Little Drummer Boy (Tab)

To give you an idea of the tabs in the Christmas Ukulele III ebook, here’s an arrangement in the same styles and with a similar difficulty.

The Little Drummer Boy is (supposed to be) based on an old Czech folk melody. But it only became well known when rearranged and given lyrics in the 1950s for the Harry Simeone Chorale version.

Full Arrangement

Little Drummer Boy (Tab)

This arrangement is designed to be played solo. It can all be played with your thumb on your picking hand. When you play more than one string just strum your thumb down until you hit the last note in the chord.

The notes in brackets here are backing notes. They’re not part of the melody so play them softly.

Melody Arrangement

Little Drummer Boy (Melody Tab)

This version is even simpler. It splits up the chords and the melody into different parts. So you can play this version with a friend or with this MP3. It’s stereo split so you can play along with either the chords or the melody.


Melody Version

For the strumming here I’m just doing two down strums per bar.

Links

Buy the Harry Simeone Chorale version iTunes
Christmas Ukulele III

View Comments

7 Comments

  1. Alec November 22nd, 2014 9:35 am

    Thanks. Super simple, sounds super good.

  2. Woodshed November 22nd, 2014 12:00 pm

    Alec: Thanks very much!

  3. kevin from nj November 22nd, 2014 4:58 pm

    Thank you little drummer boy
    Tab
    Very nice great job

  4. dave smylie November 23rd, 2014 8:53 am

    Hah. Nice shirt! (I have one just like it =)

    Great version of the song – will have to try and get this memorised before xmas!

  5. Woodshed November 23rd, 2014 9:35 am

    kevin: Thanks! Glad you like it.

    dave: Hahaha! Yes, it is very handsome. Happy practicing!

  6. Eduardo January 7th, 2015 4:15 am

    Hi Al,

    I just got out of the gym and heard this as I got home. It was really soothing to hear! So peaceful.

    I’ll learn it the way you play it, and play it for Abigail when she’s having a hard time falling asleep at night (my 3 year old daughter). Thanks for sharing the video Al.

    Cheers,
    Eduardo

  7. Woodshed January 7th, 2015 7:22 am

    Eduardo: That’s very sweet!

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