Away in a Manger is a Christmas carol with an anonymous author but often attributed to Martin Luther the tune Cradle Song by William Kirkpatrick. This lesson covers the guitar chords for this song, sheet music for the melody including tabs and also a finger style guitar arrangement. Grab your guitar and let’s get started!

How to read the guitar chord charts

To clarify how to read the chord charts in the next section, the top horizontal line represents the high E string and the bottom horizontal line represents the low E string. The vertical lines separate each fret. The numbers in the blue dots tell you which fingers to use on the fretting hand. 

For example, on the C Major chord, you use the:

• 1st finger on the 2nd string, 1st fret
• 2nd finger on the 4th string, 2nd fret
• 3rd finger on the 5th string, 3rd fret
• Circles represent open strings
• X means to avoid the string
  

You can check this link for more on how to read guitar notation symbols.

Away in a Manger guitar chords

The basic guitar chords for Away in a Manger are C Major, F Major, and G Major. You can click on the chords with links to learn different ways of playing that chord.

Try the following chords one at a time until you feel comfortable switching between them. These chords will be written above the melody in the next section.

Here are some other resources on chords:

• What are the first chords you should learn on guitar?
• 6 tips to get better at switching between chords on guitar
• 13 ways to play an F chord on guitar.
  

Away in a Manger guitar tabs and chords

For the sheet music below, keep in mind that the chords and melody are meant to be played as separate parts. We’ll look at how to connect these parts later in the arrangement section of this lesson.

When playing the chords part, continue playing the same chord when switching to a measure that doesn’t show one. For example, you would play C Major for the first two measures.

You can refer to this simple guide to understanding music symbols if needed.

By the way, you can get all the PDFs of this song below.

You can also learn a finger-style arrangement of this song after the lyrics below.

🎄 Master 5 Christmas Classics with the Christmas Guitar Collection

Away in a Manger lyrics

Verse 1:
Away in a manger, no crib for a bed,
the little Lord Jesus laid down his sweet head.
The stars in the bright sky looked down where he lay,
the little Lord Jesus asleep on the hay.

Verse 2:
The cattle are lowing, the baby awakes,
but little Lord Jesus no crying he makes.
I love you, Lord Jesus; look down from the sky,
and stay by my side until morning is nigh.

Verse 3:
Be near me, Lord Jesus; I ask you to stay
close by me forever and love me, I pray.
Bless all the dear children in your tender care,
and take us to heaven to live with you there.

Verse 3 attributed to John T. McFarland

Reference: Away in a Manger. hymnary.org
Reference: Away in a Manger. wikipedia.org

Away in a Manger fingerstyle guitar arrangement

In this section, we are essentially connecting the melody and chords together using a finger picking method of playing. If needed, check out this lesson to learn how to finger pick on guitar.

The numbers next to some notes on the top staff indicate which fingers to use on the fretting hand.

If you like this style of playing, you can check out this lesson to learn how to connect a melody and chords on guitar.

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Want to learn more songs? Check out the sheet music with guitar tabs resource on this site.

Explore Songs with Guitar Tabs