Traditional English carol · Key of D · Public domain
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This chart is written in D. Tap any key above the chart to see the whole song in that key, with every chord already worked out. To stay in D with different chord shapes, play it capo 2 with the C shapes, or capo 5 with the A shapes, or capo 7 with the G shapes. Singing with a group? Pick the key where the highest note is comfortable for everyone, then print that page.
The First Noel is an English folk carol, most likely from Cornwall, that was sung for generations before anyone wrote it down. The words first reached print in 1823 in Davies Gilbert's Some Ancient Christmas Carols, and the melody followed ten years later in William Sandys's Christmas Carols Ancient and Modern. The version in every hymnal today is the 1871 arrangement by the composer John Stainer.
It is an odd tune when you look closely. The same phrase is sung twice for the verse and then, barely changed, a third time for the refrain, a shape so unusual that some scholars think a harmony part was mistaken for the melody somewhere along the way. The storytelling has its own folk logic too: the carol has the shepherds seeing the star, a detail the Bible gives to the wise men. "Noel" is simply the French word for Christmas, from the Latin natalis, birth. Words and melody are traditional and in the public domain.
A gentle 3/4 in D. The verse leans on D, A, and G, with an A7 to D at the end of every second line, and the tune repeats so faithfully that once you can play the first two lines you can play the whole verse. The refrain adds the one chord worth practicing first, F#m, on the second "Noel." It is a barre chord at the second fret; if that is a struggle, staying on D there still sounds right, or switch to the key of C above the chart, where that chord becomes an easy open Em. Let each "Noel" ring: one strum per chord is plenty.
Tap any chord for its diagram, other voicings, and the notes inside it.
More of the star: We Three Kings chords and lyrics
All the Christmas carol chord sheets, each one in every key.
Further reading: The First Noel (Wikipedia)
