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5All songs / Cucurrucucú Paloma
Number tabs for the steel tongue drum
Cucurrucucú Paloma
Free number tabs for Cucurrucucú Paloma on the steel tongue drum. 23 notes, C Major scale, Intermediate level — play it instantly in the free Tongue Drum Online player.
The tab
5
56
65
53
32
25
56
67
76
65
56
67
7•1
87
76
65
53
32
23
35
56
65
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 scale, then tap the petals or press these keyboard keys in order, following the tab above:
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Cucurrucucú Paloma is a hauntingly beautiful Mexican folk song from the huapango tradition of the Huasteca region, a lament of lost love in which a man's spirit becomes a dove crying for his beloved. On the steel tongue drum its slow, ornate phrasing carries an almost operatic weight, the handpan's resonance giving each dotted phrase a tender, aching quality. Expressive dotted rhythms reward intermediate players.
How to play Cucurrucucú Paloma on a tongue drum
The numbers above are the standard tongue-drum number notation. Each digit is a note of the C Major 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 intermediate arrangement and a simplified, single-instrument version of Cucurrucucú Paloma.
About this melody
Mexican folk.