Mastering Christmas Carols on the Piano and Keyboard: O Come All Ye Faithful

The second carol I’ll look at in our series on mastering Christmas Carols on Piano and Keyboard is “O Come All Ye Faithful”. It’s very famous, not least because the tune has been used for other less religious chants in schools, football fields, and queues, to name a few places!

Introduction

O Come All Ye Faithful is written and played in the key of G Major.

Main Melody

Unlike O Little Town of Bethlehem there are no repeating melody lines in the verse or chorus. Here’s the written score:

I recommend playing it through to get a feel for it. Note the occasional dotted crotchet (quarter note) and quaver (eighth note) combination.

Fingering

• I’d start on the 4th finger, and play the first three bars as the notes naturally fall under your fingers.
• On the B in the fourth bar, start on your 4th finger and run naturally, until sixth bar, where you play the E with your 2nd (index) finger stretching over the thumb that’s just played the F.
• Use the same principle in 8th bar and the 13th bar.
• Start each run of the chorus on the 4th finger.

Single Note Bass Line

Below is a simple bass line for the carol using just one note:

Adding harmony and fullness with chords

In the third version of O Come All Ye Faithful, I’ve added two- and three-note chords to the right hand, always with the melody note as the highest note. The bass line remains the same.

Octaves in the bass line, more embellishment

The final version adds an octave interval to most of the bass line notes. I’ve also filled out the chords in the right hand so all are three-note chords (there’s a four-note chord in there too). If any places sound too crowded / heavy, or a chord is hard to play, feel free to drop one or more notes from it (except the top one, if you want to keep the tune). Experiment to see what sounds best:

That’s it for now. Happy playing!

Series Index: Mastering Christmas Carols on the Piano and Keyboard