Coventry Carol

Christmas carol
First published in 1534
Unknown originator

First lines in the song:
Lully, lullah, thou little tiny child,
Bye bye, lully, lullay.
Thou little tiny child,
Bye bye, lully, lullay.

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Coventry Carol guitar tab and notes (pdf)

tabs tabs & notes

Listen

Coventry Carol instrumental guitar (mp3)

Coventry Carol - guitar tab, notes, chords and lyrics

“Coventry Carol” is an English traditional carol from the 16th century.

The music transcriptions of the song with tabs and notes are available for download as PDFs. It's free for personal use only.

Coventry Carol (full accompaniment)

"Coventry Carol" for guitar with full accompaniment. Free download in pdf-file and audio.

Coventry Carol guitar accompaniment

Coventry Carol (only melody)

"Coventry Carol" tablature notation for guitar.

Coventry Carol tabs

Tips on how to learn this song

The melody is arranged to be played in open position (open strings and the first three frets). This demands little movement of the fretting hand. Notice that the song is played in the A Harmonic Minor and that G# (third string, first fret) is included instead of the natural G.

Lyrics and chords

Deck the Halls chords in the key of Am
Chorus:
(Am)Lully (E)lul(Am)lay, thou (G)little (Dm)tiny (E)child,
(Am)by (G)by, lully (E)lul(Am)lay.

Verse 1:
(Am)O sis(E)ters (Am)too, how (G)may (Dm)we (E)do
(Am)for to preserve (E)this (Am)day
(Am)this (G)poor youngling, (Am)for (Dm)whom we do (E)sing,
(Am)by by, (Dm)lully (E)lullay?

Verse 2:
(Am)Herod, (E)the (Am)king, in (G)his (Dm)rag(E)ing,
(Am)charged he hath (E)this (Am)day
(Am)His (G)men of might, (Am)in (Dm)his own (E)sight,
(Am)All (Dm)young children (E)to slay.

Verse 3:
(Am)That woe (E)is (Am)me, poor (G)child (Dm)for (E)thee!
(Am)And ever morn (E)and (Am)day,
(Am)For (G)thy parting (Am)neither (Dm)say nor (E)sing
(Am)By by, (Dm)lully (E)lullay!

Chorus:
[reprise]

Archaic words:
thou = you
hath = have
thee = you
thy = your

There are possibilities to change to key further by using a capo. These are the keys that the song would transpose in depending on which fret the capo is put:

Key, time, tuning and tempo

Information about "Coventry Carol" considering musical key, time signature, tuning and bpm.

Key signature music symbol

Key

Coventry Carol is played in the key of Am (A Harmonic Minor).

Time signature music symbol

Time signature

The song is played in 3/4 tempo (counted one, two, three for each measure).

Tuning overview

Tuning

The song is normally played in standard tuning (EADGBE).

BPM symbol and numbers

Tempo (BPM)

The tempo in beats per minute is 100 for the presented version.