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All Through the Night: Mastering Songs on the Piano and Keyboard

Check out our complete series on mastering Christmas songs on Piano and Keyboard.

Click on any of the music scores to view/print higher resolution versions

Strictly speaking, as far as I can tell, “All Through the Night’ — a traditional Welsh lullaby — is not directly Christmas themed, which is why I haven’t put it in the mastering Christmas carols series. However, as Sainsbury’s in the UK is currently using the theme, sung by a male voice choir, in its Christmas adverts, I thought some people might be looking for the music.

Introduction

All Through the Night is written here in Bb major. Though it seems a little high to sing, it’s the same key as used in the advert, so I’ve stuck to it. It’s also a tiny bit more complicated to play than, say, G major. It’s in 4/4 time.

Main Melody

There’s an obvious pattern with the melody. Of sixteen bars, the first, second and fourth block of four bars feature identical melody, and nearly identical accompaniment. The third block of four bars (bars 9-12) are different, comprising the highest pitched part of the song.

Here’s the complete melody written out on the treble clef stave, as you’d play it with the right hand:

All Through the Night melody score

Download the PDF version

Listen to the melody (MIDI file, should play directly in your browser. Alternatively, iTunes or Quicktime will play it).

Those notes are:

Bb A G Bb | C Bb A F | G A A | Bb
Bb A G Bb | C Bb A F | G A A | Bb
Eb D Eb F | G F Eb F | Eb D C Bb | D C Bb A
Bb A G Bb | C Bb A F | G A A | Bb

Single Note Bass Line

Adding a single bass note to the song provides a bit of harmony, though you won’t get the full effect as you would by playing chords. However, playing a single note with each hand keeps things simple.

All Through the Night simple accompaniment score

Download the PDF.

Listen to the MIDI file

Melody and Accompaniment

This version of All Through the Night includes two or three note chords in the right hand. All the chords include the melody note at the top. The single bass note remains — you might want to play octaves for a little more fullness.

You might find the right-hand stretch in bar 10 a little difficult. If you can’t stretch the whole range from low E to high G, miss out the low E and just play the G octave.

All Through the Night chords score

Download the PDF

Listen to MIDI file

Chords Only

The final version is just the chords. This would be good to use if accompanying one or more people are singing the words.

The left hand keeps the single bass note, while the right hand plays a series of four-note chords.

Download the PDF

Listen to MIDI file

I hope you find this guide useful for helping you to play All Through the Night.

Check out our complete series on mastering Christmas songs on Piano and Keyboard.