O Holy Night (chords, melody with tabs and arrangement)

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O Holy Night is one of the most popular Christmas carols based on a French poem by Placide Cappeau, given music by Adolphe Adam and finally translated to English by John S. Dwight.

In this lesson, we’ll cover the guitar chords for this song, sheet music for the melody including tabs, and finally look at a finger-style guitar arrangement.

Grab your guitar and let’s started!

O Holy Night – Get the PDFs

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
X means to avoid the string

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

O Holy Night chords

The guitar chords we’re using for O Holy Night are C Major, C/E, F Major, D minor, C/G, G Major, B 7, E minor, A minor, and F Major 7. 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:

O Holy Night – 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.

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 G Major on measures 18 and 19.

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

O Holy Night – Get the PDFs

O Holy Night guitar tabs and chords page 1

O Holy Night guitar tabs and chords page 2

O Holy Night guitar tabs and chords page 3

You can learn the arrangement of this song after the lyrics below.

O Holy Night lyrics

Verse 1:
O holy night! the stars are brightly shining;
It is the night of the dear Savior’s birth.
Long lay the world in sin and error pining,
Till He appeared and the soul felt its worth.
A thrill of hope- the weary world rejoices,
For yonder breaks a new and glorious morn!
Fall on your knees! O hear the angel voices!
O night divine, O night when Christ was born!
O night, O holy night, O night divine!

Verse 2:
Led by the light of faith serenely beaming,
With glowing hearts by His cradle we stand.
So led by light of a star sweetly gleaming,
Here came the Wise Men from Orient land.
The King of kings lay thus in lowly manger,
In all our trials born to be our Friend.
He knows our need— to our weakness is no stranger.
Behold your King, before Him lowly bend!
Behold your King, before Him lowly bend!

Verse 3:
Truly He taught us to love one another;
His law is love and His gospel is peace.
Chains shall He break, for the slave is our brother,
And in His name all oppression shall cease.
Sweet hymns of joy in grateful chorus raise we;
Let all within us praise His holy name.
Christ is the Lord! O praise His name forever!
His pow’r and glory evermore proclaim!
(His pow’r and glory evermore proclaim!)

Reference: Oh, Holy Night. Hymnary.com