Do you want to get into the holiday spirit on the recorder?
Are you looking for more recorder tunes to play?
If you’re a nerd like me, you always want to learn new recorder songs.
Sometimes it’s a struggle to find the sheet music for some songs, and then it’s a struggle to learn it.
As a music teacher for over a decade, I completely understand.
This is exactly why I decided to write this article for Silent Night recorder sheet music and how to play it.
Learning how to play Silent Night on the recorder with sheet music isn’t hard if you note what to look for. It has a large range, using all natural notes from Low C to high F.
Let’s hop into this lovely holiday song and master it on the soprano recorder.
Table of Contents
Silent Night Recorder Notes
This song is an excellent review of all the natural notes on the recorder.
Or, at least, the main ones you’ll run into.
Here are the notes used in this song.
Make sure to click the link on the notes above for more details on how to play the specific note if you’re struggling.
If you don’t know all these notes yet, this song may take a little longer to learn, but it’s still doable.
Just make sure you follow the practice tips and steps below.
I suggest you practice playing these notes in order up and down (like a scale) before putting them together as a whole song.
Silent Night Recorder Sheet Music
Here is the Silent Night sheet music for the recorder. By the way, you may also want to check out Baby Shark for recorder.
You’ll notice a couple of parts to watch for when learning to play this song.
First, the notes need to be mastered. But if you followed my advice in the previous section, you should be good there.
Next, the time signature is 3/4. This isn’t hard, but it may feel weird to those who haven’t done a lot of singing or playing in this time signature.
For reference, just think of the songs Take Me Out To The Ballgame and The Star-Spangled Banner.
These are both in 3/4.
Rhythmically, this is a perfect song for reinforcing dotted quarter-eighth notes as the rhythm shows up over and over again.
How To Play Silent Night On The Recorder
In this section, I’ll offer my Silent Night recorder tutorial.
As with learning any song on any instrument, you’ll want to follow these tips:
- Break it into chunks
- Practice one chunk at a time
- Start slow until you’ve mastered it; then speed up
- Isolate the tricky parts
- Don’t practice until you get it right; practice until you can’t get it wrong
Let’s get into the details (don’t forget to reference the recorder notation above as needed).
#1 Master The Opening Phrase
Look at the opening 4 measures.
You’ll notice they use the notes, G, A, and E.
Clap the rhythms, finger the notes, and then play it.
This part won’t cause you much trouble, but it’s still good to focus on mastering it before putting it together with the rest.
#2 Add In The High D Skips
The next section gets a little trickier.
You’re looking at measures 5-8.
It starts on high D and slowly skips down.
Take your time to get this right as well.
#3 Put Together The Opening Phrase
With measures 1-8 practiced, it’s time to put them together.
If you spent time mastering #1 and #2, then the only tricky part here is the low E to high D jump.
If this is messing you up, spend time just playing those two notes back and forth.
#4 Learn The A Phrase (Twice)
Next is measures 9-12.
The notes here are much easier than in the previous section.
The only part you may get tripped up on is the A-high C skip.
Other than this, it’s easy!
Plus, it repeats, so you’ve learned more even faster.
#5 High F Line
Now, we’re looking at the hardest part of the song, measures 13-20.
It’s here we use our highest notes.
Don’t forget to half cover the thumbhole for high E and high F.
You may also want to intensify the air to help you jump up the octave, but don’t overblow.
The second half of this section is similar to the ending of the first, so it’s really the opening 4 measures of this section you may struggle with.
Just take your time and be patient. You can do it!
#6 Put Second Phrase Together
It’s time to put #4 and 5 together in one go.
Set a metronome at a slow speed to help you learn it without pausing.
#7 Play The Whole Song
Finally, it’s time to play the whole song.
I recommend you start doing the whole song with fingers and saying the letter note names only.
This will give you practice on getting those fingers down.
Then, do the whole song while actually playing.
Congrats! You did it!
Other Holiday Recorder Resources
Here are a few of my favorite holiday recorder books on Amazon.
I love these ones and enjoy playing through them during the Holidays.
Disclaimer: Links may be affiliate in nature, which means we may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you if you click and buy from the link. Thanks for supporting our small business and connecting you with music education and recorder resources.
Christmas Favorites for Recorder – This book is nice because it’s simple.
It’s one a lot of newer players will find doable for the soprano recorder.
Recorder Christmas Tunes With Note Names – A lot of folks struggle with memorizing note names on the staff; I get it.
I know it just takes practice, but in the meantime, you want to learn some music.
This book is for you. It has holiday tunes, all with the note names printed by the notes.
Christmas Carols For Alto Recorder – If you’ve met me or talked to me about the recorder, you’ll know I love the alto recorder.
For anyone serious about the recorder, I encourage you to get an alto. You’ll love the mellow and slightly lower-pitched sound.
This book is all arrangements for the alto. Check it out at the link.
Final Thoughts
I hope this Silent Night recorder sheet music and how to helps you learn this beautiful and challenging holiday song (Also, check out Jingle Bells on the recorder here).
The isolated high F and repetitive dotted quarter-eighth make this an excellent teaching song.
Regardless, don’t give and keep on practicing.
