Deck the Halls sheet music (easy)
Traditional Welsh (tune Nos Galan; English words 1862), Level 3 · Beginner, 0:36
Key facts
- Level
- Level 3 · Beginner. Estimated from the notes (0 of 8 on our difficulty score)
- Time signature
- 4/4
- Key signature
- No sharps or flats
- Length
- 16 bars, 2 pages
- Playing time
- 0:36
- Notes
- 92
- Range
- G2 to C5
Source and licence
Licence of the source: Public domain melody.
Source: Site-owned easy edition. Melody: Nos Galan (Welsh New Year's Eve tune), sung in English as "Deck the Hall", Traditional Welsh (1794 (tune, printed by Edward Jones); 1862 (English words, Thomas Oliphant)), public domain, rights checked against Wikipedia: Deck the Halls. Left hand written for this site.
Source: Wikipedia, from the edition Nos Galan, first printed by Edward Jones in 1794; Thomas Oliphant's English words in Welsh Melodies With Welsh and English Poetry, vol. 2 (1862). Written out for this site..
Playback sounds: Salamander Grand Piano by Alexander Holm (CC BY 3.0); Upright Piano KW by Gonzalo and Roberto of FreePats (CC0 1.0); Fluid R3 GM by Frank Wen and contributors (CC BY 3.0). Full sound credits.
How to play Deck the Halls (Easy)
Fa la la la la! A bright Welsh tune that walks down the scale and then dances in eighth notes.
Where your hands go
Right hand: thumb on C4. The tune walks down from G4 and back, and the second half climbs to C5.
Left hand: one note for each chord, from G2 up to F3.
It is in C major and 4/4, with one F♯ in bar 11.
The tricky bars
Your practice plan
- Right hand alone, bars 1 to 4, singing "fa la la" along.
- Bars 5 to 8 are the same as bars 1 to 4, so you already know half the piece.
- Right hand alone, bars 9 to 16.
- Hands together, four bars at a time.
- Play it all with Listen on.
Watch out for
- Making the dotted quarter notes too short, so the quick note that follows comes early.
- Playing F instead of F♯ in bar 11.
- Rushing the four eighth-note A4s in bar 15.
Power-up: press Loop, tap the first and last of the tricky bars, and they repeat until they feel easy. Hands in Options lets you practise one hand at a time. New to the notation? Start with how to read keyboard staff, then how to practise piano.
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