Right hand
The melody sits between middle C and the F above the treble staff's top line. Start with the thumb on E so G A G E falls under 3-4-3-1, and move the hand up for 'All is calm, all is bright', where the tune jumps to the high D and C.
Silent Night - Piano Sheet Music (Easy Version)
Franz Xaver Gruber (1787-1863) 1818 C major 6/8 Easy 0:29 Both hands
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Silent Night is slow, quiet and almost entirely stepwise, which makes it one of the most rewarding carols to learn on the piano. The melody rocks gently in 6/8 - count two beats per bar, each divided in three - and its opening, G A G E, comes back four times. This easy version is in C major (Gruber wrote it in D) with a left hand that holds one note per bar, mostly C, F and G. Play it softly and evenly, let each long note sound for its full length, and learn the right hand in Practice mode before adding the bass.
How to play it
How to play Silent Night on the piano
Left hand
One note per bar, held for the whole bar: C, F or G below middle C. Use finger 5 on C, 2 on F and 1 on G, and let the notes ring.
Tricky passages
The dotted rhythm of the opening: in G. A G, the first G lasts three times as long as the A. Count 'one-and-a, two-and-a' and play the A on the last 'a'. The final line, C G E G F D C, steps down quickly to the last note.
Fingering
Right hand: G A G E is 3-4-3-1. For D D B, C C G, move the thumb to G: 5-5-3, 4-4-1.
Notes
Silent Night piano notes
The right-hand melody of this version, bar by bar, in letter names and in Do Ré Mi. Sharps are written #, flats b; a note held across a bar line is written once.
Melody: G A G E G A G E D D B C C G A A C B A G A G E A …
| Bar | Notes | Do Ré Mi |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | G A G E | Sol La Sol Mi |
| 2 | G A G E | Sol La Sol Mi |
| 3 | D D B | Ré Ré Si |
| 4 | C C G | Do Do Sol |
| 5 | A A C B A | La La Do Si La |
| 6 | G A G E | Sol La Sol Mi |
| 7 | A A C B A | La La Do Si La |
| 8 | G A G E | Sol La Sol Mi |
| 9 | D D F D B | Ré Ré Fa Ré Si |
| 10 | C E | Do Mi |
| 11 | C G E G F D | Do Sol Mi Sol Fa Ré |
| 12 | C | Do |
Chords
Chords in Silent Night
The chords this arrangement holds for at least two bars, read from the score with the root in the bass. Each one opens its page: the notes, every inversion and the fingering, playable on a piano.
The piece is in C major: all the chords of the key
About the piece
About Silent Night
The carol was first sung on Christmas Eve 1818 in the church of St Nicholas at Oberndorf, near Salzburg in Austria. The young priest Joseph Mohr had written the words, Stille Nacht, heilige Nacht, two years earlier; he asked the schoolteacher and organist Franz Xaver Gruber to set them to music, and the two men sang it together with a guitar.
Travelling singers from the Tyrol carried it across Europe and to America, and it is now sung in hundreds of languages. During the Christmas truce of 1914, soldiers on both sides of the Western Front sang it in German and in English, and in 2011 it was added to Austria's national list of intangible cultural heritage.
This transcription: Franz Xaver Gruber, "Stille Nacht, heilige Nacht" (1818): the melody as it is sung today, transposed from D to C major; left hand by GOONS Studio. Transcribed by GOONS Studio from the original work, which is in the public domain.
On guitar: Silent Night guitar chords and lyrics, with a guitar that strums along.
For kids: Silent Night by colors, on a rainbow piano that lights the next key and waits.
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In the studio
Practise with your MIDI keyboard, record your take, export MIDI
The full piano studio opens this score with your MIDI keyboard and sustain pedal, records what you play and exports it as a MIDI file. It comes with the GOONS Studio subscription - start with the 7-day free trial, no card required.
Questions
Silent Night on piano: frequently asked
What are the notes of Silent Night on piano?
In C major: G A G E, G A G E, D D B, C C G, A A C B A, G A G E (Sol La Sol Mi, Sol La Sol Mi, Ré Ré Si, Do Do Sol...). The whole carol is listed bar by bar in the Notes section.
Is Silent Night easy to play on piano?
Yes, it is a good second or third piece: slow, mostly stepwise, with one real hand shift. The 6/8 rhythm is the only new idea - count two big beats per bar, each split in three.
Who wrote Silent Night?
Franz Xaver Gruber wrote the music in 1818 for words that Joseph Mohr had written in 1816. It was first sung at Oberndorf, near Salzburg, on Christmas Eve 1818.