All Through the Night - guitar tab, notes, chords and lyrics
"All Through the Night" is a traditional Welsh folk song. The early versions of the song were titled "Ar Hyd y Nos" until Harold Boulton translated the hymn to English by in the 20th century. The Welsh harpist and bard Edward Jones is often attributed as the composer of the tune, but it's not clear that he is the originator.
The music transcriptions of the song with tabs and notes are available for download as PDFs. It's free for personal use only.
Melody & full accompaniment
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All Through the Night guitar tab and notes (pdf)
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All Through the Night instrumental guitar (mp3)
All Through the Night (full accompaniment)
"All Through the Night" for guitar with full accompaniment. Free download in pdf-file and audio.
All Through the Night guitar accompaniment
All Through the Night for flute
"All Through the Night" for flute in the key of C. Free download in pdf-file and audio.
All Through the Night flute
All Through the Night (only melody)
"All Through the Night" tablature notation for guitar.
Tips on how to learn this song
Notice the AABA structure. The 1-4, 5-8 and 13-16 measures are identical. From this the 9-12 measures deviates and this part of the song is characterized by ascending (measure 9) and descending movements (measure 10, 12 and 13).
Lyrics and chords
All Through the Night chords in the key of F
Verse 1:
(F)Sleep, my child, and (Gm)peace attend thee
(Bb)All through the (F)night
(F)Guardian angels (Gm)God will send thee
(Bb)All through the (F)night
(C)Soft the drowsy hours are creeping
(Bb)Hill and dale in slumber sleeping
(F)I my loving (Gm)vigil keeping
(Bb)All through the (F)night
Verse 2:
(F)While the moon her (Gm)watch is keeping
(Bb)All through the (F)night
(F)While the weary (Gm)world is sleeping
(Bb)All through the (F)night
(C)O'er thy spirit gently stealing
(Bb)Visions of delight revealing
(F)Breathes a pure and (Gm)holy feeling
(Bb)All through the (F)night
Poetic and archaic words:
thee = you
o'er = over
thy = your
Two main chord progressions are used through the song. The first is played and repeated twice for the lines 1–4: F - Gm - Bb - F. The second is played for the lines 5–8: C - Bb - F - Gm - Bb - F. Both progressions end with a so-called plagal cadence (VI - I), in this case Bb - F.
There are possibilities to change to key further by using a capo. These are the keys that the song would transpose in depending on which fret the capo is put (based on the chords in the G major version):
- Capo 1: F# / Gb major
- Capo 2: G major
- Capo 3: G# / Ab major
- Capo 4: A major
- Capo 5: A# / Bb major
All Through the Night (G major)
"All Through the Night" in the G major key. Free download in pdf-file.
All Through the Night (G major)
Key, time, tuning and tempo
Information about "All Through the Night" considering musical key, time signature, tuning and bpm.
Key
The presented version of All Through the Night is played in the key of G.
Time signature
The song is played in 4/4 tempo (counted one, two, three, four for each measure).
Tuning
The song is normally played in standard tuning (EADGBE).
Tempo (BPM)
The tempo in beats per minute is 180 for the presented version.