Ok guys, I need a little help here.
What are some good, relatively easy Christmas songs that I can play that will sound recognizable without vocals? I like songs with alot of chords that I can strum and flatpick.
If you can, just throw out some song names so I can have a place to start. Thanks everyone!!
"Silent Night" was written on guitar.
"Joy To The World"
"Carol of the Bells"
"O Little Town of Bethlehem"
"What Child Is This?," a.k.a. "Greensleeves"
"Lo, How A Rose E'er Blooming" (Another nice medieval sounding one. Sounds killer with a slide in Open G.)
"O Come, Emmanuel"
"A cheerful heart is good medicine."
Yes!!! Carol of the Bells...we have a winner. Thanks Ricochet
That's a terrific tune!
"A cheerful heart is good medicine."
Oh Holy Night is a good one. Brian Setzer does a terrific job with it.
check out my website for good recording/playing info
Noel is probly the easiest
Who has a decent tab of any of the above? We have a nice version of silent night on here.
Carol of the Bells lesson (sort of - it's the original melody that became Carol of the Bells). It sounds great on guitar:
http://www.acousticguitar.com/lessons/Holiday_Favorite/1.shtml
We Three Kings
http://www.acousticguitar.com/lessons/RuskinHoliday/1.shtml
Blame it on the lies that killed us, blame it on the truth that ran us down.
"Silent Night" was written on guitar
It was first performed on guitar, but the song has an interesting history, with some myth and speculation thrown in. The lyrics were written by Joseph Mohr, the assistant to the priest at St. Nicholas Church in Obendorf, Austria.
Legend has it that mice had eaten the bellows of the church organ, which meant no music at Christmas. Mohr then asked Franz Gruber, the organist at the church, to set his melody to music, so that they could sing it together with guitar accompaniment. They did so, on December 24, 1818. Mohr played the guitar.
I guess things being what they were at the time, the organ wasn't rebuilt, despite a number of attempts. It was finally replaced in 1825. The organ repairman, Carl Mauracher, found a draft copy of the tune inside the organ (according to legend - the reality is probably that he'd made a repair trip at Christmastime and heard the song performed); he then passed it along to a travelling folk choir in Tyrol, and the popularity spread from there. A publisher heard a performance by a choir in 1832, and published it as a Tyrolean folk song. As it spread, it gained popularity... it was first performed in the US in 1839, outside New York's Trinity Church.
An original manuscript was discovered less than 10 years ago, written in Joseph Mohr's handwriting, crediting Gruber with the melody. That pretty well settles the fact that the organist wrote it... but the manuscript is dated 1816 (when the organ was working), so it's likely the guitar was a fall-back, and it was actually composed on the organ.
Oh, and my pick for a good guitar Christmas tune: God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen
Guitar teacher offering lessons in Plainfield IL
Bob Evans (great Canadian fingerpicker and all 'round fine musician) has a lovely, simple arrangement for fingerstyle guitar on his site, http://www.bobevansguitar.com Click the "Guitar Stuff" link. You'll find a midi file and the score in .pdf Try playing it in the bathroom; the acoustics sound like a church at night.
Here's a bunch of chord melody tabs for Christmas songs that I just came across:
http://www.angelfire.com/fl4/moremoneychords/Christmas_Chord-Melody_Arrangements.pdf
Blame it on the lies that killed us, blame it on the truth that ran us down.
And don't forget David's lesson on one of the best Xmas songs ever written:
Well we all shine on--like the moon and the stars and the sun.
-- John Lennon
