Edelweiss is a nice little song from the musical The Sound of Music. Too bad it’s a little harder to play, especially on the ukulele compared to the guitar, with a bunch of jumbled fingered chords.
What I have done is found a couple of keys in which the chords needed would be relatively easy to play, rather than trying to find the key in which it was sung in the musical. There are a billion interpretations in all kinds of keys, anyway.
The other thing I have done is to just have a repeat of all the lyrics, as if you sung it twice, with a couple of bars of humming in between. In the original, the kids came in skipping the first two lines on the repeat. I didn’t like that so I threw it out. This wasn’t about duplicating the musical exactly. Who’s got a Julie Andrews to spare?
Finally, on the last line, second time around, instead of ending with “forever”, I ended with “forever more”. It seemed to me I once heard a version sung like that and liked it so I’ve kept it in my arrangement.
Of all the versions out there, I found this one in the video below to match well to the tabs I’ve created.
Vodpod videos no longer available.
By match, I mean arrangement of verses, transitions, and so on, not key the piece is sung in necessarily. In my tabs, I have the notes written out so you can pic them to help you figure out what you need to be singing.
Edelweiss in D Guitar Tabs, Letter Sized PDF
Edelweiss in D Guitar Tabs, Tabloid Sized PDF
Edelweiss in G Guitar Tabs, Letter Sized PDF
Edelweiss in G Guitar Tabs, Tabloid Sized PDF
Edelweiss in D Ukulele Tabs, Letter Sized PDF
Edelweiss in D Ukulele Tabs, Tabloid Sized PDF
Edelweiss in G Ukulele Tabs, Letter Sized PDF
Edelweiss in G Ukulele Tabs, Tabloid Sized PDF
These tabs all fit on one page to avoid the inconvenience of page turns. However, the letter size tabs (8.5″ x 11″) may be too small for your eyes. If so, you can either enlarge to tabloid size (11″ x 17″) using an automatic enlarge feature on many photocopiers, or download the tabloid sized versions for printing. The tabloid size tabs can be inserted into a typical letter sized binder on the 11″ size, and folded almost in half to fit. You just open each tab to use it.
If the versions in the keys of D or G suit your voice range, you can pick one and put a capo to make it fit. The fact you have access to the song in two keys means you shouldn’t have to capo up any more than 5 frets to find a version that suits your range.
In the near future, I’m hoping to tab Do-Re-Mi, also from The Sound of Music and combine it to flow into this song. That’s because in Do-Re-Mi, it ends with telling the audience how you could use the notes out of order to sing any song. Edelweiss will be the example, and a good choice in being from the same musical.
In the meanwhile, I hope you’ll enjoy Edelweiss on its own. It’s a great little song, but especially for ukulele groups to learn and sing along!
Please click here for guitar and ukulele tabs and chords to other songs on this blog.
Flesch-Kincaid Grade Reading Level: 7.3
Digital Citizen 
Thank you! This is so helpful! I am new to guitar and am looking forward to learning one of my favorite songs!
Glad to be of help, Chad. It is a beautiful song, indeed!
Hey ! i love the song. i grew up with it. i wanted to know how to play it without a capo, and here we go ! but i do have a question. i am new to guitar..where am i supposed to find the D or G to figure out which voice type ? please help ! i mean….it sounds like a stupid question…but please help !
Hi Emma, no stupid questions. I’m thinking you mean which key to play the song in?
If so, that depends on what notes you can sing. Try and play, very slowly, each version I have. The notes are included so pic them out to help you hear the melody. Then after you hear the notes, try to sing the song with them. You can then choose which one you feel most comfortable with, or which you prefer if you can sing more than one (like if you can sing in a higher key and you like it higher, or maybe you prefer to play some set of chords over another set). Also, if something seems awfully low or high, take it up or down an octave to see if that is more comfortable.
Or if no version fit your voice range well, put a capo on one of the top frets, and play the versions and see if you could sing one. Ultimately, you should be able to find some “setting” you’re comfortable with and enjoy singing it in.
That’s how I go about finding how I could play any song cause I can’t always sing them at the range they’re supposed to be sung. Hope this helps.