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SongsSilent Night
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4 more songs need notes this instrument does not have. Changing the size or key brings some of them into reach.

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  1. 5
  2. 6
  3. 5
  4. 3
  5. 5
  6. 6
  7. 5
  8. 3
  9. 2'
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  11. 7
  12. 1'
  13. 1'
  14. 5
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  16. 6
  17. 1'
  18. 7
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  20. 5
  21. 6
  22. 5
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  24. 6
  25. 6
  26. 1'
  27. 7
  28. 6
  29. 5
  30. 6
  31. 5
  32. 3
  33. 2'
  34. 2'
  35. 4'
  36. 2'
  37. 7
  38. 1'
  39. 3'
  40. 1'
  41. 5
  42. 3
  43. 5
  44. 4
  45. 2
  46. 1

Franz Xaver Gruber, 1818. Public domain.

17 tines · C4–E6 · C major · The standard. Almost every tab you find is written for this.

Tap a tine, or drag across them for a glissando. On a keyboard the letters on the tines are the ones to press — they follow the tines left to right.

KalimbaFree · printable · plays in your browser

Silent Night — Kalimba Tabs

Silent Night, written out for the kalimba as number tabs with the letter under every note and set up above on the 17-key. Press Play to hear it, Practice to learn it one note at a time — the kalimba waits for you — or Play along to keep time with it.

  • Notes46, 11 pitches
  • RangeC4–F5
  • Key hereC major
  • Tempo150 bpm · about 29 s
  • LevelIntermediate

Can a kalimba play Silent Night?

2 of the 5 here do. 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.

  • 7-note✕ Cannot play itNeeds C5, D5, E5, F5, which it does not have
  • 8-key✕ Cannot play itNeeds D5, E5, F5, which it does not have
  • 10-key✕ Cannot play itNeeds F5, which it does not have
  • 17-key✓ Plays as writtenIn C major, C4–F5 · loaded above
  • 21-key✓ Plays as writtenIn C major, C4–F5 · load it

Silent Night: kalimba tabs

The large line is the number stamped on the tine; the small line under it is its letter name. 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

Silent Night — kalimba tabs (17-key) · tonalics.com

The 11 notes it uses

Lowest to highest, with how many times each is played. Learn these 11 and you can play the whole tune.

  • 1C4×1
  • 2D4×1
  • 3E4×5
  • 4F4×1
  • 5G4×11
  • 6A4×10
  • 7B4×4
  • 1•C5×6
  • 2•D5×5
  • 3•E5×1
  • 4•F5×1

What to expect on a kalimba

  • It runs from C4 to F5, an octave and a fourth, using 11 different notes. Its lowest note is the lowest this instrument has, and 11 semitones of range are left above it.
  • 53% of its moves are a step or a repeated note. The widest is a minor seventh, E4 to D5, at note 9.
  • The left thumb plays 19 notes and the right 26, with 1 on the centre tine. 18 times one thumb plays two different tines in a row — those are the spots to slow down for.
  • The furthest it reaches from the centre is the 5th tine out.

About the tune

Franz Xaver Gruber, a schoolteacher and organist, wrote the melody on Christmas Eve 1818 for a poem by the young priest Joseph Mohr, and the two sang it that night in the church of St Nicholas in Oberndorf with Mohr accompanying on guitar. It spread through travelling Tyrolean singers and has since been translated into several hundred languages.

Franz Xaver Gruber, 1818. Public domain. The notes follow Wikipedia, “Silent Night” (engraved score), cross-checked against 2 other transcriptions. More about Silent Night →

Silent Night 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 kalimba

All 34 kalimba songs · Christmas songs for kalimba · The online kalimba on its own

Playing it on a real kalimba?

If it sounds wrong, check the instrument before the notes. The kalimba tuner listens through your microphone and names what each note is actually sounding.

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