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Asounds A4 · 0 of 12 holes open
SongsDeck the Halls
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12 more songs need notes this instrument does not have. Changing the size or key brings some of them into reach.

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Welsh traditional air “Nos Galan”, in print by the 1790s. Public domain.

21 notes · A4–F6 sounding · 21 notes · written an octave lower · The standard modern ocarina: ten finger holes, two thumb holes and two subholes that reach the A and B below the C.

Tap a note, or slide along them to slur from note to note without a new breath. On a keyboard the letters on the notes are the ones to press — they run up the ocarina a semitone at a time from the low A.

OcarinaFree · printable · plays in your browser

Deck the Halls — Ocarina Notes

Deck the Halls, written out for the ocarina as letter notes with the fingering drawn under each one, an octave lower. Press Play to hear it, Practice to learn it one note at a time — the ocarina waits for you — or Play along to keep time with it.

  • Notes68, 9 pitches
  • RangeB3–C5
  • Key hereC major
  • Tempo132 bpm · about 29 s
  • LevelIntermediate

Can a ocarina play Deck the Halls?

↕ Plays, moved Not where the library writes it, but it fits an octave lower: C major, B3 to C5. That is the version loaded above and printed below. The check is made note by note against what the instrument can actually sound.

Deck the Halls: ocarina notes

The large line is the note, and the drawing is its fingering — a filled hole or key is one that is down. 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

Deck the Halls — ocarina notes · 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.

  • BB3×2
  • CC4×11
  • DD4×16
  • EE4×14
  • FF4×9
  • GG4×7
  • AA4×6
  • BB4×2
  • CC5×1

What to expect on a ocarina

  • It runs from B3 to C5, an octave and a semitone, using 9 different notes. That leaves 2 semitones unused below and 5 above.
  • 87% of its moves are a step or a repeated note. The widest is a major sixth, C4 to A4, at note 60.
  • Its lowest note covers 11 of the 12 holes and its highest 3; the biggest change between two neighbouring notes moves 5 fingers at once.

About the tune

The tune is the Welsh winter air “Nos Galan” — New Year’s Eve — a dance melody that was sung with improvised verses and a harp answering each line. It was in print by the 1790s, and the English Christmas words were added in 1862.

Welsh traditional air “Nos Galan”, in print by the 1790s. Public domain. The notes follow Paul Hardy’s Xmas Tunebook, 2019 (2024), cross-checked against 2 other transcriptions. More about Deck the Halls →

Deck the Halls on other instruments

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

More songs for the ocarina

All 24 ocarina songs · Christmas songs for ocarina · The online ocarina on its own

Playing it on a real ocarina?

If it sounds wrong, check the instrument before the notes. The ocarina tuner listens through your microphone and names what each note is actually sounding.

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