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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.

SongsLightly Row
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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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German folk song “Hänschen klein”, 19th century; the English “Lightly Row” uses the same melody. 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

Lightly Row — Mbira Tabs

Lightly Row, 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.

  • Notes49, 5 pitches
  • RangeC4–G4
  • Key hereC major
  • Tempo120 bpm · about 32 s
  • LevelEasy

Can a mbira play Lightly Row?

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

Lightly Row: 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

Lightly Row — 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.

  • L11×5
  • B72×12
  • R13×15
  • L34×6
  • L25×11

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.
  • 75% of its moves are a step or a repeated note. The widest is a fifth, G4 to C4, at note 24.
  • It uses 5 keys across 3 manuals (L, R and B).

About the tune

Lightly Row is the English name for the German children’s song “Hänschen klein”, whose words were written by the Dresden teacher Franz Wiedemann around 1860 to a folk melody already in circulation. The tune travelled further than the words did: it is sung with different texts across Europe, Japan and the Americas.

German folk song “Hänschen klein”, 19th century; the English “Lightly Row” uses the same melody. Public domain. More about Lightly Row →

Lightly Row 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