TonalicsJOURNALOpen Tuner
‹ Xylophone songs
SongsDeck the Halls
Play a different song (36)
Play along
  1. 5'
  2. 4'
  3. 3'
  4. 2'
  5. 1'
  6. 2'
  7. 3'
  8. 1'
  9. 2'
  10. 3'
  11. 4'
  12. 2'
  13. 3'
  14. 2'
  15. 1'
  16. 7
  17. 1'
  18. 5'
  19. 4'
  20. 3'
  21. 2'
  22. 1'
  23. 2'
  24. 3'
  25. 1'
  26. 2'
  27. 3'
  28. 4'
  29. 2'
  30. 3'
  31. 2'
  32. 1'
  33. 7
  34. 1'
  35. 2'
  36. 3'
  37. 4'
  38. 2'
  39. 3'
  40. 4'
  41. 5'
  42. 2'
  43. 3'
  44. 4'
  45. 5'
  46. 6'
  47. 7'
  48. 1''
  49. 7'
  50. 6'
  51. 5'
  52. 5'
  53. 4'
  54. 3'
  55. 2'
  56. 1'
  57. 2'
  58. 3'
  59. 1'
  60. 6'
  61. 6'
  62. 6'
  63. 6'
  64. 5'
  65. 4'
  66. 3'
  67. 2'
  68. 1'

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

44 bars · written F3–C7, sounds F4–C8 · The orchestra’s xylophone: rosewood bars, a tube under each one, and every sharp in a raised back row.

Tap a bar, or drag across them for a glissando. On a keyboard the letters on the bars are the ones to press — they run up the bars from the lowest note.

XylophoneFree · printable · plays in your browser

Deck the Halls — Xylophone Letter Notes

Deck the Halls, written out for the xylophone as letter notes, phrase by phrase and set up above on the Concert · 3½ octaves. Press Play to hear it, Practice to learn it one note at a time — the xylophone waits for you — or Play along to keep time with it.

  • Notes68, 9 pitches
  • RangeB4–C6
  • Key hereC major
  • Tempo132 bpm · about 29 s
  • LevelIntermediate

Can a xylophone play Deck the Halls?

1 of the 2 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.

  • Toy · 8 bars✕ Cannot play itNeeds B3, which it does not have
  • Concert · 3½ octaves✓ Plays as writtenIn C major, B4–C6 · loaded above

Deck the Halls: xylophone letter notes

The large line is the note printed on the bar; 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

Deck the Halls — xylophone letter notes (Concert · 3½ octaves) · 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.

  • B7×2
  • C1×11
  • D2×16
  • E3×14
  • F4×9
  • G5×7
  • A6×6
  • B7×2
  • C1×1

What to expect on a xylophone

  • It runs from B4 to C6, an octave and a semitone, using 9 different notes. That leaves 18 semitones unused below and 12 above.
  • 87% of its moves are a step or a repeated note. The widest is a major sixth, C5 to A5, at note 60.
  • It uses only the front row — no sharps or flats in this key.

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 xylophone

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

Playing it on a real xylophone?

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

🎙 Open the Marimba Tuner