It Came Upon the Midnight Clear - guitar chords, tabs, and finger-style arrangement

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It Came Upon the Midnight Clear is song written by Edmund H. Sears to the tune Carol by Richard Willis. In this lesson, we cover the guitar chords for this song, sheet music 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.

It Came Upon the Midnight Clear guitar chords

In the key of C Major, basic chords for this song are C Major, F/C, D 7, G Major, F Major, E Major, A minor, and D 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.

It Came Upon the Midnight Clear guitar chords post

Here are some other resources on chords:

It Came Upon the Midnight Clear 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.

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.

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

It Came Upon the Midnight Clear – PDFs

It Came Upon the Midnight Clear melody and chords with guitar tabs

Also, try the guitar arrangement after the lyrics below.

It Came Upon the Midnight Clear lyrics

Verse 1:
It came upon the midnight clear,
that glorious song of old,
from angels bending near the earth
to touch their harps of gold:
“Peace on the earth, good will to men,
from heaven’s all-gracious King.”
The world in solemn stillness lay,
to hear the angels sing.

Verse 2:
Still through the cloven skies they come
with peaceful wings unfurled,
and still their heavenly music floats
o’er all the weary world;
above its sad and lowly plains,
they bend on hovering wing,
and ever o’er its Babel sounds
the blessed angels sing.

Verse 3:
But with the woes of sin and strife
The world has suffered long;
Beneath the angel-strain have rolled
Two thousand years of wrong;
And man, at war with man, hears not
The love-song which they bring; –
Oh hush the noise, ye men of strife,
And hear the angels sing!

Verse 4:
And ye, beneath life’s crushing load,
whose forms are bending low,
who toil along the climbing way
with painful steps and slow,
look now! for glad and golden hours
come swiftly on the wing.
O rest beside the weary road,
and hear the angels sing!

Verse 5:
For lo! the days are hastening on,
by prophet seen of old,
when with the ever-circling years
shall come the time foretold
when peace shall over all the earth
its ancient splendors fling,
and the whole world send back the song
which now the angels sing.

References:
It Came Upon the Midnight Clear. hymnary.org
It Came Upon the Midnight Clear. wikipedia.org

It Came Upon the Midnight Clear – 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.

It Came Upon the Midnight Clear – PDFs