Hark the Herald Angels Sing is a popular Christmas carol written by Charles Wesley. In this lesson, we cover the chords for this song, sheet music for the melody including tabs, and a fingerstyle 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, 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
You can check this link for more on how to read guitar notation symbols.
Hark the Herald Angels Sing chords
The guitar chords for the sheet music in the next section are C Major, C/E, F Major, G Major, A minor, D Major, D/F#, F/G, A 7, D minor, and C# diminished. 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:
- 6 tips to get better at switching between chords on guitar
- 13 ways to play an F chord on guitar.
- Learning the 4 essential 7th chords on guitar
- How to play diminished chords on guitar
- How to play chord inversions on the guitar
Hark the Herald Angels Sing – Melody with 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.
The numbers next to some notes on the top staff indicate which fingers to use on the fretting hand.
You can refer to this simple guide to understanding music symbols if needed.
Hark the Herald Angels Sing lyrics
Verse 1:
Hark! the herald angels sing,
“Glory to the new born King,
peace on earth, and mercy mild,
God and sinners reconciled!”
Joyful, all ye nations rise,
join the triumph of the skies;
with th’ angelic host proclaim,
“Christ is born in Bethlehem!”
Hark! the herald angels sing,
“Glory to the new born King!”
Verse 2:
Christ, by highest heaven adored;
Christ, the everlasting Lord;
late in time behold him come,
offspring of a virgin’s womb.
Veiled in flesh the Godhead see;
hail th’ incarnate Deity,
pleased with us in flesh to dwell,
Jesus, our Emmanuel.
Hark! the herald angels sing,
“Glory to the new born King!”
Verse 3:
Hail the heaven-born Prince of Peace!
Hail the Sun of Righteousness!
Light and life to all he brings,
risen with healing in his wings.
Mild he lays his glory by,
born that we no more may die,
born to raise us from the earth,
born to give us second birth.
Hark! the herald angels sing,
“Glory to the new born King!”
Reference: Hark! the Herald Angels Sing. HymnSite.com
Hark the Herald Angels Sing – guitar arrangement
In this section, we essentially put different parts together using a finger picking style method of playing.
You can check out this lesson to learn how to finger pick on guitar.
If you like this style of playing, you can check out this lesson to learn how to connect a melody and chords on guitar.
Get the free guitar practice guide here!
Want to learn more songs? Check out the sheet music with guitar tabs resource on this site.
All the best,
JG Music Lessons
