody. Public domain.
▶ Play alongGoing Home (Largo, New World Symphony)
Antonín Dvořák, Symphony No. 9 “From the New World”, second movement, 1893. The melody is public domain; the later “Goin’ Home” lyric is not used here.
▶ Play alongOde to Joy
Ludwig van Beethoven, Symphony No. 9, 1824. Public domain.
▶ Play alongMary Had a Little Lamb
Traditional; Lowell Mason setting, 1831. Public domain.
▶ Play alongJingle Bells
James Lord Pierpont, 1857. Public domain.
▶ Play alongWhen the Saints Go Marching In
Traditional American spiritual, published 1896. Public domain.
▶ Play alongTwinkle, Twinkle, Little Star
Traditional — melody is "Ah! vous dirai-je, maman", published 1761. Public domain.
▶ Play alongLondon Bridge Is Falling Down
Traditional English nursery rhyme, melody published 1744. Public domain.
▶ Play alongOld MacDonald Had a Farm
Traditional, published 1917 in this form. Public domain.
▶ Play alongFrère Jacques
Traditional French round, published 1780. Public domain. The low G of “ding, dang, dong” is taken an octave up, where a 17-key has it.
▶ Play alongRow, Row, Row Your Boat
Traditional, published 1852. Public domain.
▶ Play alongWe Wish You a Merry Christmas
Traditional English carol from the West Country. Public domain.
▶ Play alongYankee Doodle
Traditional, sung in the American colonies before the Revolution (18th century). Public domain. Written an octave up, so its low notes fit a 17-key.
▶ Play alongHappy Birthday to You
Melody "Good Morning to All", Patty and Mildred Hill, 1893. The lyric copyright was ruled invalid in 2016 (Rupa Marya v. Warner/Chappell) and the song is public domain in the US.
▶ Play alongA step up: songs with longer phrases
These use more of the instrument — jumps across the centre, notes held under a moving melody, the dotted rhythms of a carol — but none of them needs anything a 17-key does not have except the last, which reaches down into a 21-key’s bass tines.
Sakura Sakura (さくらさくら)
Japanese traditional, Edo period; first published in the 1880s. Public domain.
▶ Play alongBrahms' Lullaby
Johannes Brahms, "Wiegenlied", Op. 49 No. 4, 1868. Public domain. The first half of the melody.
▶ Play alongCanon in D
Johann Pachelbel, c. 1680. Public domain.
▶ Play alongAmazing Grace
Traditional; "New Britain" melody, published 1835. Public domain. The first half of the verse.
▶ Play alongSilent Night
Franz Xaver Gruber, 1818. Public domain.
▶ Play alongMo Li Hua · Jasmine Flower (茉莉花)
Chinese traditional, Jiangsu region; the tune dates to the Qianlong era (1735–1796) and was first printed in the West in 1804. Public domain.
▶ Play alongWhen a tab does not sound right
Nine times out of ten it is the kalimba, not the tab. Tines slide in their clamp — in shipping, with temperature, with playing — and a single tine a few cents off is enough to make a familiar tune sound sour. The kalimba tuner listens through your microphone and names the note each tine is actually playing, octave included. If a tine reads correctly but rattles, that is a buzz rather than a tuning problem, and the buzz diagnostic finds the cause in four questions.
Frequently asked questions
What are the easiest songs to play on a kalimba?
Start with the ones that use the fewest tines. Hot Cross Buns, Lightly Row, Going Home (Largo, New World Symphony), Ode to Joy, Mary Had a Little Lamb, Jingle Bells, When the Saints Go Marching In never leave the five notes from middle C up to G, so both thumbs can rest in the middle of the instrument and barely move. Mary Had a Little Lamb and Hot Cross Buns are the classic first two because they are built almost entirely from 1, 2 and 3 — the centre tine and its two neighbours. After those, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and Ode to Joy add a few more tines without any big jumps.
Can I play 17-key kalimba tabs on an 8-key or mini kalimba?
Only the songs that stay inside its range. An 8-key covers one octave, middle C to the C above it, and every note in a tab has to exist on your instrument — so a 17-key tab that climbs to a note with a dot above it, like 2 or 3 an octave up, runs off the end of an 8-key. 14 of the 21 songs here fit an 8-key as written. The list for each size is above, and each one names the notes the other songs would need.
Do these tabs work if my kalimba is tuned to B, G or F instead of C?
The numbers do, unchanged. Kalimba tabs are written in scale degrees — 1 is the home note of whatever key the kalimba is in — so a tab plays the same melody on a C, B or G instrument, just higher or lower. The letters under each number are the ones for a kalimba in C, which is how almost every kalimba ships. If yours is in another key, read the numbers and ignore the letters, or check the letters stamped on your own tines.
Is there a free PDF of these kalimba songs?
This page is the PDF. Use the Print button, or your browser’s own print command, and choose Save as PDF: the print version drops the menus, buttons and questions and keeps just the tabs, one song per block. It is free, and nothing needs to be downloaded or signed up for.
What do the dots, dashes and underlines in kalimba tabs mean?
A dot above a number means the same note one octave higher — the shorter tines further out on the instrument. A dot below means one octave lower, which only a 21-key has room for in these songs. A dash after a number means keep that note ringing for another beat. An underline means the note is half a beat, and a dot beside a number rather than above it means half as long again.
Why are there no tabs for anime, film or pop songs here?
Because those songs are still in copyright, and a kalimba arrangement of one is a copy of the melody whether it is written as sheet music or as numbers. Everything on this page is public domain — traditional tunes and classical pieces old enough to belong to everyone. You can still play anything you like: the tab editor on the online kalimba lets you write a tab yourself and share it as a link, and the notes travel inside the link rather than being uploaded here.
I played a tab and it sounds wrong. Is the tab wrong or my kalimba?
Check the kalimba first — it is the most common cause, especially on a new instrument whose tines shifted in the box. Press Play along on the song to hear how it should sound, then use the kalimba tuner, which listens through your microphone and tells you which tine has drifted and by how much. If every tine reads in tune and it still sounds wrong, check you are counting the tines from the centre outward, alternating sides, rather than left to right.
Should I learn kalimba tabs in numbers or letters?
Numbers, if you are only going to learn one. Almost every kalimba tab you will find is written in numbers, they work on a kalimba in any key, and most kalimbas have the numbers stamped on the tines. Letters are worth knowing alongside them because they are what a tuner shows you and what other instruments use — which is why every tab on this page prints both.