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0 ¢ · L1 = 261.6 Hz

Mbira have no standard pitch — slide this until it matches the one in your hands.

SongsHark! The Herald Angels Sing
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3 more songs need notes this instrument does not have. Changing the tuning brings some of them into reach.

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Felix Mendelssohn, 1840, adapted to the carol by William H. Cummings in 1855. Public domain.

22 keys · C3–B5 as notated · Approximates Ionian, the plain major scale. The seventh is the note that separates it from Nyamaropa.

Tap a key, or drag along a manual to run through it. On a keyboard the letters on the keys are the ones to press — they run left to right across the board. The manuals are lettered on the keys — L for the upper left manual, B for the bass manual, R for the right manual — and each is numbered outward from the middle of the board, which is how mbira players and every mbira score name them.

MbiraFree · printable · plays in your browser

Hark! The Herald Angels Sing — Mbira Tabs

Hark! The Herald Angels Sing, written out for the mbira as the key to press for every note and set up above on the Dambatsoko. Press Play to hear it, Practice to learn it one note at a time — the mbira waits for you — or Play along to keep time with it.

  • Notes76, 9 pitches
  • RangeG4–A5
  • Key hereC major
  • Tempo112 bpm · about 43 s
  • LevelIntermediate

Can a mbira play Hark! The Herald Angels Sing?

1 of the 4 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.

  • Nyamaropa✕ Cannot play itNeeds B4, which it does not have
  • Dambatsoko✓ Plays as writtenIn C major, G4–A5 · loaded above
  • Katsanzaira✕ Cannot play itNeeds B4, E5, which it does not have
  • Mavembe✕ Cannot play itNeeds A4, B4, D5, E5, A5, which it does not have

Hark! The Herald Angels Sing: mbira tabs

The large line is the key to press, by manual and position; the small line under it is the scale degree it sounds. 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

Hark! The Herald Angels Sing — mbira tabs (Dambatsoko) · tonalics.com

The 9 notes it uses

Lowest to highest, with how many times each is played. Learn these 9 and you can play the whole tune.

  • L25×3
  • L46×1
  • L57×4
  • L61×13
  • L72×11
  • R43×15
  • R54×9
  • R65×14
  • R76×6

What to expect on a mbira

  • It runs from G4 to A5, an octave and a whole step, using 9 different notes. That leaves 19 semitones unused below and 2 above.
  • 72% of its moves are a step or a repeated note. The widest is an octave, G4 to G5, at note 31.
  • It uses 9 keys across 2 manuals (L and R).

About the tune

Mendelssohn wrote this melody in 1840 as part of a cantata marking four hundred years of printing, and said he thought it unsuitable for sacred words. In 1855 the English musician William H. Cummings fitted it to Charles Wesley’s carol anyway, and the pairing has been standard ever since.

Felix Mendelssohn, 1840, adapted to the carol by William H. Cummings in 1855. Public domain. The notes follow Sudbury Ancient Fyfe & Drum Companie carol book, transcribed by John Chambers, cross-checked against 2 other transcriptions. More about Hark! The Herald Angels Sing →

Hark! The Herald Angels Sing on other instruments

The same melody, in each instrument’s own notation. It is not offered for the guzheng, handpan or ocarina, which do not have the notes.

More songs for the mbira

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