- Level: Early Elementary
- Pages: 5 pages, 3 pages of music, cover included!
- Style: Mysterious
- Bonus and Features: mp3 performance track; Black key; Hand positions pictured
- Format: PDF instant download
- Series: Finding Beautiful Places – Set 1, Set 2
Beginning students want to play music that is mature, beautiful, and engaging. And they can with this O Come O Come Emmanuel beginning piano arrangement. This early elementary arrangement of O Come O Come Emmanuel is ethereal and mature in sound, and perfectly encapsulates the longing meant to be experienced in this piece. Students will find it easy to engage with the loneliness and hope expressed, and play with musicality that communicates that to their audience.
What level is O Come O Come Emmanuel Beginning Piano?
O Come O Come Emmanuel is an early elementary piece intended to be read by finger number and direction of notes. This piece is on the black keys, with fingers 1 and 5 in the right hand landing on two white keys very naturally. The smallest note value is a quarter note. Multiple registers are explored, but also with repeated patterns that have already been learned. Dynamics are included, as well as finger numbers. The piece is written in 4/4.
The damper pedal is held throughout most of the piece, with only 2 lifts occurring. Not only does this allow students to sound more mature, it gives them practice with pedaling even as a beginner, in an easy-to-approach manner. O Come O Come Emmanuel beginning piano contains no “dead space” created by note decay thanks to the steady movement of continual notes. There are a couple of measures where students play two notes at a time in the right hand. The interval is a third and should be approachable for students at this level, and the piece will still sound good even if students lack the skill yet to play the notes at the exact same time thanks to the use of pedal.
Bonus recording included!
O Come O Come Emmanuel beginning piano comes with a bonus mp3 recording performed by Wendy Stevens. You are permitted to send this example performance track to your students to help them learn the piece.
More About the Finding Beautiful Places Series:
O Come O Come Emmanuel beginning piano is part of the Finding Beautiful Places series that gives older students (like teens and adults) beautiful music that doesn’t make them sound like a child. This series is especially easy and helpful as hand positions are pictured, finger numbers are indicated on each note, and the hands are mostly on the black keys so finding the correct notes are easy. This series is made especially for teens and adults as is part of our Music Adults Love® and Music Teens Love® collection – beautiful, mature sounding music that doesn’t sound like it comes from a child’s method book.
The collections in this series include:
- Finding Beautiful Places 1 – EE (Early Elementary) Music on the black keys; For those with no prior piano experience
- Finding Beautiful Places 2 – EE (Early Elementary) More of the same kind of music as above.
- Entering Beautiful Places 1 – E (Elementary) Music for those who are transitioning to the white keys or who need to review their white key note names
- Entering Beautiful Places 2 – E (Elementary) More music for those transitioning from black to white keys.
- In Beautiful Places – E (Elementary) Music for mid elementary students containing some across the bar line syncopation, but music that is still quite achievable and beautiful at this level
- Exploring Beautiful Places – LE (Late Elementary) Music for the late elementary pianist that contains eighth notes that are easy to feel and play.
What is the Studio License?
O Come O Come Emmanuel beginning piano is delivered digitally (through your email receipt) and is studio licensed. This means that you can print and use this for any student that you directly teach for your entire lifetime of teaching.
LJ –
Perfect for my new adult students to play for Christmas. Easy for adults to sightread after just a couple of lessons and boosts their confidence that they are playing an arrangement that sounds like the real deal even-though this is pre-staff reading. It adds to their Finding Beautiful Places series covers beautifully. Would love to have more Christmas carols in this series.
Pat –
I’m agree with LJ – one of my adult students played this successfully last Sunday in the Winter Recital. It was something she totally enjoyed and felt proud of. An absolutely brilliant idea.
Phyllis –
O Come O Come Emanuel and I Saw Three Ships were a hit. They loved it! They will be playing them for recital this Saturday!
Kim –
Such an awesome song! I used this for a young transfer just starting out and it makes him sound so advanced. He’s very motivated now!
Melinda –
This song is absolutely beautiful. It is playable for the new player, and yet stretches them in every good and musical way while staying true to the original song.
Beth Ann –
A perfect piece for my high school student who has only had a few lessons. Even though only playing on black keys, the arrangement sounds more advanced. It’s quite creative. Amazing how expressive one can be using beginning notes along with dynamics and pedaling. My student, a 14-year old boy, was excited to perform this song.
Bonnie –
This is a gorgeous, beautiful arrangement of O Come, O Come Emmanuel! My 9-year-old student with ADHD chose it for his holiday recital piece. When I asked him which piece he wanted, out of a few he had learned, he pointed to Wendy Stevens’ “O Come O Come Emmanuel” and literally said, “Well, I’m NEVER going to get a better song than this, so it’s GOTTA be this one!” I wrote it down to remember what he said, because it was such a sweet, unsolicited, and sincere praise of the music from a student who’s learned it! This music would be great for ANYONE who wants to sound professional and beautiful even if they are beginners. But I want to highlight what Wendy’s music has done for my ADHD kids. Students with ADHD really FLOURISH with Wendy’s music – especially the Rote and Reading pieces and the Finding Beautiful Places series – which I have used to keep them feeling good about music while they learn to read on the staff, which can be a struggle for those with focus issues. It has truly opened the door to playing beautifully for them! The patterns and easy-to-find octave jumps make them feel capable to learn and play it. It is just wonderful to see kids who struggle to keep their focus on anything for more than 30 seconds, dive into this music. It grabs their attention and HOLDS it. Everyone at the recital yesterday was amazed that this little kid could play with such expression. I was really tearing up as he played it with such sincerity. Thank you Wendy for the gift of your music! Merry Christmas!
Melinda –
I must say that this piece has been the BEST Christmas present to my studio and students this Christmas 2025. My beginners heard it and ALL wanted to be able to play it! The motivation which comes from hearing something beautiful and wanting to experience the beauty, share the beauty? What a gift for a teacher and for a parent! But also for a child to have this feedback from being able to express something so lovely. Another gift of sharing this melody in our Christmas tea was being able to take a moment to pause between the black key setting and the more advanced setting and tell the students and guests the story behind the carol. I was amazed to learned that carol has traditionally been sung for over 1500 years on the seven days prior to Christmas! Each verse speaks of various aspects of the nature of Christ. With joy I was able to share this with everyone, then I observed that they all listened more intensely with the second version played.
We may be tempted to think that having a particular melody played more than once during a program is a detriment. However, when it’s used as a means to encourage greater listening participation, I say that it’s a WIN.