O Holy Night on Saxophone — Notes, Fingering Chart & Play Online

Notes95, 11 pitches
RangeC4–E5
Key hereC major
Tempo150 bpm · about 2 min
LevelIntermediate

Can a saxophone play O Holy Night?

Yes — every one on this page plays it. The check is made note by note against what each one can actually sound. Where the tune does not fit as the library writes it, another key or octave is tried, and the table says which; where nothing fits, it names the notes that are missing.

Alto✓ Plays as writtenIn C major, C4–E5 · loaded above
Tenor✓ Plays as writtenIn C major, C4–E5 · load it
Soprano✓ Plays as writtenIn C major, C4–E5 · load it
Baritone✓ Plays as writtenIn C major, C4–E5 · load it

The notes here are written pitch, which is what a saxophone player reads. On the Alto this sounds in E♭ major.

O Holy Night: saxophone notes

The large line is the note, and the drawing is its fingering — a filled hole or key is one that is down. A dash holds the note another beat, an underline is half a beat, and a dot beside a note makes it half as long again. Each line is one phrase.

▶ Play it above

O Holy Night — saxophone notes (Alto) · tonalics.com

E––E–EG–×5GA–

AF–AC–×6G–GE–

DC––E–FG––F–

DC–×12E––E–EG–×5

GA–AF–AC–×6

G–GF♯–EB––G–

AB––C–BE–×11GG––A––D––G––

A–GC–EA––G–

GG––A––D––G––A–

GC–EG–×6C–×9B–

AB–×9B––D–×8AA–

AC–×11CE–×6D–×5GC–×9

B–AG–×8GA–GG–×9

C––D–×9G––E–×9D––C–×6B––C–DC–×12

The 11 notes it uses

Lowest to highest, with how many times each is played. Learn these 11 and you can play the whole tune.

CC4×2
DD4×4
EE4×12
FF4×4
F♯F♯4×1
GG4×26
AA4×18
BB4×8
CC5×13
DD5×5
EE5×2

What to expect on a saxophone

It runs from C4 to E5, an octave and a major third, using 11 different notes. That leaves 2 semitones unused below and 13 above.
60% of its moves are a step or a repeated note. The widest is a major sixth, G4 to E5, at note 89.
It crosses the break 10 times — between C♯5 and D5, where the octave key comes in — which is the hard part of this tune on this instrument.

About the tune

Adolphe Adam, the composer of the ballet Giselle, wrote it in 1847 as “Cantique de Noël” for a poem by Placide Cappeau, a wine merchant in the southern French town of Roquemaure. It is a solo song rather than a congregational carol, and it is written like an aria.

Adolphe Adam, “Cantique de Noël”, 1847. Public domain. The notes follow Paul Hardy’s Xmas Tunebook, 2019 (2024), cross-checked against 1 other transcription. More about O Holy Night →

O Holy Night on other instruments

The same melody, in each instrument’s own notation. It is not offered for the kalimba, mbira, guzheng, handpan, harp or lyre, which do not have the notes.

More songs for the saxophone

All 36 saxophone songs · Christmas songs for saxophone · The online saxophone on its own