Silent Night

Sixty beats per minute, and that is fast

The tune was written for a guitar and a choir in a village church in Austria, and it is meant to be sung slowly enough that the chords have time to change colour. At 60 bpm each bar takes three seconds. Most performances you hear run at 75 or 80 and sound rushed.

• One downstroke on beat 1, down-up on beats 2 and 3.
• Let every chord ring into the next. Do not stop the strings.
• The last line slows down: "sleep in heavenly peace" is the only place where a ritardando is expected.

Three chords, no barres

C, F and G7 cover the whole song. C7 appears in some printed versions before the F in line four; it is optional. Nothing here requires a stretch larger than two frets.

The 1818 origin

Joseph Mohr wrote the words in 1816 and asked Franz Xaver Gruber for a tune in 1818 because the church organ in Oberndorf had broken — probably because of flood damage to the pipework. The first performance was accompanied by guitar, which is exactly what you are doing. That is also why the melody is so singable: it was written for a congregation, not for trained singers.