letter frequency counter / your thoughts..

[umpsumps]

Hello,

Here is my code for a letter frequency counter.  It seems bloated to
me and any suggestions of what would be a better way (keep in my mind
I'm a beginner) would be greatly appreciated..

def valsort(x):
        res = []
        for key, value in x.items():
                res.append((value, key))
        return res

def mostfreq(strng):
        dic = {}
        for letter in strng:
                if letter not in dic:
                        dic.setdefault(letter, 1)
                else:
                        dic[letter] += 1
        newd = dic.items()
        getvals = valsort(newd)
        getvals.sort()
        length = len(getvals)
        return getvals[length - 3 : length]

thanks much!!
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