TonalicsJOURNALOpen Tuner
‹ Mbira songs

0 ¢ · L1 = 261.6 Hz

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

SongsOld MacDonald Had a Farm
Play a different song (16)

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

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Traditional, published 1917 in this form. 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

Old MacDonald — Mbira Tabs

Old MacDonald Had a Farm, 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.

  • Notes25, 5 pitches
  • RangeC4–A4
  • Key hereC major
  • Tempo116 bpm · about 15 s
  • LevelEasy

Can a mbira play Old MacDonald?

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–A4 · loaded above
  • Dambatsoko✓ Plays as writtenIn C major, C4–A4 · load it
  • Katsanzaira✕ Cannot play itNeeds E4, which it does not have
  • Mavembe✕ Cannot play itNeeds D4, E4, A4, which it does not have

Old MacDonald: 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

Old MacDonald Had a Farm — 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.

  • L11×8
  • B72×4
  • R13×4
  • L25×5
  • L46×4

What to expect on a mbira

  • It runs from C4 to A4, a major sixth, using 5 different notes. That leaves 12 semitones unused below and 13 above.
  • 75% of its moves are a step or a repeated note. The widest is a fifth, C4 to G4, at note 4.
  • It uses 5 keys across 3 manuals (L, R and B).

About the tune

A cumulative farm song with 18th-century English ancestors; the version sung today, with this tune and this farmer’s name, was printed in 1917 in a collection of songs from the First World War.

Traditional, published 1917 in this form. Public domain. More about Old MacDonald →

Old MacDonald 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