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‹ Mbira songs

0 ¢ · L1 = 261.6 Hz

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

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

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James Lord Pierpont, published 1857 as “One Horse Open Sleigh”. Public domain. The chorus.

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

Jingle Bells — Mbira Tabs

Jingle Bells (the chorus), 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.

  • Notes51, 5 pitches
  • RangeC4–G4
  • Key hereC major
  • Tempo132 bpm · about 28 s
  • LevelEasy

Can a mbira play Jingle Bells?

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–G4 · loaded above
  • Dambatsoko✓ Plays as writtenIn C major, C4–G4 · load it
  • Katsanzaira✕ Cannot play itNeeds E4, which it does not have
  • Mavembe✕ Cannot play itNeeds D4, E4, which it does not have

Jingle Bells: 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

Jingle Bells — mbira tabs (Nyamaropa) · tonalics.com

The 5 notes it uses

Lowest to highest, with how many times each is played. Learn these 5 and you can play the whole tune.

  • L11×3
  • B72×6
  • R13×26
  • L34×11
  • L25×5

What to expect on a mbira

  • It runs from C4 to G4, a fifth, using 5 different notes. That leaves 12 semitones unused below and 15 above.
  • 84% of its moves are a step or a repeated note. The widest is a fifth, G4 to C4, at note 9.
  • It uses 5 keys across 3 manuals (R, L and B).

About the tune

James Lord Pierpont published it in Boston in 1857 under the title “One Horse Open Sleigh”; it was reissued two years later with the name everyone knows. It is a sleighing song and does not mention Christmas at all, but it has belonged to the season for well over a century.

James Lord Pierpont, published 1857 as “One Horse Open Sleigh”. Public domain. The chorus. The notes follow Paul Hardy’s Xmas Tunebook, 2019 (2024), cross-checked against 1 other transcription. More about Jingle Bells →

Jingle Bells on other instruments

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

More songs for the mbira

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