By Betty Wagner 

In this free beginners keyboard lesson on Silent Night, learn to play this classic Christmas carol with just three simple piano chords. This is just one of many beautiful beginner piano tunes that you can learn to play using only a few basic chords.

In this Piano Chords for Beginners article series, I will introduce the most common piano chords and show how they can be used to make simple accompaniments for some famous old Christmas carols. Look for the other articles in this series:

-- Away in a Manger -- with G Major, C Major and D Major
-- Good King Wenceslas -- with Bb Major, C Major, F Major and D Minor
-- O Christmas Tree -- with C Major, F Major, D Minor and C Seventh

Silent Night: Three Major Chords

For Silent Night we only need the following three Major chords:

-- C Major: C E G

-- F Major: F A C

-- G Major: G B D

Play the three notes together with the fifth finger, the third finger and the first finger (thumb) of your left hand. Play these chords in the two octaves below Middle C on your piano. Practice until you are familiar with these chords and can find them quickly on your keyboard.

Tune of Silent Night

Play the following melody of Silent Night with your right hand, beginning on G in the octave above Middle C. Start with the second finger of your right hand on the G. There are three quarter-note or crotchet beats in each bar in this tune. The ][ symbol represents a bar line separating the bars.

Silent ][ night, ][ holy ][ night! ][
G A G ][ E ][ G A G ][ E ][

All is ][ calm, ][ all is ][ bright, ][
D D ][ B ][ C C ][ G ][

'Round yon ][ Virgin ][ Mother and ][ Child.][
A A ][ C B A ][ G A G ][ E ][

Holy ][ Infant so ][ tender and ][ mild, ][
A A ][ C B A ][ G A G ][ E ][

Sleep in ][ heavenly ][ pea- ][ ce, ][
D D ][ F D B ][ C ][ E ][

Sleep in ][ heavenly ][ peace. ][
C G E ][ G F D ][ C ][

Practice playing this until you can remember the whole tune. Alternatively, copy the tune notes onto your printout of the Silent Night Piano Chords below: write the tune notes into the blank lines below the chord lines.

Silent Night Piano Chords

Here are the piano chords to accompany the tune of Silent Night. As you play the melody, play these chords with your left hand in a regular rhythm on the first beats of the bars.

Silent ][ night, ][ holy ][ night! ][
C-------][C-------][C-------][C-------][

All is ][ calm, ][ all is ][ bright, ][
G-------][G-------][C--------][C-------][

'Round yon ][ Virgin ][ Mother and ][ Child.][
F--------][F--------][C--------][C--------][

Holy ][ Infant so ][ tender and ][ mild, ][
F--------][F---------][C--------][C--------][

Sleep in ][ heavenly ][ pea - ][ ce, ][
G-------][G-------][C-------][C-------][

Sleep in ][ heavenly ][ peace. ][
C-------][G-------][C-------][


But wait, there's more!
This simple arrangement only uses Major chords but there are many other types of chords that can add beauty and contrast to your piano accompaniments. For example, there are Minor, Seventh, Diminished, Augmented and Suspended piano chords. Some piano chord tutors expect you to individually memorize these dozens of chords -- an overwhelming task! Other systems expect you to work out the notes of each chord by counting up oodles of half-steps or semitones. But there is a much easier way!

The simple relationships between the chord types are the key to an easy technique for working out any type of piano chord that you want. And you can also take advantage of the huge range of music in Hal Leonard's excellent Fake Book series if you learn how to read the notes on at least the treble staff. It has never been easier to learn to play beginner piano songs with your own unique style of accompaniment