Mastering Christmas Carols on the Piano and Keyboard: Away in a Manger (alternative tune)
August 16, 2010
How to play Away in a Manger on the piano or keyboard. Note that this is an alternative (some might say the original) version of the melody. The British version of Away in a Manger is also available.
View a range of Christmas Carols Music Books at Amazon.
Introduction
Like Silent Night and We Wish You a Merry Christmas, Away in a Manger is in 3/4 (Waltz) time.
It’s written here in F major, which is a comfortable key for most people to sing it in.
Main Melody
The melody is quite different to the alternative version. There’s more variation here, though there is a hint of repetition between the two halves.
Here’s the complete melody written out on the treble clef stave, as you’d play it with the right hand:
Listen to the melody (MIDI file, should play directly in your browser. Alternatively, iTunes or Quicktime will play it).
Those notes are:
- – C | C Bb A | A G F | F E D | C C | C D C | C G E | D C F | A C | C Bb A |
A G F | F E D | C C | Bb A G | A G F | G D E | F
Single Note Bass Line
Here’s how to add a single bass note to each bar to add a little harmony. In fact, it only uses three different notes — C, F and Bb.
Melody and Accompaniment
The final version features the playing of chords in the right hand, with the melody note as the highest, plus two bass notes an octave apart in the left hand.
Note that the lowest one or two notes in each right hand bar are held for the duration (three beats) while the melody notes are played. This can either be done by physically holding the notes down (if comfortable), using the sustain pedal, or a combination. See what sounds the best — generally sustaining a whole bar when there are only a few melody notes in each will still give a pleasing sound without fear of notes running too much into one another.
I hope you find this guide useful for helping you to play Away in a Manger.
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Series Index: Mastering Christmas Carols on the Piano and Keyboard
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Mastering Christmas Carols on the Piano and Keyboard: Away in a Manger
August 13, 2010
How to play Away in a Manger on the piano or keyboard. Note that this is the English version of the melody. Here is a well-known alternative tune for Away in a Manger.
View a range of Christmas Carols Music Books at Amazon.
Introduction
Like Silent Night and We Wish You a Merry Christmas, Away in a Manger is in 3/4 (Waltz) time.
It’s written here in F major, which is a comfortable key for most people to sing it in.
Main Melody
With the exception of the last couple of notes, which are swapped, almost exactly the same melody is repeated twice in each verse. However, the accompaniment chords do vary very slightly.
Here’s the complete melody written out on the treble clef stave, as you’d play it with the right hand:
Listen to the melody (MIDI file, should play directly in your browser. Alternatively, iTunes or Quicktime will play it).
Those notes are:
- – C | F F G A | F F A Bb | C C D | Bb G A | Bb Bb C |
A A F A | G D F | E C | F F G A | F F A Bb | C C D |
Bb G A | B B C | A A F A | G D E | F -
Single Note Bass Line
Here’s how to add a single bass note to each bar to add a little harmony. In fact, it only uses three different notes — C, F and G.
Chords Only
If you simply want to play appropriate chords so you can sing or have another instrument playing the melody, here are very simple ones. Note that in bar 8 the chord is a G major in first inversion (this is significant because it requires you to play a B natural not a B flat). It doesn’t sound bad if you play a G minor chord here, but I prefer this version. [Find out more about major and minor chords here]
Melody and Accompaniment
The final version features the playing of chords in the right hand, with the melody note as the highest, plus two bass notes an octave apart in the left hand.
Note that the lowest one or two notes in each right hand bar are held for the duration (three beats) while the melody notes are played. This can either be done by physically holding the notes down (if comfortable), using the sustain pedal, or a combination. See what sounds the best — generally sustaining a whole bar when there are only a few melody notes in each will still give a pleasing sound without fear of notes running too much into one another.
I hope you find this guide useful for helping you to play Away in a Manger.
View a range of Christmas Carols Music Books
Series Index: Mastering Christmas Carols on the Piano and Keyboard
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Mastering Christmas Carols on the Piano and Keyboard: We Wish You A Merry Christmas
November 11, 2009
Click on any of the music scores to view/print higher resolution versions
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Moving along on our series on mastering Christmas Carols on Piano and Keyboard, we come to “We Wish You a Merry Christmas”. Purists might say this isn’t a carol, but we won’t worry too much about that at the moment.
Introduction
Like Silent Night and Away in a Manger, We Wish You A Merry Christmas is in 3/4 (waltz time).
The version presented here is played in G Major. This is a fairly easy key to play in (one sharp – F# – though there are some occasional accidentals along the way) and, importantly, to sing in.
Main Melody
You’ll notice that the main “We Wish You a Merry Christmas” line is repeated three times, rising in pitch but with the same basic melodic shape.
For each phrase, the first and second notes are a perfect fourth apart (find out more about songs to help you learn note intervals).
The run of notes are fairly easy to play, but it’s worth noting that, in this key, the third phrase begins on the black note of F#.
Here’s the complete melody written out:
Those notes are:
D : G G A G F# : E C E : A A B A G :
F# D F# : B B C B A : G E D D : E A F# :
G D : G G G : F# F# : G F# E : D A :
B A A G G : D(high) D D D : E A F# : G
And here’s what it sounds like:
Single Note Bass Line
Below is a simple bass line for the carol using just one note. Most of the time, you only need to play one note (a dotted minim (half note)) per bar, except in four bars that have a minim (half note) followed by a crotchet (quarter note).
And here’s what it sounds like:
Adding harmony and fullness with additional notes
In the third version of We Wish You a Merry Christmas,, I’ve created some depth by adding some extra notes for the right hand to play, always with the melody note as the highest note. The bass line remains the same, and you never have to play more than three notes in total — one or two with the right hand and one with the bass — at any one time.
And here’s what is sounds like:
Alternative version: walking bass
This final version of We Wish You A Merry Christmas uses a walking bass style for the left hand, adding a little more movement.
Here’s how it sounds:
Chord Sheet
Finally, here’s a chord sheet and lyrics for those who prefer it.
That’s it for now. Happy playing!
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Series Index: Mastering Christmas Carols on the Piano and Keyboard
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Mastering Christmas Carols on the Piano and Keyboard: Silent Night
November 27, 2006
Update: This page has finally been updated with higher quality images (click on any piece of music to get the full size, print quality version in A4 size) as well as audio files so you can hear how the music should sound.
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The third carol I’ll look at in our series on mastering Christmas Carols on Piano and Keyboard is “Silent Night”:
Introduction
Silent Night is written and played in the key of C Major, and has a 3/4 (waltz time) time signature (as does Away in a Manger).
Main Melody
Several short phrases in each verse are repeated.
The first phrase, to which the words “Silent Night” are sung, is repeated twice. The third and fourth lines have the same 4-bar melody.
Here’s the complete melody written out:
Those notes are: G A G : E : G A G : E : D D : B : C C : G : A A : C B A : G A G : E : A A : C B A : G A G : E : D D : F D B : C : E : C G E : G F D : C
And here’s what it sounds like:
Note that there are a number of places with a similar rhythm, formed by a dotted crotchet (quarter note) followed by a quaver (eighth note) and a crochet (quarter note). These take up one bar’s worth of time. Imagine that the bar is split into 6 half-beats. The first note (dotted crochet/quarter-note) takes 3 of these; the second note (quaver/eighth note) takes just 1 of these; the final crochet (quarter note) takes the remaining 2 half-beats.
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