Silent Night is one of the best-loved Christmas carols, making an easy introduction to learning how to change chords on guitar.
It uses a chord melody technique that blends chords with melody for a cohesive and harmonically rich soundscape. The introductory part utilizes only two chords while in the middle section only three chords are employed.
G
Silent Night is one of the world’s best-known Christmas carols, famously performed on guitar by almost everyone from absolute beginners to advanced guitarists alike. Easily learned with only three chords, any beginner can pick it up quickly; its melodic structure also provides great practice for advanced learners requiring fingerpicking techniques or playing up and down the neck of the instrument.
Bing Crosby, Elvis Presley and Simon and Garfunkel all made famous their rendition of this iconic Christmas carol from WWI when English, French and German troops united to play football together in ‘no man’s land’ – now designated an intangible cultural heritage by UNESCO! Written in 1818 by Catholic priest Joseph Mohr and composer Franz Xaver Gruber for first performance on Christmas Eve in Oberndorf bei Salzburg Austria.
D
Silent Night is an excellent chord melody arrangement to learn on guitar, particularly for beginners. This song also helps develop fingerpicking techniques.
Learn the moveable major shape which allows you to make any chord you desire using only three fingers, while offering more freedom in rhythm playing.
As well, using your third finger to barre the string will produce a different sound known as Dsus2. You’ll often hear this chord in singer-songwriter contexts as well as in distorted riffs by emo/djent bands; fretting thinnest strings requires additional strength and flexibility but will help develop your fingerpicking techniques.
E
Silent Night is one of the world’s best-known Christmas carols, first performed on Christmas Eve 1818 in Oberndorf bei Salzburg, Austria and recognized by UNESCO as an intangible cultural heritage item. Written by priest Josef Mohr and composed by Franz Xaver Gruber.
This arrangement features a fingerstyle pattern and utilizes chord melody techniques. It begins with a G chord (strum all six strings but leave open high E string), followed by a C chord formed by adding your pinky to the third frets of A and B strings to form C chord.
The next two chords in this section are B7(#9#5) and Em9. Both use altered dominant 7 chords – a popular technique in jazz music.
A
Silent Night is one of the world’s best-known Christmas carols and it is straightforward to play on guitar. Requiring only four basic chords (G, C, D and Em), making this carol perfect for beginners.
Strumming patterns vary depending on your style and mood you wish to convey. Beginners might try simple down-strumming at first, while as your playing improves you may wish to experiment with more intricate arrangements.
Make sure that you practice the chord changes slowly at first and gradually increase your tempo – smooth transitions between chords are essential for an outstanding performance of this song!
C
C is often one of the first chords most guitarists learn. This simple shape can be found anywhere on the fretboard and provides a base from which other shapes can be learned.
Beginners often experience difficulties playing this chord because their fingers do not press down hard enough, touching other strings and muted them. To overcome these issues, practice regularly and make sure your fingertips meet the fretboard at an acute angle instead of shallow one.
If you’re having difficulty transitioning between chords, practice slowly and steadily to a metronome until you can play Silent Night at performance speed; gradually increase the tempo until you can transition seamlessly from chord to chord without difficulty. A strumming trainer may also help perfect your technique.