Away in a Manger Chords for Guitar, Piano and Ukulele

The Away in a Manger chords are the three main chords of the key: G, C and D7 on guitar, or C, F and G7 on piano and ukulele. Below are the chords with the words for all three verses, the piano notes for the tune, the song in every common key, and a note on the carol's other tune, because "Away in a Manger" is sung to two main tunes.

The chart is for James Ramsey Murray's 1887 tune, the one hymnals name "Mueller." It's in 3/4, it spans exactly one octave, and the first three lines change chord only twice each.

What chords are in Away in a Manger?

Away in a Manger uses three chords: the 1, 4 and 5 chords of its key. In G that's G, C and D7; in C it's C, F and G7. The 4 chord comes under "crib for a" and "down where He," and D7 comes in on "little" in the second and fourth lines, "The little Lord Jesus."

The home chord carries the first and third lines, with the 4 chord in the third bar of each ("crib for a," "down where He"). The second and fourth lines both bring in D7 on "little," then come home. The last line packs all three into its final bars: home on "Jesus a-," the 4 chord on "sleep on," D7 on "the" and home on "hay."

Find the chord in the guitar column and play the one beside it on piano or ukulele. Every chart on this page works this way.

Away in a Manger lyrics and chords

These are the words as printed with Murray's tune in hymnals such as the 1919 Hymnal for American Youth, with the Away in a Manger chords in G. Each chord sits on the syllable where it changes and rings until the next one. All three verses use the same chords.

A few words vary between printings: "no crib for His bed," "the stars in the bright sky," "asleep in the hay," and "take us to heaven" in verse 3 all turn up. They fit the same chords.

How do you play Away in a Manger on guitar?

The Away in a Manger guitar chords are G (320003), C (x32010) and D7 (xx0212), counting strings from the low E. It's a slow waltz in 3/4: pick the bass note on beat 1 and strum or pick the chord on beats 2 and 3, and start on the word "A," which comes before the first beat.

The "A" of "Away" is a pickup, a single note before the first full bar, so count "three" for it and land the G chord on "way." The same thing happens before each "The" that starts a line. A simple 3/4 pattern is the bass note with your thumb on beat 1, then the G and B strings together on beats 2 and 3.

D7 is the one shape a beginner may need to learn, and it's worth it here instead of plain D. Its C note (first fret, B string) steps down to the open B in the G chord, which is the sound of "Jesus" landing home in the last line. To play higher with the same shapes, capo 2 gives A and capo 3 gives B flat; the guitar capo chart has every fret.

What are the piano notes for Away in a Manger?

The Away in a Manger piano notes in C are all white keys. The tune starts on the G above middle C, drops to the G below middle C by the end of the first line, and ends on middle C. Play C, F and G7 in the left hand, one chord per bar, except the second-to-last bar, which splits F (two beats) and G7 (one).

The first and third lines start high and walk down an octave. The second line starts low, on the G below middle C, and climbs. The fourth line starts with the low G on "The" and jumps up to the F above middle C on "little," the biggest leap in the tune. "Sky" carries two notes, E then D, which is why that line has one more note than syllables.

For the left hand, play the chord's root on beat 1 of each bar and the other two notes together on beats 2 and 3, the same waltz pattern as the guitar. G7 on piano is G, B, D and F; to keep your hand close to the C chord, play it as B, F and G.

What are the ukulele chords for Away in a Manger?

The Away in a Manger ukulele chords in C are C (0003), F (2010) and G7 (0212), where the numbers are frets on the G, C, E and A strings in that order. C takes one finger, F two and G7 three.

The ukulele sits in the same key as the piano chart, so the two can share it. Strum down on beat 1 and lightly down-up on beats 2 and 3 for a waltz feel. To match a guitar playing in G, use G (0232), C (0003) and D7 (2223). The lullabies on guitar and piano post has more songs on the same three chords.

Away in a Manger chords in every key

Away in a Manger works in any major key with the same three chords. Its lowest note is the 5 of the key, a fourth below the key note, and its highest is the 5 an octave above that, exactly one octave, so pick the key by those two notes and read the chords across.

The high note is an octave above the low one. Men singing the tune sing it an octave lower than written.

In Nashville numbers, one verse is 1, 1, 4, 1, then 5, 5, 1, 1, then 1, 1, 4, 1, then 5, 1, with 4 and 5 sharing the second-to-last bar, then 1. The 5 is played as a seventh chord. The Nashville Number System post explains how to read a chart like this.

What key should a group sing Away in a Manger in?

Start in F or G. In F the tune runs from middle C up to the C above it; in G, from D4 to D5. With a range of one octave, it suits a group in either key.

The two ends of the range come at different times. The top note is the opening "Away" and the start of the third line, "The stars." The bottom note closes the first and third lines, "bed" and "lay," and starts the second and fourth lines on "The." Sing the first two lines to test both ends at once.

Several early printings were in a children's column and in songbooks for young children, and the narrow range makes it an easy first carol for a child to sing. If you're leading and want to check your own range first, the free vocal range test finds your lowest and highest notes and suggests keys that fit, with guitar capo frets.

Who wrote Away in a Manger?

Nobody knows who wrote the words. Eight lines of the carol turn up in a Christmas story in 1868, and the first two verses were printed from 1882 on, often credited to Martin Luther, a claim now rejected. The two common tunes are by James Ramsey Murray (1887) and William J. Kirkpatrick (1895).

The Hymnology Archive traces eight lines of the carol to a Christmas story in the Protestant Churchman of December 24, 1868. According to Wikipedia's history of the carol, an early appearance of the first two verses is in the March 2, 1882 issue of The Christian Cynosure, under the heading "Luther's Cradle Song," with a note claiming Luther wrote it for his children. Other early printings repeated the story, but no text in Luther's known writings matches the carol, and it's now thought to be wholly American in origin.

The third verse, "Be near me, Lord Jesus," came later. Its first known appearance is in Gabriel's Vineyard Songs (1892), and a later story crediting it to John T. McFarland is doubted because that story, told by Bishop William F. Anderson, dates the verse to 1904–08, more than a decade after it was already in print. Murray published his tune in 1887; Kirkpatrick's, often called "Cradle Song," followed in 1895. Wikipedia, citing Richard S. Hill's 1945 study, calls Murray's the most popular setting in the United States. The words and both tunes are in the public domain.

How do you put Away in a Manger into Song Cage?

Song Cage shows a song as chords over the words, like a printed chord sheet, and moves the whole song to a new key in one step. Type the words into a song in Sheet view, put the three chords on, set the meter to 3/4, then pick the key your group sings in from the key chip and choose Move song.

View > Nashville Numbers turns G, C and D7 into 1, 4 and 5⁷, the same chart in any key, which is handy when the guitarist plays in G and the pianist in C. Clicking a chord shows its guitar shape or piano keys, with a capo if you set one, and the changing keys chapter covers Move song and Relabel only.

To hear the words on the tune, add the melody by singing it in and using Detect melody, or by entering the notes, and the Singer voice sings each syllable on its note. It sounds like an 80s talking computer played off an old cassette, rough but clear enough to hear how the words sit. For more carols, see Silent Night chords, Jingle Bells chords and O Holy Night chords.

Play Away in a Manger in your key

Put the chords over the words in Song Cage, switch to Nashville numbers, and move the song to the key your group sings in.

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