Kalimba Songbook PDF for 17 Key Kalimba, 98 Tabs: Carols, Hymns, Folk, Classical

A printable kalimba songbook of 98 songs (Christmas carols, easy first songs, folk songs, hymns and classical themes), in kalimba tab notation for a 17-key kalimba in C. Every song has big number tabs with octave dots, the letter name under every note, the rhythm marked, and a QR code to its own free page on the online kalimba: tap Play along there to hear the tune and play along on screen.

WHAT'S INCLUDED (instant download, 2 files)
• Songbook PDF, US Letter (8.5 x 11 in), 114 pages, 1.4 MB
• Songbook PDF, A4 (210 x 297 mm), 114 pages, 1.4 MB

INSIDE
• How to read the tabs (2 pages): the 17 tines with their numbers, dots and letters, and the rhythm marks
• Clickable contents: tap a title to jump to the song
• 98 songs, each on a single page, so there are no page turns while you play, printed big enough to read from a music stand
• Index by difficulty (worked out from the number of notes, how wide a song reaches and how many tines it uses): 19 easiest, 20 easy, 20 moderate, 20 harder and 19 challenging songs
• Why these songs are free to play: for each song, who made it, when, and the score or engraving the tab follows
• Play along free online: how the play-along works (scan a song's QR code, tap Play along, press Listen)

THE 98 SONGS
• Christmas and holiday songs (30): Angels We Have Heard on High, Auld Lang Syne, Away in a Manger, Carol of the Bells (Shchedryk), Deck the Halls, Ding Dong Merrily on High, The First Noel, Go Tell It on the Mountain, God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen, Good Christian Men, Rejoice (In dulci jubilo), Good King Wenceslas, Hark! The Herald Angels Sing, Here We Come A-wassailing, The Holly and the Ivy, I Saw Three Ships, In the Bleak Midwinter, It Came Upon the Midnight Clear, Jingle Bells, Jolly Old Saint Nicholas, Joy to the World, O Christmas Tree (O Tannenbaum), O Come, All Ye Faithful (Adeste Fideles), O Come, O Come, Emmanuel, O Holy Night (Cantique de Noël), O Little Town of Bethlehem, Once in Royal David’s City, Silent Night, The Twelve Days of Christmas, Up on the Housetop, We Three Kings
• Easy first songs (14): Hot Cross Buns, Mary Had a Little Lamb, Old MacDonald Had a Farm, London Bridge Is Falling Down, Pop Goes the Weasel, Row, Row, Row Your Boat, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, The Alphabet Song (ABC), Au Clair de la Lune, Frère Jacques, Happy Birthday, Hickory Dickory Dock, Baa, Baa, Black Sheep, Rock-a-bye Baby
• Folk and traditional songs (18): America the Beautiful, Battle Hymn of the Republic, Daisy Bell (Bicycle Built for Two), Danny Boy (Londonderry Air), Drunken Sailor, Greensleeves (What Child Is This), Korobeiniki (Russian folk song), La Cucaracha, Loch Lomond, My Bonnie Lies over the Ocean, Oh My Darling, Clementine, Oh! Susanna, Red River Valley, Sakura Sakura, Shenandoah, The Star-Spangled Banner, Waltzing Matilda, Yankee Doodle
• Hymns and spirituals (12): Abide with Me, Amazing Grace, Be Thou My Vision, Blessed Assurance, Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing, Holy, Holy, Holy, It Is Well with My Soul, Jesus Loves Me, Nearer, My God, to Thee, Swing Low, Sweet Chariot, What a Friend We Have in Jesus, When the Saints Go Marching In
• Classical themes (24): Ave Maria (Schubert), Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5 (opening), The Blue Danube (Strauss), Brahms’ Lullaby (Wiegenlied), Bridal Chorus (Here Comes the Bride, Wagner), Clair de Lune (Debussy), Eine kleine Nachtmusik (Mozart), The Entertainer (Joplin), Für Elise (Beethoven), Gymnopédie No. 1 (Satie), In the Hall of the Mountain King (Grieg), Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring (Bach), Minuet in G (Petzold), Moonlight Sonata (Beethoven), Morning Mood (Grieg), Mozart’s Symphony No. 40 (first theme), New World Symphony Largo (Dvořák), Ode to Joy (Beethoven), Pachelbel’s Canon, Spring (Vivaldi, The Four Seasons), Swan Lake Theme (Tchaikovsky), Turkish March (Rondo alla Turca, Mozart), Westminster Chimes, Winter, Largo (Vivaldi, The Four Seasons)

HOW THE TABS ARE MADE AND CHECKED
• The notes come by code from the song master of the free Newel Labs online kalimba, where each melody was transcribed from or checked against a score (a scan of an old print, a typeset edition or an engraving); the book's appendix names it for every song
• Automated tests read every tab back out of the finished PDFs and compare it with that master, note for note, length for length and bar for bar, and scan every QR code
• 26 of the 98 tabs are marked Simplified on their page, which says what was changed: mostly a sharp or flat note that a kalimba in C doesn't have
• Every tune is in the public domain in the US: published before 1931, traditional, or otherwise long out of copyright; the appendix gives the basis and the source for each song. Rules in other countries can differ
• No song words are printed with the tabs; 7 Simplified notes quote a few words of the song to show where the changed note is
• 98 of the 99 songs on the free online kalimba: Alle meine Entchen (All My Little Ducklings) is left out because no print of its tune from before 1931 is on file

GOOD TO KNOW
• This is tab notation for a 17-key kalimba in C (C4 to E6), not staff notation. On an 8-, 10- or 21-key kalimba in C the numbers mean the same notes, as long as your kalimba has the tines a song needs
• The play-along pages are free for everyone at newellabs.com; this book is the printable version, with the rhythm marks the web pages don't show
• Digital download: nothing will be shipped. After checkout, open Etsy.com in a web browser (the Etsy app can't download files), go to Your account › Purchases and select Download Files
• Print at 100% (Actual size); every page keeps at least 0.5 in (13 mm) of white space, and the song pages print in black and white
• Fonts (Inter and Fraunces, SIL Open Font License 1.1) are embedded in the PDFs
• For personal use; please don't share or resell the files

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• AI disclosure: our studio is run with AI tools. The book, the code that builds it and this description were made with AI, and every page was checked by automated tests before listing