For He's a Jolly Good Fellow - guitar tab, notes, chords and lyrics
“For He's a Jolly Good Fellow” are together with “Happy Birthday to You” the most well-known birthday songs. The melody is based on the French folk song “Malbrough s'en va-t-en guerre” (“Marlborough Has Left for the War”).
The music transcriptions of the song with tabs and notes are available for download as PDFs. It's free for personal use only.
For He's a Jolly Good Fellow (full accompaniment)
"For He's a Jolly Good Fellow" for guitar with full accompaniment. Free download in pdf-file and audio.
For He's a Jolly Good Fellow guitar accompaniment
For He's a Jolly Good Fellow for flute
"For He's a Jolly Good Fellow" for flute in the key of C. Free download in pdf-file and audio.
For He's a Jolly Good Fellow flute
For He's a Jolly Good Fellow (only melody)
“For He's a Jolly Good Fellow” standard and tablature notation for guitar presented as an image.
Tips on how to learn this song
The version of “For He's a Jolly Good Fellow” above is played in open position with notes exclusively from the key of C Major. Many of the melodic motifs are repeated. The challenge are primarily to execute the melody in a satisfactory tempo. The arc-shaped lines in bars 8, 10 and 12 indicate that the tone is played for a longer duration (see the pdf versions that includes notes, for a better illustration how a tie connects two notes).
Lyrics and chords
For He's a Jolly Good Fellow chords in the key of G (American version)
(C)For he's a jolly good (F)fel(C)low, for (G7)he's a jolly good fel(C)low,
(C)For he's a jolly good (F)fel(C)low, which (G7)nobody can de(C)ny,
(C)Which nobody (F)can de(C)ny, which nobody (F)can de(C)ny!
(C)For he's a jolly good (F)fel(C)low, for (G7)he's a jolly good fel(C)low,
(C)For he's a jolly good fel(F)low ..., which nobody (G7)can de(C)ny!
For He's a Jolly Good Fellow chords in the key of G (British version)
(C)For he's a jolly good (F)fel(C)low, for (G7)he's a jolly good fel(C)low,
(C)For he's a jolly good (F)fel(C)low, and so (G7)say all of (C)us,
(C)And so say all (F)of us(C), and so say (F)all of (C)us!
(C)For he's a jolly good (F)fel(C)low, for (G7)he's a jolly good fel(C)low,
(C)For he's a jolly good fel(F)low ..., and so say (F)all of (C)us!
Key, time, tuning and tempo
Information about "For He's a Jolly Good Fellow" considering musical key, time signature, tuning and bpm.
![Key signature music symbol](images/key_signature_c.png)
Key
The presented version of For He's a Jolly Good Fellow is played in the key of G.
![Time signature music symbol](images/time_signature_6_8.png)
Time signature
The song is played in 6/8 tempo (a compound time including two dotted quarter notes per measure).
![Tuning overview](images/tuning_standard.png)
Tuning
The song is normally played in standard tuning (EADGBE).
![BPM symbol and numbers](images/bpm_120.png)
Tempo (BPM)
The tempo in beats per minute is 120 for the presented version.