172 – How to Teach “Away in a Manger” By Ear

Over the past four years of this podcast, I’ve shared a handful of episodes on audiation and playing by ear. To be honest, these episodes are pretty vulnerable for me to share—but luckily they’ve been well-received. I think that’s because, in the piano teaching world, there’s not a lot out there quite like them. (If you know of anything similar, I’d genuinely love to hear about it!)

I’ll admit, I had every intention of doing one of these every 5 episodes this past year, but now that I’ve moved to a twice-a-month podcast rather than every week, there were just too many other topics that worked their way into the mix.

I’m back for one more, though!

Way back in year one of the podcast, I covered how to play the most-requested Christmas song by piano students—by ear. You guessed it: Jingle Bells. That’s episode 034 if you want to go back and check it out.

Today, I’m tackling another Christmas favorite. It’s nearly as requested and short enough to make it podcast-friendly—Away in a Manger.

Before we dive in, a quick shout-out to Patreon member Anne Marie for cheering on this work and helping keep it ad-free. If you’re enjoying this content and are able to join in, I invite you to join me on Patreon as a silent partner for just $4/month. For a few dollars more, you’ll get some special thank-you perks from me as well.

Oh—and in case you’re new here—I’m Amy Chaplin, a piano teacher passionate about helping you find practical and sustainable rhythms in your teaching life.

I’m going to walk through a process I use with my students that, while it might seem like it might take a long time as we talk through it here, actually goes much more quickly than you might think.

First, we want to ensure that the student actually knows the melody confidently, as there can sometimes be small discrepancies in how we each sing tunes. I start by asking them to sing the song. If they’re hesitant, I tell them I’ll join in, but let them start in whatever key they feel comfortable with. If they’re still hesitant, then I’ll start and ask them to join in. It’s good to sing it a little more slowly than normal to make sure you are in agreement on the melody.

Usually, I’ll have them sing on a neutral syllable so we can focus on the music, but if they want to use the words, go for it. I also ask them to consider, as they sing, any patterns they notice.

[sing melodic prep sequence in E Major]

[sing melody slowly]

Next, we determine the meter and tonality of the piece. Sometimes I ask them to think about this before we sing it the first time, and sometimes I mention it after. It doesn’t really matter too much.

For meter, we move to the macrobeat or big beat with our bodies and then add the microbeat or small beat lightly with our hands, silently tapping on our sides or laps. If the beat is divided into twos, it’s duple meter, and if it’s in three, it’s triple meter. Away in a manger is in Triple.

Sometimes at this point, I’ll have them echo the rhythm patterns using the Gordon Rhythm syllables we use: Du for the big beat, Du-da-di for the little beat, and “ta” to divide the little beats. Echo mean for each rhythm pattern:

[do each pattern]

Next is tonality, and if they are already familiar with major and minor tonality, they usually get it pretty easily. If not, then it can be fun to sing or play the first line for them in minor so they can hear what it would sound like. That definitely reinforces for them the fact that it’s in major!

Now we go to the piano and establish the look and sound of the key we’re going to play in. Normally, I have students play in G for this one, but for the sake of my singing here, I’m singing in E. So you can either play it or have them – whatever they’re comfortable with, a full scale, chord progression, melodic prep sequence (which is 5-6-5-4-3-2-7-1), or a combination.

Right away, then I ask them if they can sing the resting sound. Most of the time, they do, but sometimes, if they haven’t had as much experience, it’s easy to hit the dominant.

[sing resting tone]

Then we sing some tonal patterns to anchor us in that tonality. Most importantly, hitting the tonic chord and the upper, and sometimes the lower, dominants. What patterns I do depend on where a tune’s phrases start and end. For example, Go Tell it On the Mountain starts on the third note of the scale, so I would use several echo patterns that include me at the start or end.

[example]

This exercise is setting us up for the next step as we consider how each phrase starts and ends. Always keeping those tonic and dominant anchors as our reference.

[phrases]

Do one at a time, go slowly, and have them play each one several times until they’re comfortable with it. Make note of how the music moves and when it feels like it wants to go somewhere or if it’s at rest.

Next, and this step is entirely about the student’s level, we’re going to add harmony. Sometimes students might only do the melody one year, then maybe play it with a chord root harmony, and the next year use chord progressions in their left hand.

Even if the student isn’t going to learn to play the harmony, I like singing the harmony and having them experience it, supporting the melody. There are a variety of ways you could do this, but the easiest is for you to play the melody, and you both sing the chord root harmony

[silent metronome – sing root harmony]

[silent metronome – sing melody]—splice together in production

This is a process you can use with many different songs. In fact, because even the easiest Christmas music is not that easy, I compiled a book of what I think are the 15 most accessible Christmas songs for playing by ear, and it’s called just that: Christmas By Ear: 15 Songs to Harmonize.

I originally published this book in 2021, but just completed a major overhaul, expanding it from 34 pages to 82 pages and from 8 songs to 15. Even though there were a handful of Christmas songs that only used primary chord harmony and had fairly easy melodies – like Once in Royal David’s City – I opted only for the Christmas tunes my students have chosen in the past 15 years so you’re getting the best of the best and yes that includes Jingle Bells, Away in a Manger, Jolly Old Saint Nicholas, Silent Night and more!

Each song includes a guided listening page, a chord chart builder for transposing, a full chord chart with multiple verses, and a high-quality lead sheet with lyrics. The chords are all nice and bold, and I opted to provide variety in leveling by including optional chords in grey.

I’ve gotten to the point where I have my students pick one Christmas song they really want to play, and I get them a special arrangement, and then we play as much Christmas music as we like from this book. Sometimes doing entirely by ear, sometimes playing from just the chord chart and singing, sometimes playing from the lead sheet and exploring accompaniment patterns. There are just so many ways you can use this book.

Better yet. It’s a studio-licensed product, so you pay for it once and can use it for your students for life.

Even better, everything in the Piano Pantry shop is available for 25% off during the Black Friday sale through Friday, December 5. Visit PianoPantry.com/christmas and use code BF2025 to get 25% off your entire purchase, including this newly updated resource.

Stay tuned for next week’s episode! My friend Christina Whitlock and I are teaming up again—just like we did this time last year—for a special two-part collaboration.

On Monday, we’ll chat on her podcast, Beyond Measure, about what’s working for each of us in this season of life. Then on Tuesday, we’ll continue the conversation here on my podcast, diving into what’s not working.

These episodes are always so much fun, and I hope you’ll join us for both!

Have a wonderful holiday week. Happy Thanksgiving!