Coventry Carol - guitar tab, notes, chords and lyrics
“Coventry Carol” is an English traditional carol from the 16th century.
The music transcriptions of the song with tabs and notes are available for download as PDFs. It's free for personal use only.
Melody & full accompaniment
Free tabs and notes plus sound.
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Coventry Carol guitar tab and notes (pdf)
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Coventry Carol instrumental guitar (mp3)
Coventry Carol (full accompaniment)
"Coventry Carol" for guitar with full accompaniment is found in Christmas songs arranged for guitar e-book.
Coventry Carol (only melody)
"Coventry Carol" tablature notation for guitar.
Tips on how to learn this song
The melody is arranged to be played in open position (open strings and the first three frets). This demands little movement of the fretting hand. Notice that the song is played in the A Harmonic Minor and that G# (third string, first fret) is included instead of the natural G.
Lyrics and chords
Deck the Halls chords in the key of Am
Chorus:
(Am)Lully (E)lul(Am)lay, thou (G)little (Dm)tiny (E)child,
(Am)by (G)by, lully (E)lul(Am)lay.
Verse 1:
(Am)O sis(E)ters (Am)too, how (G)may (Dm)we (E)do
(Am)for to preserve (E)this (Am)day
(Am)this (G)poor youngling, (Am)for (Dm)whom we do (E)sing,
(Am)by by, (Dm)lully (E)lullay?
Verse 2:
(Am)Herod, (E)the (Am)king, in (G)his (Dm)rag(E)ing,
(Am)charged he hath (E)this (Am)day
(Am)His (G)men of might,
(Am)in (Dm)his own (E)sight,
(Am)All (Dm)young children (E)to slay.
Verse 3:
(Am)That woe (E)is (Am)me, poor (G)child (Dm)for (E)thee!
(Am)And ever morn (E)and (Am)day,
(Am)For (G)thy parting (Am)neither (Dm)say nor (E)sing
(Am)By by, (Dm)lully (E)lullay!
Chorus:
[reprise]
Archaic words:
thou = you
hath = have
thee = you
thy = your
There are possibilities to change to key further by using a capo. These are the keys that the song would transpose in depending on which fret the capo is put:
- Capo 1: A# / Bb minor
- Capo 2: B minor
- Capo 3: C minor
- Capo 4: C# / D# minor
- Capo 5: D minor
Key, time, tuning and tempo
Information about "Coventry Carol" considering musical key, time signature, tuning and bpm.
Key
Coventry Carol is played in the key of Am (A Harmonic Minor).
Time signature
The song is played in 3/4 tempo (counted one, two, three for each measure).
Tuning
The song is normally played in standard tuning (EADGBE).
Tempo (BPM)
The tempo in beats per minute is 100 for the presented version.