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SongsWe Wish You a Merry Christmas
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1 more song needs notes this instrument does not have. Changing the size or key brings some of them into reach.

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Traditional English carol from the West Country. Public domain. Verse and refrain.

29 notes · C4–E6 · 29 notes in three rings · The lead pan of a steel band, in the fourths-and-fifths layout almost every tenor is built in today.

Tap a note, or drag across them to roll from note to note. On a keyboard the letters on the notes are the ones to press — they climb the pan a semitone at a time from the low C.

Steel DrumFree · printable · plays in your browser

We Wish You a Merry Christmas — Steel Drum Letter Notes

We Wish You a Merry Christmas, written out for the steel drum as letter notes, phrase by phrase. Press Play to hear it, Practice to learn it one note at a time — the steel drum waits for you — or Play along to keep time with it.

  • Notes52, 8 pitches
  • RangeC5–C6
  • Key hereF major
  • Tempo150 bpm · about 19 s
  • LevelEasy

Can a steel drum play We Wish You a Merry Christmas?

✓ Plays as written Every note of it is on the steel drum, in F major from C5 to C6. The check is made note by note against what the instrument can actually sound.

We Wish You a Merry Christmas: steel drum letter notes

The large line is the note stamped on the pan; the small line under it is its number in the scale. 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

We Wish You a Merry Christmas — steel drum letter notes · 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.

  • C5×10
  • D6×7
  • E7×7
  • F1×12
  • G2×9
  • A3×5
  • B♭4×1
  • C5×1

What to expect on a steel drum

  • It runs from C5 to C6, an octave, using 8 different notes. That leaves 12 semitones unused below and 4 above.
  • 73% of its moves are a step or a repeated note. The widest is an octave, C6 to C5, at note 46.
  • Its notes sit in 2 of the pan’s three rings, so the stick moves in and out as well as around.

About the tune

An English carol from the West Country, sung by wassailers going door to door at Christmas and asking for something in return. Nobody knows who wrote it or when; it reached most of the world through a 1935 choral arrangement by the Bristol conductor Arthur Warrell, but the tune itself is traditional.

Traditional English carol from the West Country. Public domain. Verse and refrain. The notes follow Sudbury Ancient Fyfe & Drum Companie carol book, transcribed by John Chambers, cross-checked against 2 other transcriptions. More about We Wish You a Merry Christmas →

We Wish You a Merry Christmas 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 steel drum

All 36 steel drum songs · Christmas songs for steel drum · The online steel drum on its own

Playing it on a real steel drum?

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

🎙 Open the Handpan Tuner