Holidays are Great for New Musicians!
If you’re a musician today, chances are no matter what instrument you play, you started out tooting or plucking/strumming simple melodies like Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and Hot Cross Buns, or in my cse, learning guitar, C, G, F chords, and about 75% of all country songs written before 1992 ;)
That’s why I love the holidays — I can’t speak for other religious or holiday practices, but at least with Christmas carols, there is an absolute neverending No-well (Sorry!) of easy to play tunes that everyone, at least here in the U.S. immediately recognizes because they’ve been hearing them since October.
Oftentimes these tunes, like The First Noel and Silent Night share the same simple, repeating pattern as traditionally “children’s” songs/nusery rhymes, yet because of their association with the holiday spirit, they’re generally both less grating on others’ nerves if you happen to live with someone else or have neighbors close by, and more pleasant to practice for yourself (and to go busking next year!)
At the same time, songs like The 12 Days of Christmas start to add a more intermediate pattern shift (Five Golden Rings shifts the phrasing drastically for the rest of the song), and O Holy Night has a pretty dramatic shift in tone after the first two verses, requiring you to know more than 3–4 notes.
In short, if you’re a new musician, and you’re absolutely sick of tooting out Mary Had a Little Lamb, give Silent Night a spin, or if you’re feeling ambitious, try to transcribe (that is, work out the notes for) O Holy Night, Angels We Have Heard On High, and Joy to the World (Yay scales practice!)
Ifyou’d prefer sheet music, I’ve included resources below, and don’t worry guitarists, I’ve got you covered too!
Christmas Music Songs (christmasmusicsongs.com)
This is a great resource for Christmas/Holiday sheet music because the site owner has organized sheet music not only by arrangement, but also by instrument and key. So for example, if you play saxophone you’d just scroll down and click on the sax.
The site contains ads, but they’re non-intrusive, so I feel comfortable recommending it, and the site even has links to printable blank sheet music pages as a nice bonus!
Nick Guitar Christmas TAB (NickGuitar.com)
A collection of relatively easy going guitar tablature for several classic tunes!
Lastly, there are a number of what are called lead sheets or fake books out there. My personal favorite is Hal Leonard’s 6th edition, and The Disney Christmas Carols Fake Book.
Don’t forget to search YouTube as well. No matter WHAT instrument you play, no matter how obscure you might think it is, there is going to be someone who’s uploaded tutorials. ;)
But whatever you celebrate, whether it’s Christmas, Kwanza, Hannukah, Solstice, or non denominational gift giving day, Happy Holidays! ❄🎄🎶
