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5All songs / Barbara Allen
Number tabs for the steel tongue drum
Barbara Allen
Free number tabs for Barbara Allen on the steel tongue drum. 26 notes, C Major Pentatonic scale, Easy level — play it instantly in the free Tongue Drum Online player.
The tab
6
5•1
66
55
43
35
46
56
5•1
6•3
8•2
7•1
6•3
8•3
8•2
7•1
66
5•1
6•2
7•3
8•2
7•1
66
55
46
51–7 scale note• above = higher octave• below = lower octaveabc = key in the app
▶ Play it in Tongue Drum Online
Open the free player on the C Major Pentatonic scale, then tap the petals or press these keyboard keys in order, following the tab above:
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Barbara Allen is one of the oldest and most widely collected English-Scottish ballads, a tale of unrequited love and remorse that has been sung for centuries. On steel tongue drum its modal melody carries an appropriately ancient, melancholic beauty, each phrase unfolding with quiet inevitability. The gentle moderato pace and lyrical contour suit meditative playing perfectly. A profoundly moving piece of Anglo-Scottish folk heritage.
How to play Barbara Allen on a tongue drum
The numbers above are the standard tongue-drum number notation. Each digit is a note of the C Major Pentatonic scale, counting up from the lowest tongue. A dot above a number raises it one octave; a dot below lowers it. The small teal letters show the matching key in the Tongue Drum Online player.
Start slowly, one phrase at a time. Let each note ring out fully before striking the next — the long decay is the whole character of the instrument. This is a easy arrangement and a simplified, single-instrument version of Barbara Allen.
About this melody
English/Scottish traditional.