I want to teach my family some easy Christmas songs

addicted2myuke

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I want to teach some members of my family some simple Christmas songs so we can have a little jam session at our annual Christmas party. Noone has ever picked up a uke but they have shown interest in learning the basics. Most of the Christmas songs I play, have 7 to 13 chords. Are there any really basic 3 or 4 chord Christmas songs that I can print off and teach them?
 
Santa Baby is one of the first songs I learned on the uke. It has five or six chords, but they are easy ones and the rhythm is very natural.
 
Hi

Are you thinking about teaching your family members to play ukulele and playing together? Worst comes to worst, you can play ukulele alone and ask others to join in singing?

I don't know about songs, but I suggest (a) pick an easy key to sing in (and play ukulele; avoid for example, key of Eb!!!) and (b) print out enough copies of music so everyone can look at and join in. For older people, make sure use a big fonts!

You can Google "easy Christmas song" or "easy Christmas song tab" or "easy Christmas song chord"

For example,
http://www.chordie.com/publicbooks.php?show=details&songid=140352

And remember a chord is a chord, no matter what instrument it's written for. So you can use guitar chords, and play as is on ukulele. You may have to transpose for easy singing and ukulele but that can be done easily.

Have fun
Chief, from Brockton, MA
 
There may be "Easy Christmas Songs" music books for beginning piano players with
'Guitar' (or in our case - Ukulele) chords over the standard notation. These sometimes
come with lyrics... but if not, I'm sure you can find the lyrics on the Internet.

I think Jumpin' Jim (Beloff) might have a Christmas ukulele songbook. If you Google
'ukulele Christmas songs' you may find a bunch to make your own songbook :)

keep uke'in',
 
I would recommend Dr. Uke's website. It has Christmas songs (and hundreds of others) with chord diagrams on each line. Check it out:
www.doctoruke.com

-joe
 
Most of the older Christmas songs have only a few chords. Away in the Manger, Silent Night, All Through the Night, that sort of thing. Jingle Bells is pretty simple too (although it's not quite as old as the others, I don't think... and it's technically not even about Christmas.)

On the other hand, many of the songs written in the 1900's tend to be a lot more harmonically complex. They were written during a time when "harmonically complex" was simply the way songs were made. Winter Wonderland, Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas, The Christmas Song (Chestnuts roasting...), and so on. Lots of great, jazzy changes. Not so easy to teach!

Not that simple, modern Christmas songs don't exist. Grandma Got Ran Over By a Reindeer, The Chipmunk Song, Feliz Navidad, etc.

Anyhoo... Jumpin' Jim Beloff does indeed have a couple of books of Christmas songs. Not too expensive. But my favorite book is Hal Leonard's "The Ultimate Christmas Fake Book". It has tons of Christmas tunes, with lyrics, melody (standard notation), and chord names. It does not tell you how to play the chords (no chord diagrams), so you might need to keep a chord chart handy. You'll definitely find some good ones to teach your family.

JJ
 
Silent Night is extraordinary on a uke! Simple, slow. Santa Claus is Coming to Town is another easy one Ditto on the suggestion for Dr. Uke. Large print, pdf files and a good selection of tunes for folks who like traditional and '40's thru '70's songs. (From Toot Toot Tootsie to When I'm 64)

Santa Claus is Coming...has a barre chord for a D7. There is a simpler version. Slow the song down, and its easy.

By the way, it is only June. You have time to be an excellent uker by Christmas.

(It will be 100F this weekend here.)
 
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