What Child Is This on the ocarina
On a 12-hole it starts D, F, G, A. Hard, 71 notes, in D minor.
Goes down to low A, so it does not fit a 6-hole or 4-hole.
What Child Is This
Bar 1 of 16
What are the notes for What Child Is This?
On a 12-hole. Read left to right, a line at a time.
- D FGAB♭AGECDEFDDC♯DElow AD
- FGAB♭AGECDEFEDC♯low BC♯DD
- high Chigh CB♭AGECDEFDDC♯DTricky spot:EC♯low A
- high Chigh CB♭AGECDEFEDC♯low BC♯DD
What Child Is This is the carol sung to "Greensleeves": a lilting tune in 6/8 that opens D, F, G, A. Its verse is two lines that start alike, and its chorus begins high, on a long C, before winding down to the same ending. Almost every bar has a dotted pair, a long note and a short one, which gives it its sway.
What is the tricky spot in What Child Is This?
The leap from the long low A in the middle of the chorus straight up to the high C that starts its second half. On a 12-hole, What Child Is This goes from low A to high C: you lift the left ring, left middle, left index, right index, right middle, right ring, right pinky, left sub-hole and right sub-hole.
That is more than an octave, and the low A needs the small holes on a 12-hole, so nearly every finger moves. Breathe on the low A, set your fingers for C during the breath, then play it. The dotted pairs are the other thing to practise: hold the first note a little longer than feels natural and let the short one lean into the next beat. C sharp, the second cross-fingered note, comes near the end of each half, in the turn C sharp, B, C sharp before the last D.
Where do you breathe in What Child Is This?
Breathe on the long E in the fourth bar, then after the two long D's that close the verse. In the chorus, breathe on the long low A in the middle and just before the high C that opens each half.
Which ocarina can play What Child Is This?
A 6-hole or 4-hole ocarina cannot reach low A and low B, so play What Child Is This in this key on a 12-hole ocarina in C. 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. The linked chart has every fingering, and you can check your notes with a tuner such as our free ocarina tuner.
The 11 notes here, on a 12-holeHoles in words, with a picture
| Note | Holes to cover | Picture |
|---|---|---|
| D | Cover every main hole but the right pinky | |
| F | Cover every main hole but the right middle, right ring and right pinky | |
| G | Cover every main hole but the right index, right middle, right ring and right pinky | |
| A | Cover the left pinky, left middle, left index, left thumb and right thumb | |
| B♭ | Cover the left pinky, left index, right ring, left thumb and right thumb | |
| E | Cover every main hole but the right ring and right pinky | |
| C | Cover every main hole | |
| C♯ | Cover every main hole but the right pinky, plus the right sub-hole | |
| low A | Cover every main hole, plus the left sub-hole and right sub-hole | |
| low B | Cover every main hole, plus the right sub-hole | |
| high C | Cover the left pinky, left thumb and right thumb |
Drawn as you see it while playing: mouthpiece towards you, left hand on the left.
Is What Child Is This the same tune as Greensleeves?
Yes. William Chatterton Dix wrote the words in 1865, and they were set to the old English tune "Greensleeves" in 1871 in the carol book Christmas Carols, New and Old. Our tabs follow Carol 402 in Carols Old and Carols New, a carol book published in Boston in 1916, where the tune is marked "Old English". It is in D minor, the key of our Greensleeves tabs, so the fingerings you learn on one page carry over to the other. Dix died in 1898, and the tune is anonymous. We show the melody only. Music: the English tune "Greensleeves"; words by William Chatterton Dix (1837-1898).