“Silent Night” is normally played in D major, but can be played in any major key! Our early elementary version is in F major.
What are the notes for Silent Night?
The notes to this arrangement of “Silent Night” begin with this phrase: C D C A, C D C A ,G G E F F C. Following that, this phrase is played twice: D D F E D C D C A. Next, we have this phrase: G G B flat G E F A. And finally the song finishes with: F C A C B flat G F.
What chords are used in Silent Night?
In this early elementary version of Silent Night, we only include one chord at the very end. This chord is in the right hand and only plays two notes: F and A. This is a I chord in F major. We add more chords to the more challenging versions of Silent Night. Most arrangements of “Silent Night” use the I chord, the IV chord, and the V7 chord.
Is Silent Night in 3/4 time?
“Silent Night” was first written in 6/8 time, which is the time signature that most musicians are familiar with. For our version, we fit “Silent Night” to the ¾ time signature, so that it’s easier to play.
Who composed Silent Night?
The music to “Silent Night” was composed in 1818 by Franz Xaver Gruber, who was an Austrian church organist, teacher, and composer. He composed this tune to a poem that was written by Austrian priest Joseph Mohr. In the original German, this song is called “Stille Nacht,” which also means “Silent Night.” Below you can find the original German words and the English translation.
German lyrics
Stille Nacht, heilige Nacht
Alles schläft; einsam wacht
Nur das traute hochheilige Paar.
Holder Knabe im lockigen Haar,
Schlaf in himmlischer Ruh!
Schlaf in himmlischer Ruh!
English lyrics
Silent night, holy night
All is calm, all is bright
Round yon virgin mother and child,
Holy infant so tender and mild,
Sleep in heavenly peace!
Sleep in heavenly peace!
What are other Christmas songs to learn after this version of Silent Night?
Hello and welcome. I'm Joseph Hoffman,
and in this piano lesson you'll learn how to play my super easy version of "Silent Night".
perfect if you're a beginner with less than one year of piano experience.
If you're looking for something more challenging, check out my easy or intermediate level tutorials.
Alright, let's get started by checking out the sheet music.
Here's the sheet music to "Silent Night".
Now in my tutorials, I like to do more than just show you how to play the notes. You can get that in any tutorial.
With me, I like to help you understand the music so you can apply it to any song you play.
If we check out the time signature we see that we're in 3/4 time.
What does that mean?
3/4 means there will be 3 quarter note beats in every measure.
What are measures?
They're separated by these thin vertical black lines. So here's measure one, here's measure two, measure three, etc.
Now, how is that useful information?
Well as we're playing, we want to think about these 3 beats.
Every 3 beats forms a group
of sounds,
and it's important for you to keep those beats in mind as you're playing or you won't have the right timing.
Now you'll notice that I put this beat 2 before this little eighth note.
I could add one extra note over here to my chart of rhythms. An eighth note is just equal to 1/2 of a beat.
For reference quarter notes are 1 beat, dotted quarter notes are 1 1/2 beats long.
Half notes are 2 beats, dotted half notes are 3 beats.
Now again, this will help us use the right timing.
So we start off with a dotted quarter note, which gets 1 1/2 beats, so it will take up half of beat 2,
making this note land on the between beats 2 and 3. That between place we call an & in music.
So we could count this rhythm 1 2-& 3. Let's try to clap that.
It's a very important rhythm in "Silent Night", because we're going to see it again and again, so we've got to get it right.
Let's try clapping. Go: 1 2-& 3
Let's practice that again. Try to count these beats out loud with ...
Silent Night - Super Easy (Units 2-4)
What You’ll Learn
How to play a simple version of the beloved Christmas song "Silent Night"
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