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Piano sheet music for kids · Carol · Level 3: Notes below middle C
O Come, All Ye Faithful
Free beginner piano sheet music: C major, 4/4, 20 bars and a pickup. Press Play to hear it on a real piano, slow it down, or hear one hand at a time; click any note to start from there; print it for the music stand.
About this arrangement
The 18th-century Latin hymn Adeste Fideles, arranged here in C major, so there are no black keys. It starts on a pickup, the “O” before the first bar line. The verse moves between two hand places: the thumb on the G below middle C (bars 1 to 2 and 5 to 8, with a stretch to E in bar 6) and C position for “joy-ful and tri-um-phant” (bars 3 to 4). For “Come and be-hold Him” in bar 9 finger 5 lands on the G above middle C. The left hand plays block chords in C, F, G, G7 and A minor, mostly two to a bar.
Practice tip: Start the pickup on middle C with finger 4, so the thumb is ready on the G below. Practise the move up to G in bar 9 on its own, then the long refrain, “O come, let us a-dore Him”, which is sung three times with the same words and a tune that climbs each time.
The words
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.
A short history
The Latin hymn Adeste Fideles first appears in manuscripts copied out between about 1743 and 1751 by John Francis Wade, an English Catholic living in exile in Douai in France, who earned his living copying and teaching plainchant. Both the words and the tune are usually credited to him, though neither is certain.
In England it was long known as the Portuguese Hymn, because London society first heard it sung in the chapel of the Portuguese embassy in the 1790s. The English words sung here are by Frederick Oakeley, who translated the hymn in 1841 for his congregation at Margaret Chapel in London; his opening line “Ye faithful, approach ye” was later changed to “O come, all ye faithful”.
The refrain, “Venite adoremus” in the Latin, is sung three times, and in many churches the carol is kept for Christmas Day itself.
Quick facts
- Tune
- John Francis Wade, c. 1743
- Words
- Latin, 18th century; English by Frederick Oakeley, 1841
- Key
- C major
- Time signature
- 4/4
- Length
- 20 bars and a pickup
- Tempo
- Majestically, crotchet = 104
- Difficulty
- Level 3: Notes below middle C (piece 62 of 201)
- Type
- Carol
- Hands
- Both: melody in the right hand, chords in the left
- Copyright
- Public domain tune; arrangement by Digital Greenhouse, free for personal and classroom use
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