Introduction
The national anthem of the United Kingdom — currently God Save the King (changed to God Save the Queen with a female monarch) — is an instantly recognisable piece of music. Heard by Britons on a regular basis, even if their sporting teams don’t win as much as they should, and once upon a time used every night on the BBC and some commercial TV channels at closedown.
The music dates back centuries and the exact author is unknown, though it is commonly attributed to the composer John Bull.
Here we show you how to play God Save the King, building up from the single note melody to full chords in either the left or right hand.
God Save the King: Melody
Generally the anthem is played in the key of B flat major, which makes it a little trickier to play, especially with the number of chord changes required.
B flat major has two flats in its key signature: B flat and E flat.
It’s written in 3/4 (waltz) time and we’ve given it an 80bpm tempo, but you can change this to suit your style. That said, it deserves not to be played too fast.
There are no accidentals in the melody. In other words, only notes from the B flat major scale are used. Don’t forget to always play a B flat or an E flat when you see the B and E written on the stave.
Note that in bar 13 there is no intermediate note between the G and the E flat, despite some versions of the anthem including an F.
Here’s the piece written out:
Here are the downloads:
God Save the King: Melody and Bassline
A simple bass line adds some depth to the melody without being overly complicated to play.
Note that there is one accidental in the left hand part, namely in bar four which includes a G flat before the G natural. It could be considered optional (simply hold the F) but adds a small harmonic flourish.
Here are the downloads:
God Save the King: Left Hand Chords
Adding chords to the left hand provide greater fullness. These are all three note chords – where the original music called for a seventh chord (which would contain four notes in full) we’ve generally removed a note so it doesn’t sound as ‘muddy’.
As you can see there are quite a few chords, and the key signature makes some of them a little more tricky to play than if the piece had been in, say, C major. However, the slower speed of the piece means you do have time to find the next chord. Using the sustain pedal helps to hold the previous chord — release and then depress the pedal just before each chord change to avoid muddiness and blending of two different chords and melody notes.
The arrangement doesn’t stick faithfully to the bass notes seen above, because we’ve tried to make it easier to move between chords using inversions, whereas otherwise there would be a lot of extra hand movement up and down the keyboard.
Pay attention to the chords in bar four, which look tricky because of how they’re written, but in reality are just a Bb major in second inversion followed by a diminished F# major chord (play F#, A and C) and a G minor chord.
Note also in bar 12 is a jump at the end from the F major to a Bb major 7th without the fifth note.
Here are the downloads:
God Save the King: Right Hand Chords
Finally we have chords in the right hand which always include the melody as the top note of each chord.
Here are the downloads:
