About Comin’ Thro’ the Rye#
The words most people know were shaped by Robert Burns, who in 1782 reworked an older Scottish country song for a collection of traditional airs. That was his habit: he gathered rough folk fragments and polished them into singable verse. The tune itself is older and anonymous, a lowland air that had been passed around long before Burns set his lines to it.
On a 6-hole ocarina the melody reaches from a low D up to a high E, so it leans on the top of the instrument’s range. Get the two highest notes sounding cleanly before you try it up to speed; the rest sits comfortably in the middle.
Comin’ Thro’ the Rye Ocarina Tab#
| DO | DJen | Dny's | Ba | Awet | Gpoor | Abod | B-y |
| DJen | D-ny's | Esel | D-dom | Gdry | |||
| DShe | Ddrag | D-gled | Ba' | Aher | Gpet | A-ti | Bcoatie |
| DCom | D-in | Ethro' | Dthe | Grye! | |||
| DCom | Bin' | Gthro | Bthe | Arye! | Gpoor | Abod | B-y |
| DCom | B-in | Gthro | Bthe | Dry | E-e | ||
| EShe | Ddrai | B-gl't | Ca' | Aher | Bpet | G-ti | A-coatie |
| GCom | D-in | Dthro | Ethe | Dry | G-e |