Christmas carol, sheet music with note names
Deck the Halls piano notes: letter names, key and melody
Deck the Halls piano notes in D major, 4/4: all 68 notes with letter names, range C♯4 to D5, 1862 words and a worksheet. Free printable piano sheet music PDF.
Two kinds of page: the tune with a letter name under every note, and a worksheet with the names left blank.
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Quick answer
"Deck the Halls" is 68 notes in 16 bars of 4/4, in D major, with a range of C♯4 to D5 (13 semitones), starting on A4 and ending on D4. It is one line of tune, the melody only, with no left hand: the Welsh air "Nos Galan" in four four-bar strains, the first one played twice. Below: the melody with a letter name under every note, a version you can play, Thomas Oliphant's words of 1862 and the checks that were run, including a comparison with a printed edition of 1866. The sheets are free to print and to use in class or in products you sell, with no credit needed.
Deck the Halls at a glance
- Key
- D major (two sharps)
- Time signature
- 4/4
- Range
- C♯4 to D5, 13 semitones
- Notes and bars
- 68 notes, 16 bars
- First note
- A4 (scale degree 5)
- Last note
- D4 (scale degree 1)
- Tune
- Welsh air "Nos Galan" (New Year's Eve), first published in 1794 (Wikipedia)
- Words
- Thomas Oliphant, 1862, in John Thomas's "Welsh Melodies" (volume 2)
- Why it is free to use
- The tune was published in 1794 and the English words in 1862. The notes are read from a MIDI file released into the public domain (CC0) and checked against a printed melody of 1866; the sheet is made by this site
- Level
- Medium: wider than a major sixth (13 semitones); wider than an octave; a leap of a minor sixth or more. How the level is worked out
- Tempo
- about quarter note = 120 when played at normal speed
Press a note on the staff to hear it. The sound is made in your browser from the notes of this page (a plain synthesiser, not a recording).
Deck the Halls
D major · 4/4 · melody with note names
Key D major (two sharps: F♯, C♯) Range C♯4 to D5 Words Thomas Oliphant, 1862 Music Welsh air "Nos Galan" (New Year's Eve), first published in 1794 by Edward Jones (Wikipedia)
Scale of D major D E F♯ G A B C♯ I D: D F♯ A IV G: G B D V A: A C♯ E
Melody: Wikimedia Commons, "Deck the Halls.mid" (CC0; uploaded 2021-01-02, SHA-1 08439ee8bd), checked note by note against 1 other edition. Free to print and share. musictheoryprint.com/charts/deck-the-halls-notes
Deck the Halls: name the notes
D major · 4/4 · worksheet
Name Date Class
Write the letter name of every note on the line under it. The key signature tells you which notes are sharp: F♯, C♯. The last note of a tune is usually the home note, D.
Check your answers against the sheet with the note names. Extra: circle every note that is a D, the home note of the key.
Melody: Wikimedia Commons, "Deck the Halls.mid" (CC0). Free to print and share. musictheoryprint.com/charts/deck-the-halls-notes
The notes of Deck the Halls, bar by bar
68 notes in 16 bars, in D major. Letter names, the do-re-mi syllables (movable do: do is D) and the chord symbols of the setting, where there are any. “held” means a tied note that is not played again.
| Bar | Notes | do re mi |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | A G F♯ E | sol fa mi re |
| 2 | D E F♯ D | do re mi do |
| 3 | E F♯ G E F♯ E | re mi fa re mi re |
| 4 | D C♯ D | do ti do |
| 5 | A G F♯ E | sol fa mi re |
| 6 | D E F♯ D | do re mi do |
| 7 | E F♯ G E F♯ E | re mi fa re mi re |
| 8 | D C♯ D | do ti do |
| 9 | E F♯ G E | re mi fa re |
| 10 | F♯ G A E | mi fa sol re |
| 11 | F♯ G A B C♯ D | mi fa sol la ti do |
| 12 | C♯ B A | ti la sol |
| 13 | A G F♯ E | sol fa mi re |
| 14 | D E F♯ D | do re mi do |
| 15 | B B B B A G | la la la la sol fa |
| 16 | F♯ E D | mi re do |
What the tune is made of
How the melody moves
Each of the 67 moves from one note to the next, counted.
Which note lengths it uses
Every note counted by its length, as a fraction of a whole note.
Most-used note: E4 (16 times). Longest run of one repeated note: 4. Different pitches: 9, made from 7 note names (some are used in two octaves). Biggest leap: 9 semitones.
The words of Deck the Halls
English: Thomas Oliphant, 1862
Verse 1
Deck the hall with boughs of holly,
Fa, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la!
'Tis the season to be jolly:
Fa, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la!
Fill the meadcup, drain the barrel,
Fa, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la!
Troll the ancient Christmas carol.
Fa, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la!
Verse 2
See the flowing bowl before us,
Fa, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la!
Strike the harp, and join in chorus:
Fa, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la!
Follow me in merry measure,
Fa, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la!
While I sing of beauty's treasure.
Fa, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la!
Verse 3
Fast away the old year passes,
Fa, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la!
Hail the new, ye lads and lasses:
Fa, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la!
Laughing quaffing all together,
Fa, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la!
Heedless of the wind and weather.
Fa, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la!
Source: Wikipedia, "Deck the Halls", section Lyrics; words in the public domain (published 1862); page text CC BY-SA 4.0; revision 1362302539 of 2026-07-03. This is the wording of the first printing, in John Thomas's "Welsh Melodies", volume 2 (1862), as Wikipedia gives it. The words under the 1866 print used to check the tune are the first verse of this text (spelled "Troul"). The version sung today is the one in the Pennsylvania School Journal of December 1877 (no mention of drinking: "Don we now our gay apparel", "See the blazing yule before us"); it is not printed here.
How the notes were checked
Not one note on this page was typed in or remembered. The melody is read by a program from Wikimedia Commons, "Deck the Halls.mid" (CC0; uploaded 2021-01-02, SHA-1 08439ee8bd). A second program then looked for the same notes, in the same order, in each of the editions below (an edition marked “read by eye” is a printed score that we typed in from the scan only for this check; its notes are never shown on the page). The number is the share of this page’s 68 notes that are found there, whatever key the other edition is in.
| Edition | Licence | Notes there | Same pitches | Same pitches and lengths |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| John Hullah, The Song Book (London, 1866), "Deck the Hall with Boughs of Holly": the printed melody, read by eye from the scanscan on Wikimedia Commons, File:Deck the Hall melody.png, uploaded 2016-12-05; in another key, compared after moving it by 3 semitones | Public domain (printed 1866) | 67 | 93% | 87% |
| Where it differs in pitch: bar 11 beat 3: this page has B, the other edition has no matching note; bar 11 beat 3.5: this page has C♯, the other edition has no matching note; bar 15 beat 1.5: this page has B, the other edition has no matching note; bar 15 beat 2: this page has B, the other edition has no matching note; bar 15 beat 2.5: this page has B, the other edition has no matching note. | ||||
The rhythm column is lower than the pitch column because editions write the same long notes in different ways (a half note and a tied pair, a held last note) and because performance MIDI files shorten or lengthen notes. Pitch is the part that matters for the letter names.
Deck the Halls: questions people ask
What are the notes of "Deck the Halls" on the piano?
In D major the first line, "Deck the hall with boughs of holly", is A G F♯ E D E F♯ D. The whole tune uses 7 note names (A G F♯ E D C♯ B), which make 9 different pitches. Every note is on the printable sheet above, with its letter name under it.
What key and time signature is "Deck the Halls" in?
The version on this page is in D major (two sharps) and in 4/4. The 1866 print is written in F major, three semitones lower, and was compared after moving it. D major is the number 4 key of 24 in the OpenScore Lieder Corpus (6.8% of 1,462 songs) and number 3 in the Mutopia Project (9.9% of 1,974 pieces).
Is "Deck the Halls" easy to play on the piano?
By this site's rule the tune is "Medium" (wider than a major sixth (13 semitones), wider than an octave and a leap of a minor sixth or more). Its notes sit between C♯4 and D5, 13 semitones, and no note is outside the key signature. The eighth notes in the "Fa la la" lines, and the quick run up in the third strain, are the parts to practise slowly. This page is one melody line; easy piano books add a left hand, which is a separate work.
What chords go with "Deck the Halls"? What are the guitar chords?
This page prints no chord symbols. The only open file with several voices is a MIDI arrangement with a busy accompaniment, and a program reading chords from it gave labels that do not hold together (diminished chords on passing notes, and the same bar named differently in two strains), so none are shown. What the notes say: the home chord is D major (D F♯ A), and 33 of the 68 notes of the tune are one of those three notes. The tune starts on A4 and ends on D4. Chord symbols belong to a particular arrangement, so take them from a published one. The three main chords of D major are D, G, A, built on the 1st, 4th and 5th notes of the scale; a published arrangement says which one goes where.
Who wrote "Deck the Halls"?
The tune is the old Welsh air "Nos Galan", whose first known publication, Wikipedia says, is by the harpist Edward Jones in 1794. The English words were written by the Scottish musician Thomas Oliphant and first printed in 1862 in "Welsh Melodies", volume 2, arranged by John Thomas, next to Welsh words by Talhaiarn that are not a translation of Oliphant's. Wikipedia adds that the title was "Deck the Hall" until about 1892.
Why does the music repeat?
Wikipedia says the music is in AABA form. On this page the first strain (bars 1 to 4, "Deck the hall ... Fa la la") is played twice (bars 5 to 8, "'Tis the season ... Fa la la"), then comes a different strain (bars 9 to 12, "Fill the mead-cup, drain the barrel ... Fa la la") and a closing strain (bars 13 to 16, "Troll the ancient Christmas carol ... Fa la la") that starts like the first one and ends on four repeated notes. In the 1862 words every line of text is followed by a "Fa la la" line, so each strain carries one line and its "Fa la la".
How was this tune checked?
The notes on this page were read by a program from one file, "Deck the Halls.mid" on Wikimedia Commons (CC0, by Peter Gerloff, uploaded 2021-01-02): the top voice of its first verse, 68 notes. That is one machine-readable source, so a second, independent one was used: the melody printed in John Hullah's "The Song Book" (1866), whose scan is on Commons. The print was not decoded by a program: its 67 notes were read by eye from the scan and entered by hand, only to be compared with this page's notes. 63 of this page's 68 notes (92.7%) have the same pitch in the print, in the same order, and 86.8% have the same pitch and length. The five notes that differ are listed under the sheet: in bar 11 and in bar 15 (see the next question).
Why does this tune differ from the 1866 print in two places?
Wikipedia notes that the third and fourth "Fa la la" lines differ from those sung or played in Wales, and that the 1877 Pennsylvania print leaves out the third one. Here the differences are in bar 11, where the file climbs a scale (B, C♯ and up to the D at the top of the range, then back down) and the 1866 print has fewer notes with a jump, and in bar 15, where the file repeats one note four times and the 1866 print has a leaping figure of four eighth notes. The Pennsylvania School Journal print of 1877, shown on Wikipedia's page, has repeated notes in that bar too, which is the same shape as this page (checked by eye, not counted in the percentages above). This page keeps the version in the file.
Can I use the Deck the Halls notes in a product I sell?
Yes. The sheets made on this page are royalty-free for personal, classroom and commercial use, including KDP books, Etsy printables, Teachers Pay Teachers and print-on-demand, and no credit is required. The tune was published in 1794 and Oliphant's words in 1862, so both are out of copyright. The MIDI file the notes come from was released as CC0 by its maker, and the printed edition used for the check is from 1866. The sheet itself is made by this site. The words printed are the 1862 ones; the changed words sung today, from the 1877 printing, are not printed here. The only limit is copying this site's generator to run a competing service.
musictheoryprint.com · free to print and share
Deck the Halls in real music: the numbers
In D major the tune uses 7 of the 12 notes of the chromatic scale, all of them inside the key. It moves by step 54 times out of 67, and ends on the home note, as 75% of major-key art songs do.
This tune against real art songs
| What | This tune | OpenScore Lieder (880 major-key songs) |
|---|---|---|
| First note | A4 (degree 5) | 41.7% start on degree 5 |
| Last note | D4 (degree 1) | 75.1% end on degree 1 |
| Range of the tune | 13 semitones (C♯4 to D5) | 10% of 1,458 first vocal lines span fewer semitones, 84% more |
The art-song numbers are for the first vocal line of every major-key song whose key signature does not change; the carol numbers are counted on the melody printed above.
How common D major is
| Collection | Items with a key | Share in D major | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|
| OpenScore Lieder | 1,462 | 6.8% | 4 of 24 |
| Mutopia | 1,974 | 9.9% | 3 of 24 |
| MusicBrainz works | 13,669 | 11.4% | 1 of 24 |
| MusicBrainz works | 5,340 | 11.0% | 1 of 24 |
| Open Opus work titles | 3,587 | 11.0% | 2 of 24 |
| AcousticBrainz recordings | 63,124 | 6.0% | 7 of 24 |
Counts of key signatures (and estimated major or minor) in the collections the site has measured; see the key page for D major.
Where the tune sits among singers' ranges
| Voice type (as labelled in the scores) | Typical range of a real song line | This tune (C♯4 to D5) |
|---|---|---|
| Soprano | E♭4 to F5 | fits if moved up 2 semitones |
| Alto / Contralto | C4 to C5 | wider than this range by 1 semitone |
| Tenor | F3 to F♯4 | fits if moved down 8 semitones |
| Baritone | C3 to E4 | fits if moved down 10 semitones |
| Bass | A2 to C4 | fits if moved down 14 semitones |
Typical range = the median across song lines of the lowest and highest notes (ignoring one stray note each side), from 285 vocal lines in the OpenScore Lieder Corpus. "Fits" means both ends of the tune are inside it.
Method
- The carol's own numbers are counted by a script on the decoded melody (tied notes counted once, rests ignored).
- Art-song numbers are read from the files behind the site's statistics pages (OpenScore Lieder Corpus: key and scale-degree counts for the first vocal line of every piece, vocal ranges of 1,458 lines).
- Key counts for Mutopia and MusicBrainz come from the same published statistics; a key is counted from its key signature.
Data: computed from the OpenScore Lieder Corpus (CC0), 1,462 scores. Snapshot: commit 6b2dc542ce (2026-04-07).
Background
Excerpts from open reference works, reproduced as published (references, images and tables removed). Every excerpt names its source, licence and original article.
History of "Deck the Halls"
Overview
"Deck the Halls" is a traditional Christmas carol. The melody is Welsh, dating back to the sixteenth century, and belongs to a winter carol, "Nos Galan", while the English lyrics, written by the Scottish musician Thomas Oliphant, date to 1862. The title was originally singular, titled 'Deck the Hall' until about 1892.
Melody
The melody of "Deck the Hall" is taken from "Nos Galan" ("New Year's Eve"), a traditional Welsh New Year's Eve carol published in 1794, although it is much older. In 1912, Ruth Herbert Lewis made a wax cylinder recording of a Welshman named Benjamin Davies singing a song, "Can y Coach faier", which uses the old melody now associated with "Deck the Halls". The recording can be heard on the British Library Sound Archive website.
The music is in AABA form.
History
The tune is that of an old Welsh air, first found in a musical manuscript by Welsh harpist John Parry dating back to the 1700s. He published it in British Harmony Being a Collection of Antient Welsh Airs: The Traditional Remains of those Originally Sung By the Bards of Wales. Poet John Ceiriog Hughes later wrote his own lyrics. A middle verse was later added by folk singers. In the eighteenth century the tune spread widely, with Mozart allegedly using it in his 18th violin sonata (1778) and later Haydn arranged it under the Welsh title, "Nos galan" (Hob. XXXIb: 29, 1803).
Source: Wikipedia, “Deck the Halls” — CC BY-SA 4.0 — text excerpted; see the article for the full text and authors. Revision of 2026-07-03.
Sources and licences for the text, scores and recordings on this page are on the credits page.
Sources: Wikimedia Commons, "Deck the Halls.mid", John Hullah, The Song Book (London, 1866), "Deck the Hall with Boughs of Holly": the printed melody, read by eye from the scan, Wikipedia: Deck the Halls.