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SongsGood King Wenceslas
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The spring carol “Tempus adest floridum”, from Piae Cantiones, 1582. Public domain.

6 courses · C2–C4 open · C5 at the octave · The most widespread modern Arabic tuning. Fourths, except for the major third between the 5th and 4th courses.

Tap a course, or slide along a course to bend the note the way a fretless neck does. On a keyboard the letters on the courses are the ones to press — they run down the courses, 1 at the top.

OudFree · printable · plays in your browser

Good King Wenceslas — Oud Notes

Good King Wenceslas, written out for the oud as every note with its string and how far up it and set up above on the Arabic. Press Play to hear it, Practice to learn it one note at a time — the oud waits for you — or Play along to keep time with it.

  • Notes53, 8 pitches
  • RangeG3–G4
  • Key hereC major
  • Tempo120 bpm · about 34 s
  • LevelEasy

Can a oud play Good King Wenceslas?

Yes — every one on this page plays it. 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.

  • Arabic✓ Plays as writtenIn C major, G3–G4 · loaded above
  • Turkish✓ Plays as writtenIn C major, G3–G4 · load it

Good King Wenceslas: oud notes

The large line is the note; the small line under it is the string, and how many semitones above its open note to stop it. 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

Good King Wenceslas — oud notes (Arabic) · tonalics.com

The 8 notes it uses

Lowest to highest, with how many times each is played. Learn these 8 and you can play the whole tune.

  • GG·0×7
  • AG·2×7
  • BG·4×4
  • CC·0×21
  • DC·2×6
  • EC·4×3
  • FC·5×3
  • GC·7×2

What to expect on a oud

  • It runs from G3 to G4, an octave, using 8 different notes. That leaves 19 semitones unused below and 5 above.
  • 85% of its moves are a step or a repeated note. The widest is a fifth, C4 to G4, at note 27.
  • It is played on 2 strings (G and C), crossing between strings 8 times.
  • 28 notes are an open string, and the highest stop is 7 semitones above the open string — it never leaves the bottom of the neck.

About the tune

The tune is a 13th-century spring carol, “Tempus adest floridum”, printed in the Finnish songbook Piae Cantiones in 1582. In 1853 the English hymn writer John Mason Neale wrote new words for it about the Bohemian duke Wenceslas, and a song about flowers became a song about snow.

The spring carol “Tempus adest floridum”, from Piae Cantiones, 1582. Public domain. The notes follow Douglas D. Anderson, The Hymns and Carols of Christmas (sequence released to the public domain), cross-checked against 2 other transcriptions. More about Good King Wenceslas →

Good King Wenceslas on other instruments

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

More songs for the oud

All 36 oud songs · Christmas songs for oud · The online oud on its own

Playing it on a real oud?

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

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