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6All songs / Old Folks at Home (Swanee River)
Number tabs for the steel tongue drum
Old Folks at Home (Swanee River)
Free number tabs for Old Folks at Home (Swanee River) 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
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6•1
66
55
43
35
46
5•1
6•1
6•1
66
55
43
35
45
45
43
35
46
5•1
6•2
7•1
66
55
4•1
61–7 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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Old Folks at Home — popularly known as Swanee River — is Stephen Foster's nostalgic 1851 melody that became one of the first great popular songs of American music. On a steel tongue drum the languid, homesick tune resonates with a tender wistfulness, the instrument's warm decay giving each note a gentle ache. Its familiar, singable arc and relaxed tempo suit players who enjoy lyrical, sentimental melody.
How to play Old Folks at Home (Swanee River) 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 Old Folks at Home (Swanee River).
About this melody
Stephen Foster, 1851.