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Three Blind Mice on the ocarina

On a 12-hole it starts E, D, C, E. Medium, 48 notes, in C major.

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Three Blind Mice

Bar 1 of 16

E
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What are the notes for Three Blind Mice?

On a 12-hole. Read left to right, a line at a time.

  1. ED
    C
    ED
    C
  2. GFF
    E
    GFF
    Tricky spot:ErestG
  3. high Chigh CBAB
    high CGGG
    high Chigh Chigh CBAB
    high CGGGG
  4. high Chigh CBAB
    high CGGGG
    ED
    C

Three Blind Mice is a round in 6/8: a tune built to be started again by a second player before the first has finished. Here it is in C major, 16 bars from C up to high C, with no sharps or flats. The slow fall at the start, E, D, C, is the part everybody knows; the quick run in the second half is where it gets lively.

Three Blind Mice ocarina tabs for a 12-hole ocarina: the fingering for each note, then the letter notes bar by bar
Three Blind Mice as one picture, with the tabs for a 12-hole, to save to your phone. Open the picture

What is the tricky spot in Three Blind Mice?

The jump from G up to high C that starts several of the quick bars in the second half, straight after a run of G's. On a 12-hole, Three Blind Mice goes from G to high C: you lift the left ring, left middle and left index. On a 6-hole or 4-hole, you lift the left index and right index.

The first four bars are steps; the bigger moves are the climb from C up to G at the fifth bar and the drops from high C back to G, and the quick bars turn on C, B and A. Practise G, then high C, slowly, so the high C speaks first time rather than splitting, then add the little C, B, A, B turn that follows it. Keep that turn light, as four even eighth notes, and let the repeated G's in the next bar settle back down: blow firmer for the high C and gentler for the G's.

Where do you breathe in Three Blind Mice?

Breathe after the held C that ends the second bar and the fourth bar. The half-beat rest in the eighth bar is your quick breath before the run starts: take it, because the second half has no long note until the last two bars.

Which ocarina can play Three Blind Mice?

Any 12-hole, 6-hole or 4-hole ocarina in C plays Three Blind Mice in this key. On an ocarina in G or F, use the same fingerings: the tune sounds in a different key, which is fine when you play alone. Each linked chart has every fingering for its ocarina, and you can check your notes with a tuner such as our free ocarina tuner.

The 8 notes here, on a 12-holeHoles in words, with a picture
NoteHoles to coverPicture
ECover every main hole but the right ring and right pinky
DCover every main hole but the right pinky
CCover every main hole
GCover every main hole but the right index, right middle, right ring and right pinky
FCover every main hole but the right middle, right ring and right pinky
high CCover the left pinky, left thumb and right thumb
BCover the left pinky, left index, left thumb and right thumb
ACover the left pinky, left middle, left index, left thumb and right thumb

Drawn as you see it while playing: mouthpiece towards you, left hand on the left.

Which Three Blind Mice do our tabs play?

The round is old: Wikipedia says a version with its music, in a minor key, was published in 1609 in Deuteromelia, a book edited by Thomas Ravenscroft, so that is not the major-key tune we play. Ravenscroft, who died in 1635 by Wikipedia's dating, collected rounds and catches. Our tabs follow the familiar major-key tune in Heart Songs (Boston, 1909), which prints it as a "Traditional Round" with no composer's name and numbers four entries, 1, 2, 3 and 4, on its one staff. It is written in D major; we moved it down a step to C major and up an octave to sit in the middle of the ocarina. We show the melody only. Music: traditional English round.

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