Left hand fingering for Silent Night

Sergio, the fingering for left handed is the same as right handed just facing the opposite direction. For easy reference your fingers are numbered. The index is # 1, the middle is #2, the ring is #3 and the pinky is #4. The strings are numbered 1 to 6 with the high e (at the bottom) being # 1 and the low E (at the top) being # 6.

If it helps you go to my site I have both left and right handed chord and scale charts.

And welcome to GN..

You mean just the left hand, not left handed right?

I could probably work up a quick video.

You mean just the left hand, not left handed right?

I could probably work up a quick video.
Good catch Nick. What was I thinking :oops:

Thanks guys. Yes, I meant left hand (the fret hand). Video would be helpfull or just finger assignments on the notes i.e. 1 - 4.

Thanks!!

Good to hear somebody else that's working on Christmas music! (It 's less than two months away!) Actually, I occasionally play Christmas stuff all year around, and Silent Night's my favorite. I've got a slide version that my guitar teacher wrote for me nearly 4 years ago in Open G. I mix it up with some rhythmic variations and such. Sometimes I also do it in Open D or E (you just move the whole thing over one string toward the bass side, and that opens up some different things you can do on the 1st and 6th strings, depending on which way you go.)

Lots of cool stuff you can do with familiar old Christmas songs!

I've been working on this song for a couple weeks now and I think I just about have it down. I am not sure I play it EXACTLY like Hodge says to but its sounds pretty good and was really fun to learn.

Most the song is just a C chord and G chord. Best advice I can offer is to just take it one or two measures at a time and work them out.. then when you put it together it will slowly come together.

Which measures are you having trouble with specifically?

Geoo

Hi Geoo:
I am having trouble with measure 5 "All is calm".
I am using finger (1) on E5, (4) on B7 and (3) on G7. This seems most logical to me, yet clasping my ring finger and pinky together needs some practice.

Also on the first measure I use (and I am questioning my choice) fingers (2) on E3 and (3) on B3.
Although this is seems natural in this measure, I see that in similar situation in measure 8, I can run into trouble, but I haven't gotten that far yet.

Sorry for this short-hand notation, I am using open string note names with position in TAB.

A little off topic but there's an interesting story behind Silent Night. It's one of the few if not the only Christmas song written for guitar. It seems the organ at the writers church was broken and a song was need for Christmas. So the writers (Words by Joseph Mohr and the melody was composed by Franz X. Gruber)wrote and performed the song with guitar.

Hi Geoo:
I am having trouble with measure 5 "All is calm".
I am using finger (1) on E5, (4) on B7 and (3) on G7. This seems most logical to me, yet clasping my ring finger and pinky together needs some practice.

That's how I'd play it too. You could use fingers 2 & 3, but I wouldn't do that unless finger 4 had another note to play. Once you get used to the two fingers working together, you won't have a problem with it.

Also on the first measure I use (and I am questioning my choice) fingers (2) on E3 and (3) on B3.
Although this is seems natural in this measure, I see that in similar situation in measure 8, I can run into trouble, but I haven't gotten that far yet.

In bar 8 you'll probably want to use the 3rd finger for E3 (G) and 4th finger on B3 (D) as you'll need your 1st finger on the B string. When you make the walk up in bar 8, you can use finger 2 on A2 (B on the 5th string) and finger 4 on B3 again on beat 3. So you might want to use the same fingering throughout...

Hi Geoo:
I am having trouble with measure 5 "All is calm".
I am using finger (1) on E5, (4) on B7 and (3) on G7. This seems most logical to me, yet clasping my ring finger and pinky together needs some practice.

Also on the first measure I use (and I am questioning my choice) fingers (2) on E3 and (3) on B3.
Although this is seems natural in this measure, I see that in similar situation in measure 8, I can run into trouble, but I haven't gotten that far yet.

Sorry for this short-hand notation, I am using open string note names with position in TAB.

I think I play it a bit different. On the ALL IS part I have my first finger on the 5 fret of the 1st string, my second finger on the 7th fret of the 3rd string, my ring finger on the 7th fret of the 2nd string.

That is where my fingers are positioned and I start out "ALL IS" by playing the open A, and the 1st string at the same time, then the 4th string with my thumb, third sting with my thumb, 1st string with my index finger, 2nd string with my index finger, and finally the 3rd string again with my index finger.

Then comes "CALM" and I simply change back to a standard D chord XX0232, and play strings 4 and 1 at the same time, then strings 3, 2, 1, 2, 3.

Almost has a little harp sound to it. I too much of a beginner to try to explain it better and I REALLY hope I didnt confuse you more. When I get back from church I will record what I just stated here SLOWLY and maybe that will make more sense.

This song is WELL worth it once you get it down. It taught me so much about playing fingerstyle and gave me confidense to try other things.

Geoo

Here is the link to my recording. I hope it helps. I am playing it in segments and then at the end I play the whole song but I really did a poor job. I suddenly got really nervous playing it and made alot of mistake. I hope it helps you.

Geoo

Guys, thanks for the input.
I will try these finger combinations and see what works best for me.
There is at least one thing that I am learning from this execise - PLANNING. I need to go through all the notes first and plan fingerings before actually starting to practice each measure.