TonalicsJOURNALOpen Tuner
‹ Mbira songs

0 ¢ · L1 = 261.6 Hz

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

SongsHot Cross Buns
Play a different song (16)

20 more songs need notes this instrument does not have. Changing the tuning brings some of them into reach.

Play along
  1. 3
  2. 2
  3. 1
  4. 3
  5. 2
  6. 1
  7. 1
  8. 1
  9. 1
  10. 1
  11. 2
  12. 2
  13. 2
  14. 2
  15. 3
  16. 2
  17. 1

Traditional English street cry and nursery rhyme, 18th century. Public domain.

22 keys · C3–B♭5 as notated · By far the most common tuning in Zimbabwe. Approximates Mixolydian — a major scale with a lowered seventh.

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

Hot Cross Buns — Mbira Tabs

Hot Cross Buns, written out for the mbira as the key to press for every note and set up above on the Nyamaropa. 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.

  • Notes17, 3 pitches
  • RangeC4–E4
  • Key hereC major
  • Tempo100 bpm · about 10 s
  • LevelEasy

Can a mbira play Hot Cross Buns?

2 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✓ Plays as writtenIn C major, C4–E4 · loaded above
  • Dambatsoko✓ Plays as writtenIn C major, C4–E4 · load it
  • Katsanzaira✕ Cannot play itNeeds E4, which it does not have
  • Mavembe✕ Cannot play itNeeds D4, E4, which it does not have

Hot Cross Buns: 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.

â–¶ Play it above

Hot Cross Buns — mbira tabs (Nyamaropa) · tonalics.com

The 3 notes it uses

Lowest to highest, with how many times each is played. Learn these 3 and you can play the whole tune.

  • L11×7
  • B72×7
  • R13×3

What to expect on a mbira

  • It runs from C4 to E4, a major third, using 3 different notes. That leaves 12 semitones unused below and 18 above.
  • 94% of its moves are a step or a repeated note. The widest is a major third, C4 to E4, at note 4.
  • It uses 3 keys across 3 manuals (R, B and L).

About the tune

Hot Cross Buns began as a street cry: the call of London bakers selling spiced buns on Good Friday. It was in print as a rhyme by the end of the 18th century, and the tune it settled on is about as small as a tune can be — three neighbouring notes, most of it a single falling step repeated.

Traditional English street cry and nursery rhyme, 18th century. Public domain. More about Hot Cross Buns →

Hot Cross Buns on other instruments

The same melody, in each instrument’s own notation.

More songs for the mbira

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