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

38 notes · E2–F5 · the pedal B♭1 on the ladder · 38 notes · The B♭ tenor trombone: nine feet of tube and seven positions — the one in every band.

Tap a note, or slide along them to play legato, from note to note in one breath. On a keyboard the letters on the notes are the ones to press — Q is the low F in 6th position, and they climb a semitone at a time.

TromboneFree · printable · plays in your browser

Good King Wenceslas — Trombone Notes

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

  • Notes53, 8 pitches
  • RangeF3–F4
  • Key hereB♭ major
  • Tempo120 bpm · about 34 s
  • LevelEasy

Can a trombone 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.

  • Tenor✓ Plays as writtenIn B♭ major, F3–F4 · loaded above
  • Tenor + F trigger✓ Plays as writtenIn B♭ major, F3–F4 · load it
  • Alto in E♭✓ Plays as writtenIn B♭ major, F3–F4 · load it

Good King Wenceslas: trombone notes

The large line is the note; the small line under it is the slide position — T means with the F trigger held. 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 — trombone notes (Tenor) · 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.

  • F1st×7
  • G4th×7
  • A2nd×4
  • B♭1st×21
  • C3rd×6
  • D1st×3
  • E♭3rd×3
  • F1st×2

What to expect on a trombone

  • It runs from F3 to F4, an octave, using 8 different notes. That leaves 13 semitones unused below and 12 above.
  • 85% of its moves are a step or a repeated note. The widest is a fifth, B♭3 to F4, at note 27.
  • It uses 4 slide positions: 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th.
  • The longest move between two neighbouring notes is 3 positions.

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 trombone

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

Playing it on a real trombone?

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

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