Click on any of the music scores to view/print higher resolution versions
View a range of Christmas Carols Music Books at Amazon.
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!
View a range of Christmas Carols Music Books at Amazon.
O Come All Ye Faithful: Introduction
O Come All Ye Faithful is written and played in the key of G Major.
O Come All Ye Faithful: 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.
O Come All Ye Faithful: 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.
O Come All Ye Faithful: Single Note Bass Line
Below is a simple bass line for the carol using just one note:
O Come All Ye Faithful: 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.
O Come All Ye Faithful: 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:
O Come All Ye Faithful: Lyrics
O Come All Ye Faithful
Joyful and triumphant,
O come ye, O come ye to Bethlehem.
Come and behold Him,
Born the King of Angels;
O come, let us adore Him,
O come, let us adore Him,
O come, let us adore Him,
Christ the Lord.
O Sing, choirs of angels,
Sing in exultation,
Sing all that hear in heaven God’s holy word.
Give to our Father glory in the Highest;
O come, let us adore Him,
O come, let us adore Him,
O come, let us adore Him,
Christ the Lord.
All Hail! Lord, we greet Thee,
Born this happy morning,
O Jesus! for evermore be Thy name adored.
Word of the Father, now in flesh appearing;
O come, let us adore Him,
O come, let us adore Him,
O come, let us adore Him,
Christ the Lord.
That’s it for now. Happy playing!
Series Index: Mastering Christmas Carols on the Piano and Keyboard
7 thoughts on “O Come All Ye Faithful (Adeste Fidelis): Mastering Christmas Carols on the Piano and Keyboard”
Dear Mr.
I love this song very much and I want to have in our language. So, can I translate in Mizo?
yr sincerely
Sanga
I just love 2 play piano it was soooooooooooo helpful thank you
It’s not helpful when there is no letters it getts on my nerves I need to learn how to play but there is no letters I can’t read music don’t they understand I report this
It’s not helpful when people don’t write proper English. I don’t know what you are after, Agneta?
@Agneta~ Letters are what I need, too. The correct term, I believe, is ABC Notation, though.
@Agenta- Look if your gonna complain cause you didn’t take the time to learn the notes on the music staff and want it in letters then your just lazy.
Spaces= F,A,C,E up the music staff
Lines= E,G,B,D,F up the music staff
use this to remember- Every Good Boy Does Fine
Wow, someone offers FREE music, broken down to make it easier to learn and with hints and tips on how best to play it and someone’s complaining about it?
This is teaching you to play O come all ye faithful, that’s it, it’s not here to teach you to read the staff. That’s not it’s purpose, so I’m not sure why anyone would expect it to perform that function. If you need something with letters on it go elsewhere. Better still, find a resource that teaches you the notes on the staff. Or even just a diagram that shows them, print off the music you want and write the notes on. Stop bagging on people for not doing more of your learning for you. If you wanna play then you have to be willing to learn.