Learn Silent Night on the Kalimba

A thumb piano: seventeen steel tines on a hollow wooden board. Tap a tine or sweep across them, and read songs in real kalimba number tabs.

The lowest note is in the middle; the scale climbs outward — left, right, left.Keys 1–7, Q–U, A S DTurn your phone sideways for wider tines.

Pick a song to practise, or just pluck the tines. Songs with sharps or flats need a chromatic kalimba.

Choose a song

Pick a song

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Ready
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Songs

Settings

100 BPM
Tine labels
ringingplay this nextDots mark higher octaves

Space listen or stop · Esc stop

How to play Silent Night on the kalimba

A slow rocking lullaby in six. Let the long notes ring and it sings itself. Franz Xaver Gruber, 1818.

Key
C major
Time
6/8
Tempo
84 BPM
Notes
46
Level
Medium
  1. Listen. Press Listen above to hear it at 84 BPM. You can slow it down in Settings.
  2. Play along. Press Play along and the tine to pluck lights up. Play it and the next one lights. A wrong note is named, so you know what to change.
  3. Play it from the notes. Once it feels familiar, play it from the sheet below without the lights.

Tabs number the notes of the scale: 1 is C, 2 is D, up to 7 for B. A dot above a number means the octave above. The lowest tine is in the middle and notes alternate left and right.

The notes

Written as kalimba number tabs, with letter names underneath. A dot (·) is a rest.

  1. 5G4Si-6A4 5G4lent3E4night5G4ho-6A4 5G4ly3E4night
  2. 2̇D5All2̇D5is7B4calm1̇C5all1̇C5is5G4bright
  3. 6A4Round6A4yon1̇C5vir-7B4 6A4gin5G4mo-6A4ther5G4and3E4child
  4. 6A4Ho-6A4ly1̇C5in-7B4fant6A4so5G4ten-6A4der5G4and3E4mild
  5. 2̇D5Sleep2̇D5in4̇F5hea-2̇D5ven-7B4ly1̇C5peace3̇E5Sleep
  6. 1̇C5in5G4 3E4hea-5G4ven-4F4ly2D4 1C4peace