5 Easy Christmas Songs for Guitar

1. Introduction: Hey friends, Christmas is almost here and nothing spreads, holiday cheer like a classic Christmas song. If you're tired of searching the internet for Christmas song tutorials only to find them either poorly taught or incomplete, then this class is for you. Join me for this course where we're going to learn five easy beginner friendly classic Christmas tunes. We'll learn beginner friendly versions of Christmas tree, Jingle bells, Silent Night, deck the halls, and we wish you a merry Christmas. You can join me with your acoustic or electric guitar. You don't need any previous music experience. I want anyone who wants to join in on the holiday cheer to be able to pick up their guitar and quickly learn some fun Christmas songs. My name is Jason, and I've been playing and writing music since I was a small kid. And I've been teaching music to students ages five and up, including private guitar lessons since 2012. I'm a full time musician and composer. I've written music for films, trailers, and E learning courses, and I've played in bands and toured the US since I was a teenager. My goal with this course is to teach you the beginner guitar player, how to play five classic Christmas songs. And my hope is to make this process fun and easy for you. I want you to start playing these songs right away. By the end of this class, you'll be able to impress your family and friends and spread some holiday cheer with these great Christmas tunes. Thank you for watching, and I hope that you join me for this super fun beginners class. You're gonna love it. 2. Class Project: Okay, the class project, this is a chance for you to check in on how these Christmas songs are going for you. And hopefully this project will be fun for you to take part in. Once you start to watch the video lessons in this course, I'd like you to record yourself playing any of the Christmas songs that we're learning in this class. It can be a video or an audio only recording, and you can just record a section of one of the songs from this class, or it could be one of the songs in its entirety. It's really up to you to record video of yourself playing. You could just use the built in camera on your smartphone or tablet to record audio. You can use an app on your phone, such as voice memos. Or you can try recording yourself with music software such as Garage Band, Logic Pro, or Base if you're comfortable with recording music that way. But even if you just use a simple app like voice memos, please record yourself playing, recording yourself playing guitar and then listening back is a great tool to hear your playing objectively. So this way you can listen back to your recording and then make mental notes on which things you might need to work on during your guitar practice. Please don't be intimidated by this project. This is meant to be a fun project where you have a fun time with these Christmas songs on your guitar while at the same time developing your guitar skills. So hopefully after watching several lessons in this class, you'll feel confident enough to take part in this class project. So that's the intro to our class project. I hope that you're excited about it. In the next lesson, we're going to start learning our first Christmas song. 3. O Christmas Tree: Christmas tree, Christmas tree, lovely. Okay, for our first song, we're going to learn a beginner friendly version of the Christmas classic Christmas tree. This song is great for beginners because it only uses two chords. Let's start by learning the chords. The first chord is A. To play A. We don't play the sixth string, we play the open fifth string. Then you take your index finger and you put it on the second fret of the fourth string. Take your middle finger and put it on the second fret of the third string. And then you take your ring finger and put it on the second fret of the second string. You play the first string open. Then to strum the chord, you strum from string five through string one. The second chord is major. To play major, we play the open six string. Then you put your middle finger on the second fret of the fifth string. You put your ring finger on the second fret of the fourth string. Then you take your index finger and put it on the first fret of the third string. And then you play strings number 1.2 open as well. To play the chord, you strum all six strings. Now let's go over the timing, the strumming, and the chord progression. This song is in 34. We count 123 for every bar, and we're going to play all downstrms for this song, 123123. You can either play one downstrm per bar 23 or you can play three downstrms per bar to. It might actually be easier to play three down strumps per bar to help you keep a nice, steady pulse. Now let's go through the progression. We're going to cover the progression for one verse of lyrics. We start with 2 bars of a Christmas tree, Christmas tree. Then we play for 1 bar, How Lovely. Then we play a for 3 bars. Christmas tree, Christmas Tree, we play for 1 bar. Then for 3 bars, benches days are bright. Then we play for 1 bar there, then a for another 3 bars, Christmas Tree, then we play for 1 bar, then we play for 1 bar. So that's the entire song progression, so there's everything you need to play. Christmas Tree. I'll see you in the next video, where we're going to play a verse of Christmas Tree together. 4. O Christmas Tree (Play Along): Okay, let's put everything we've learned together and play a verse of Christmas tree. Here we go, 12 Christmas tree, Christmas tree. How lovely are Christmas tree, Christmas tree. How lovely are Brighten Christmas tree, Christmas tree. A great job. Have fun playing this beginner friendly Christmas song. And I'll see you in the next video where we're going to learn how to play jingle bells. 5. Jingle Bells: Okay, now we're going to learn jingle bells. And we're going to use three chords for this song, C and D. And we're going to learn the verse and the chorus of this song. Make sure your guitar is tuned up. Let's get started. We're learning the verse first, and by learning the verse, we'll learn the three chords that we need to play the entire song. Let's start out by checking out the chord to play. You put your middle finger on the six string, third fret, you put your index finger on the second fret of the fifth string, and you put your ring finger on the third fret of the first string, and then you strum all six strings. Our next chord is to play. You don't play the six string, you put your ring finger on the third fret of the fifth string. You put your middle finger on the second fret of the fourth string. You play the third string open. You put your index finger on the first fret of the second string, and then you play the first string open. You strum from strings five through one. The last chord for this song is D. To play D, you don't play the sixth or the fifth strings. Avoid playing those. You play the fourth string open, then you put your index finger on the third string, second fret, you put your ring finger on the second string, third fret, then you put your middle finger on the second fret, first string, you strum from string four through one. Those are the three chords for this song. Now let's look at our strumming pattern. Let's use the chord which starts the verse. We're going to use all down strums like this. Since this song is in 44 times, we'll be counting four beats per bar. And we'll strum down four times per bar, one. For this entire song, we'll be using down strums. Let's take a look at the chord progression for this song. We play 3 bars of G, then we switch to the C chord and play that for 2 bars. Then we switch to the D for 2 bars. Then we complete this phrase of the verse by going back to the cord for one measure. Now let's hear that first phrase altogether. We have 3 bars of, 2 bars of C, 2 bars of D, and then 1 bar of G with singing it sounds like this, 1234. Okay, now let's move on to the next phrase of the verse. So we have 3 bars of G followed by 2 bars of C. Then we play our D for 2 bars. Then for the last measure of this phrase, we switch to the D for a total of two beats, two. And then we switch to the D D for two beats, two. Okay, far we've learned our three chords, our strumming and the verse section. Now let's check out the chorus section. We'll start with for four measures, then we play for 1 bar, then we have a pick up lyric on it, and we land back on the G chord, on the word for one measure. Then on the word one, we move into the D chord for two measures. Then we repeat the same progression. We play 4 bars of G. Then we play our cord to our D. Then we play our cord for 1 bar. Then we come back home to our G cord. To wrap things up, you switch the G on the word sleigh. So when we play this last G chord, we'll just strum down one time. And that one strum will take up that entire bar. There's everything you need to play. Jingle bells. I'll see you in the next video where you can play jingle bells along with me. 6. Jingle Bells (Play Along): Okay, let's put everything we've learned together and play Jingle Bells. We'll play the verse two times, and then the chorus two times. So grab the G chord, and I'll count us in, here we go, 1234. So same, same great job learning jingle bells. Have fun playing this song. And I'll see you in the next video where we're going to learn Silent Night. 7. Silent Night: Okay, now we're going to learn the Christmas classic Silent Night. We'll learn the four chords that we need. And then use an all downstreaming pattern to play this song. So you can start singing this song right as you start playing, here's what it'll sound like. Let's start by learning the chords to this song. To play, you put your middle finger on the sixth string, third fret. You put your index finger on the fifth string, second fret, and you put your ring finger on the third fret of the first string, and then you strum all six strings. The second chord is D. When you play D, you don't play the sixth or the fifth strings. You play the fourth string open. Then you put your index finger on the third string. Second fret, your ring finger goes on the third fret of the second string. Your middle finger goes on the second fret of the first string, and then you strum from string four through one. Our next chord is to play, you don't play the sixth string, you put your ring finger on the third fret of the fifth string. Your middle finger goes on the second fret of the fourth string. And then you play the third string open. And then you put your index finger on the first fret of the second string, and you play the first string open to play the drum from strings five through one. The last chord is minor. To play minor, you play the open six string. Then you put your index finger on the second fret of the fifth string. You put your middle finger on the second fret of the fourth string. And then you play the third, the second, and the first strings open to play the chord. You strum all six strings. Now let's go over the timing, the strumming, and the chord progression. This song is in 34. We count 123 for every bar. Just like a waltz, we're going to play all down strums for this song, 123123. Now let's go through the chord progression. So we start with 4 bars of G, then we play D for 2 bars, then G for 2 bars. Then we play C for 2 bars, then G for 2 bars. Then we play for 2 bars, and then for 2 bars. Then we play D for 2 bars. Then we play for 1 bar. Then we play minor for 1 bar, for 1 bar, the D for 1 bar, and then for 2 bars, for that last bar of G, we strum on beat one and we let it ring out 23. That's the entire song progression. There's everything you need to be able to play Silent Night. I'll see you in the next video, where you can play Silent Night along with me. 8. Silent Night (Play Along): Okay, let's put everything we've learned together and play the Silent Night song progression 123, Great Job. Silent Night happens to be one of my personal favorite Christmas songs. I hope that you enjoy playing it, and I'll see you in the next video where we're gonna learn, Deck the halls. 9. Deck the Halls: With A. Okay, now we're going to learn the Christmas Classic deck, the Halls. This song only uses five chord, and this is a nice simplified version for beginners. Let's start by learning the chords. The first is D. To play D, you don't play the fifth or sixth strings. Play the open fourth string, then you put your index finger on the second fret of the third string. You put your ring finger down on the third fret of the second string, and you put your middle finger down on the second fret of the first string. Then you strum from strings four through one. The second chord is minor. To play minor, you play the open six string. You put index finger down on the second fret of the fifth string. Your middle finger goes down on the second fret of the fourth string. And then you play strings 32.1 open. You strum all six strings. The third chord is a to play a don't play the sixth string. Play the fifth string open, then put your index finger down on the second fret of the fourth string. Put your middle finger down on the second fret of the third string, and put your ring finger down on the second fret of the second string. Then you want to play the first string open from strings five through one. The fourth chord is major. To play major, play the open six string. Then you want to put your middle finger down on the second fret of the fifth string. Put your ring finger down on the second fret of the fourth string, and put your index finger down on the first fret of the third string. Then you want to play the second and the first strings open to play the chord from all six strings. The fifth chord is to play. You put your middle finger down onto the third fret of the sixth string. Your index finger goes down on the second fret of the fifth string, and your ring finger goes down on the third fret of the first string. You play strings 43.2 open and to play the chord, strum all six strings. Now let's go over the timing, the strumming, and the chord progression. This song is in 44, so we count 1234 for every bar. I'm going to give you two options for strumming. If you're a beginner, I would suggest playing half notes. So you'll play two down strums per bar, 12341234. And it'll sound like this with the chords. The other option for strumming is to use an alternating strum pattern. So it goes, do, do, do, do, do, do, 12341234. If we play it on the D chord, it'll sound like this. Now let's go through the progression. We're going to use the simpler two down strums per bar strumming. For this, we start with 2 bars of D, then we play minor for two beats, the D for two beats. Then we play A for two beats, and then D for two beats. Then we repeat those 4 bars. Then we play A for 1 bar, then D for 1 bar. Then we play for two beats. Then we play major for two beats. Then we play A for 1 bar, and then for 2 bars we play for two beats. The play for two beats. The play A for two beats. Then we end on D for two beats. That's the entire song progression. Let me play through that slowly using the simpler two down strums per bar strumming. So there's everything you need to play. Deck the Halls. I'll see you in the next video. We're going to play a verse of Deck the Halls together. 10. Deck the Halls (Play Along): Okay, let's put everything we've learned together and play through the deck, the halls progression. One time. Remember you have the option to play the simpler two down strums per bar, or you can play the alternating strum pattern of dow up. So grab your decord and I'll count us in, Here we go, 1234 D, love, love, love. We great job playing deck. The halls have fun playing this classic Christmas song. And I'll see you in the next video where we're going to learn our last song for this class. We wish you a merry Christmas. 11. We Wish You a Merry Christmas: Akasaka, Okay, to bring this class in for a landing, we're going to learn the classic Christmas tune, We Wish You a Merry Christmas. This song uses seven essential chords and we're playing in 34 time. This song has quick changes, so it's a little bit more of an advanced song, but by this point in the class, I think you're ready for it. We're going to learn the main progression of the song, as well as the bridge. Make sure your guitar is tuned up and let's get started. Let's start by learning the chords of the main progression. The first chord is to play, You put your middle finger on the third fret of the six string. You put your index finger on the second fret of the fifth string, and your ring finger on the third fret of the first string. Then you play all six strings. The second chord is to play, don't play the six string. You put your ring finger on the third fret of the fifth string. Your middle finger goes down on the second fret of the fourth string. You play the third string open, your index finger goes down on the first fret of the second string, and you play the first string open. And you strum from string five through one. The third chord is seven to play seven, don't play the sixth string. Play the fifth string open, then put your index finger on the second fret of the fourth string. Play the third string open, and then put your middle finger on the second fret of the second string. Then you want to play the first string open. To play the chord you want to strum from strings five through 14 chord is D. To play D, don't play the fifth and six strings. Play the fourth string open and then put your index finger on the second fret of the third string. Put your ring finger down onto the third fret of the second string, and then put your middle finger down on the second fret of the first string. Then you want to strum from strings four through one. The fifth chord is seven to play seven, don't play the sixth string. Then you want to put your middle finger down on the second fret of the fifth string. You put your index finger down on the first fret of the fourth string, then you put your ring finger down on the second fret of the third string. You play the second string open, and then put your pinky down on the second fret of the first string. You strum from string five through one. The sixth chord is minor. To play minor, play the sixth string open, then put your index finger onto the second fret of the fifth string. Put your middle finger down onto the second fret of the fourth string. And then play strings 32.1 open to play the chord. Play all six strings. The last chord for this song is D seven. To play D seven, don't play the sixth and fifth strings. Play the fourth string open, then put your middle finger down on the second fret of the third string. Put your index finger down on the first fret of the second string, and put your ring finger down on the second fret of the first string. Then you want to strings four through one. Now let's go over the timing, the strumming, and the chord progression. This song is in 34, so we count 123 for every bar. Just like a waltz. Because this song has a lot of changes, I would suggest playing all downstrmse 2, 312-312-3123, You play one downstrm per chord, except when you play the last 2 bars from C to D, seven to G, it's a bit of a quicker change there, and there's one extra strum. Now let's go through the progression. Let's look at the first 6 bars. We have G, the next bar is, the next bar is A seven. Then we have a bar of D, a bar of B seven. The next bar is minor. Those first 6 bars are all downstrms, one downstrm per chord. Let's listen to that. Now. Let's check out the last 2 bars of this section. We have a half note drum followed by a quarter note drum, and then a dotted half note drum. On C, we have a half note Rum. Then we have one strum on D, seven. Then in the last bar we have one strum on G, and it's a dotted half note. It rings out for three beats. Let's listen to those last 2 bars together. It's a bit of a quick change there. Now let's look at the bridge of this song. The cool thing is that the bridge uses chords from the first section, and he uses all the same rhythms as well. Let's look at the progression for this section. We have 1 bar of, 1 bar of D, then seven, then D, then 1 bar of, then 1 bar of minor. Then the last 2 bars we have C, D, seven and again. And we're going to use the same strumming as the first section. This section of the song has some chord shapes that flow really smoothly into one another. Let's check these out really quick. From D to seven, you have this cool little short cut. You only have to lift up your ring finger and then move your index and middle finger over one string each to play the seven. Then to go back to the D after that, move those same two fingers back to where they were originally, and then drop your ring finger down on the third fret of the second string to get back to D. Then the next A minor, there's a short cut there. Keep your index finger down where it is to play the minor. And just put your middle finger down on the second fret of the fourth string, that little short cut there. Then from minor to C, you also have a little shortcut. You just leave your middle finger where it is to play C and put your index finger down on the first fret, second string, and your ring finger down on the third fret of the fifth string to play another little short cut there. Then from C to D seven, you keep your index finger down to play the D seven and just drop your middle finger down on the second fret of the third string. And your ring finger down on the second fret of the first string, there's your D seven. So you want to try and find those little short cuts, those little connector notes between chords wherever you can. Now let's listen to this whole bridge section together so there's everything you need to play. We wish you a merry Christmas. I'll see you in the next video where we're going to play this song together. 12. We Wish You a Merry Christmas (Play Along): Okay, let's put everything we've learned together and play. We wish you a merry Christmas. We'll play through the main progression, the bridge, and then play through the entire thing a second time. Here we go. 12. Merry timing to wherever you go, times Sana, we wish you Mess. We wish me Christmas. We wish you well. Mary Christmas, Good timing to you were good timing. Christmas. Great job playing, We wish you a merry Christmas. I hope that you have fun playing this classic Christmas tune and I'll see you in our next video where we're going to wrap our class up. 13. Final Thoughts: Okay, that wraps up our Christmas songs class. Thank you so much for joining me here. I hope that you've had fun and in the process, picked up some tips and tricks to develop your guitar playing. Christmas time is a great opportunity to develop our guitar playing skills. What's great about the songs in this class is that they've been around for such a long time. Chances are good that you've heard them before or maybe you've even sung along with them. So we have the benefit of using our musical memory to our advantage. Here are some final notes about learning these songs. Number one is to be patient with yourself. There might be some chords in these songs that are new to you. Remember, you can always simplify your strumming so that you can focus on your left hand on forming the chords and switching between chords. And you can always come back to the video lessons in this class and review them as many times as you need to until you feel like you have the songs down. And definitely take advantage of the opportunities to jam along with me in the video lessons. Also, don't forget to download the supplemental materials that I've created for this course. Lastly, I highly recommend playing and singing these Christmas tunes with your family and friends. Sharing music with other people and playing music with other people are some of the greatest joys of music. I really hope you enjoyed this course. I have other classes on guitar, Ucolele, and songwriting. And if you enjoyed this class, I recommend that you check out my other classes as well. Thank you so much for joining me. Have fun, Merry Christmas, and I hope to see you in another class soon. 14. Bonus Video - Up on the Housetop: On the top click, click the with the G. This video is an up on the housetop. Beginner guitar tutorial up on the housetop is a holiday classic, and I'm going to teach you a beginner friendly version of it. We're going to cover the verse and the chorus. We'll go over the three chords used in this song, and we'll cover the strumming pattern as well. So let's dive in, let's learn the verse. Here's what that sounds like. Let's cover the chords that we use here. First, we play a C chord. To play C, you put your ring finger down on the third fret of the fifth string. You put your middle finger down on the second fret of the fourth string. You play the third string open. You put your index finger down on the first fret of the second string. Then you play the first string open and you strum from strings five through one. Then we have the chord to play. Since you're coming off the C chord, just keep your index finger where it is and shift your ring and middle fingers down one string each. Then you want to avoid playing the sixth and the fifth strings, as well as the first string. You're going to strum strings 43.2 Then we have a chord to play. Put your middle finger on the third fret of the sixth string. Put your index finger on the second fret of the fifth string, and then put your ring finger on the third fret of the first string. You're going to play strings 43.2 open to play the chord. You want to strum all six strings. Now let's go over the chord progression. We start with 2 bars of C. Then the third bar is split between two beats on and two beats on. The next bar is G. Then we have two more bars of C. Then we have another bar that split between F and C, two beats on each chord. Then we have a bar that split between G and C, two beats on each chord. For our strumming, we're going to use a half note drum 222. Each drum takes up two beats of the measure. Here's what the half note drum sounds like with the verse progression. Now let's cover the chorus section. Here's what that sounds like. The chorus uses all the same chords from the verse section. So let's walk through the progression. We have a bar of, a bar of a bar of, then 2 bars of, then a bar of, a bar of C, and then a bar that split between G and C. Two beats on each chord. Okay, now let's play through the chorus section together one time. Now you've learned the chorus section. Now let's play a shortened version of this tune. We'll play the verse once and the chorus once. Get your C chord ready. Here we go. 1234 Ras. Click through the with the great job. I hope that you have fun playing this classic Christmas tune. Once you feel comfortable playing this song, I recommend that you try playing it along with family and friends, Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays.