Silent Night is one of the world’s best-known Christmas carols and easy to learn on guitar.
It has a straightforward melody and chord progression, making it accessible even to new guitarists. Since it can often be played slowly, even novice guitarists should be able to grasp this song easily.
The basic chords
Silent Night is one of the best-known Christmas carols and one of the easiest guitar arrangements for newcomers to learn.
This song’s lyrics were composed by Pastor Joseph Mohr and its music by Franz Xaver Gruber; its premiere took place on Christmas Eve 1818 in Austria’s town of Oberndorf bei Salzburg.
Mohr approached his school teacher-organist friend, Gruber, asking them to create a melody for his lyrics since their church organ was broken. Gruber completed this task quickly and made this carol an instantaneous success.
To play this song, all that’s required are three chords. Practice switching them slowly using a metronome; this will ensure smooth transitions. If any chord proves difficult for you, use Chord Finder tool to check if there’s an easier version available.
The melody
If you have ever worked up a holiday set or played for your church’s holiday service, chances are you will require some Christmas songs. One of the easiest to learn and familiar melodies would be Silent Night; its chords and melody can easily be memorized by most.
To play the chords for this song on guitar, a capo can help simplify chord progressions and speed up learning. However, it’s still possible to perform this song without one by counting back from F key until finding appropriate minor chord replacement.
In this lesson we’ll learn the guitar chords to Silent Night before looking at a finger style arrangement of the melody. This song is suitable for intermediate players but does require some finger picking and playing up and down the guitar neck.
The chord progression
Beginners may find the chords easy enough to learn, although fingerpicking may require practicing finger-and-neck movements up the guitar neck. Switching chords requires knowing how to switch quickly between different chords while strumming patterns may require blocking strings with two fingers from thumb and index finger at once – if this proves challenging try using an app which listens in real-time and provides real-time visual feedback of how your playing sounds like – an app like Guitar Jam Live may provide useful help!
Silent Night is one of the world’s best-known Christmas songs and can be heard around the globe. Written by Pastor Joseph Mohr and composed by Franz Xaver Gruber in Austria in early 19th century, Mohr needed a song for his church Christmas Eve service and asked Gruber for help; that same evening Gruber completed both lyrics and melody within hours, creating this magnificent piece of music together – truly an example of friendship and collaboration! Whether singing it yourself or playing guitar it becomes part of your own musical repertoire!
Variations
Silent Night is one of the world’s best-known Christmas carols. Written by Joseph Mohr and composed by Franz Xaver Gruber, its lyrics became part of international culture after its first performance on Christmas Eve 1818.
This version of the song uses G, C and D chords – all common chords and familiar to most beginner guitarists – however there are a few variations which may make the song even more appealing.
One popular technique is using sus2 chords, which adds tension to a melody. Comprised of the 1st and 4th notes from any scale, they work best when played before or after any parallel major or minor chord. Another variation involves using a capo for swift key changes.