The holidays are a great time to show off your guitar skills! Even if you are a beginner guitar player, you can still learn some Christmas songs to sing and strum for others. In this post, you will find FOUR easy guitar songs for you to print off and add to your Christmas repertoire. Enjoy!
First Song
The First Noel
This is one of the easiest Christmas songs that I teach. Even if I’ve only had a student for a couple of months, they are still usually able to learn this one in time for Christmas. If you are a beginner guitar player yourself, be sure to check out my post easy songs for guitar using chords G, C & D7 after you’ve learned this song.
This song uses a simple strum pattern where you strum down on every beat. Notice that this song is in 3/4 time. That means that there are only three beats in every measure.
SLIDER FINGERS
There are several times where you need to transition from G to D7 chords and then back again. I always remind my students that the easiest way to do this is by remembering that your third finger stays on the first string and then slides from the third fret (G chord) to the second fret (D7 chord). This trick is especially effective if you’re still using the easy G chord.
Second Song
Jingle Bells
Jingle Bells sticks to an easy strum pattern where you just strum down on every beat. I like to teach this song after my students have learned the D and A7 chords. If you’d like a great post on adding those chords into the chords you already know, make sure to check out my post Learn to Play Chords D & A7.
JUMPER FINGERS
When switching from the D chord to the A7 chord, it’s helpful to think of your 1st and 2nd fingers jumping from one set of strings to the other.
Third Song
Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer
This is a great song to teach my students who are looking to expand their knowledge of open chords. It also uses an accompaniment technique called Alternating Bass. To play alternating bass, you play the root of the chord (usually the lowest string of the chord), strum down, and then play an “alternate bass” note and strum down again. If you want to learn about how this works and play other songs using alternating bass, be sure to check out my post Learn To Play Alternating Bass.
It also helps teach rhythm concepts by using quarter notes (one beat each), half notes (two beats each) and whole notes (four beats each).
Fourth Song
Frosty The Snowman
I save this song for the last, because it’s the most difficult of the four songs. This is especially true if you use the more difficult strum pattern. You can’t see that pattern here, but if you click on the image of the song below; a two page PDF file will be available for you to print. The second page of that file is the same song with a more difficult strum pattern.
