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3All songs / We Three Kings
Number tabs for the steel tongue drum
We Three Kings
Free number tabs for We Three Kings on the steel tongue drum. 40 notes, C Major scale, Intermediate level — play it instantly in the free Tongue Drum Online player.
The tab
2
23
32
21
17
76
66
67
76
67
71
12
23
33
32
23
32
21
17
76
66
67
71
12
23
31
16
65
55
56
64
43
32
23
32
21
12
23
31
11–7 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:
3217654
We Three Kings, composed by John Henry Hopkins Jr. in 1857, is set in a distinctive minor waltz that evokes the mystical journey of the Magi across the desert. On a steel tongue drum the modal melody has an exotic, meditative quality, the long sustain of each note evoking starlight and incense smoke. The rhythmic dotted figures and wider intervals offer a rewarding challenge for advancing players.
How to play We Three Kings 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 We Three Kings.
About this melody
John Henry Hopkins Jr., 1857 (public domain).