About and sources

Every Instrument shows the notes of public-domain songs for ten beginner instruments: piano, kalimba, soprano recorder, flute, violin, B♭ clarinet, B♭ trumpet, E♭ alto sax, bells (xylophone, glockenspiel or boomwhackers) and the 10-hole C harmonica. It is made for parents whose child has a new instrument, adult beginners, music teachers and band students.

How the notes are worked out

Each song is stored once, as one melody. For every instrument, our software tries every key, keeps only the keys where each note is inside the instrument’s beginner range (and, for kalimba, bells and harmonica, needs no sharps, flats or bends), and picks the easiest: the fewest sharps and flats, then the closest fit to the comfortable range. If no key fits, that song has no page for that instrument. B♭ clarinet and trumpet are written two semitones higher than they sound, and E♭ alto sax a major sixth higher, so their pages show the written notes. The build checks this logic with tests every time the site is made.

Only public-domain songs

Every melody here, and every set of words shown with it, was first published before 1931, so it is in the public domain in the United States. Melody and words are checked separately: for example, the melody of “Carol of the Bells” (1914) is shown without its 1936 English words. Each song page names the printing its melody was taken from. No pop, film, TV or game music appears here.

Sources

• Hymns and carols: the melodies and first verses from HymnKeys, taken from the Open Hymnal Project’s public-domain files.
• Other songs: transcribed from public-domain printings, cited on each song page.
• Recorder fingerings: the American Recorder Society’s baroque fingering chart.
• Boomwhacker colors: the maker’s color list for the C major diatonic set, as published by West Music.
• Trumpet valves, violin first-position fingers and harmonica holes: standard charts for each instrument.

What we don’t do

We don’t write song histories or “how to play” articles. Facts such as composers and years appear only when a source gives them. The player is a simple synthesizer guide, not a recording.

Who runs it

Every Instrument is operated by JY Concepts, based in New York, USA. Spotted a wrong note or fingering? Please tell us.