Silver Bells: A Simple Arrangement Adding 3rds & Echos to create a
simple arrangement. Use any kind of left hand
accompaniment in 3/4 such as a swing bass.

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“Christmas Time Is Here” is the theme song of the Charlie Brown Christmas special on TV that plays every year. It was written and performed by Vince Guaraldi from San Francisco. In this video I walk you through the chord progressions which are pretty unusual due to the polytonality.

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A few arranging ideas for piano on the Christmas Carol “Hark The Herald Angels Sing”

Angels From The Realms Of Glory - Arranging Ideas For Piano. By simply using inversions of the few chords that are used in the song, plus a very simple bass part made out of octaves, and by altering the rhythm somewhat, we can create a joyful version of this great old song.

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O Come All Ye Faithful is one of the most-used Christmas Carols of all time. Here are a few ideas for arranging it on the piano. Please watch this 10-minute video:

Arranging Christmas Carols Course

By using the Alberti bass high on the keyboard to make a light, airy-like sound in the first part of the song, then using octave bass runs in the left hand in the 2nd part of the song, we can create some good contrast that makes for an interesting arrangement of “Angels We Have Heard On High”. Watch this short video on this classic Christmas Carol:

The Alberti bass is just one style out of scores you can use in your piano playing. For a full course in applying various styles please see How To Dress Up “Naked Music” On The Piano

In this piano video I demonstrate a couple fairly unusual chord progressions for the old Christmas Carol “Jingle Bells”. The chord progression makes use of both a different rhythm and a different chord sequence. Watch:

Then click here: Christmas Carols Galore!

Sometimes if you voice chords in 4ths instead of 3rds you create a more contemporary sound. But it’s not real easy — you have to make sure to get the critical notes of a triad included, and that is often a two-part proceedure.

Watch this short video on some ideas for “O Christmas Tree”:

Then please go to Spectacularly Beautiful Christmas Carols for a series of full DVD courses on arranging Christmas Carols on the piano.

If you wanted to play “O Little Town Of Bethlehem” without depending on the sheet music, what would you do? Here are a few ideas:

Click here: O Little Town Of Bethlehem

Do you know how to use parallelisms in your piano playing? Parallelisms can create some lovely sounds in most any type of music. Watch this short video where I demonstrate how to use them in some Christmas Carols:

If you would like to be able to arrange Christmas Carols using a wide variety of techniques, please go to How To Play Spectacularly Beautiful Christmas Carols On The Piano!

When you play familiar songs on the piano, you don’t have to play them the same way everyone else plays them. You can put your own spin on them — your own personal touch and express your emotions. It’s not hard — just ask yourself “How else can I harmonize this melody note than the traditional way?” “How else can I change the rhythm or the melody or the chords? How else can I voice the chords? Arpeggios? Block chords?”

Watch this short video and I think you will start coming up with your own ways of arranging songs in a fairly short period of time:

For a complete course in this sort of thing, please go to How To Play Spectaculary Beautiful Christmas Carols!

Silent Night

This favorite carol was composed on a real ‘Silent Night.’ This famous carol might not have been written without a broken organ.

Possibly, it was the stillness of the moment that moved the Reverend Joseph Mohr to write those legendary verses in 1818. At the time, he was most likely motivated by sheer desperation as opposed to inspiration.

The Reverend Mohr was arranging the details for the Christmas Eve Mass in his parish within the tiny Oberndorf Village of Austria when he discovered the old church organ was out of order. With just a short time to go for the performance and the closest repairman days away, it seemed as though the Mass would have to go on without the arranged music.

Desperate to pull off a notable Christmas, Fr. Mohr ventured off to execute another arrangement. This all happened in the middle of his normal parish responsibilities as well as being asked to go out and bless a new baby. In the middle of this visit, Fr. Mohr was instantly hit by what the words to “Silent Night,” or “Stille Nacht” in German, really mean. He ended his conversation and rapidly made his way home, because he did not want to forget the lines that were quickly accumulating in his head.

In the English language the first four stanzas of Silent Night are: Silent Night, Holy night, All is Calm, all is bright, round yon’ virgin, mother and child. Holy infant so tender and mild, Sleep in Heavenly peace.

When he wrote the words down, he called his friend Franz Gruber, the parish choir director. In addition to his talent on the organ, Gruber was also an expert guitar player. Gruber forcefully told him that he was not a very good guitar player. Unfazed, Mohr offered his new verses of poetry to Gruber. Getting an old guitar, the two gentlemen wrote the music that would be known as the score for Oberndorf’s Christmas Mass.

Surely neither Mohr nor Gruber were aware of their future impact on history. For close to ten years, in fact, the song fell away into obscurity. It was, in fact, the Strasser family of Zillertal Valley that took the song “Silent Night” to a whole new musical level.

The talent of the Strasser children brought much business to their parents’ glove-making company. Not different from today’s talent scout finding a musical prodigy in the most precarious of places, the Strassers were presented with “Silent Night”. After being redone in four-part harmony the song catapulted the Strasser children to instant stardom. Because the Strasser children sounded so much like a choir of an angels the song was renamed “The Song From Heaven”. Because of their beautiful singing the Strassers were invited to perform in front of royalty.

It was possibly a king who prompted “Silent Night” to become a Christian standard. Twenty-two years after the Strasser children started performing it, King Frederick William IV of Prussia heard it and declared it should “be given first place in all future Christmas concerts” under his rule. The accuracy of the story has not been substantiated. What is clear, is that in spite of everything, “Silent Night” became a worldwide hit.

Silent Night

When Isaac Watts wrote “Joy To The World” based on a score by George Frederick Handel’s “The Messiah” he was writing about the 2nd coming of Christ — not the first advent as we almost all assume. Notice the words - particularly of the 2nd, 3rd and 4th verses:

Joy to the world, the Lord is come!
Let earth receive her King;
Let every heart prepare Him room,
And heaven and nature sing,
And heaven and nature sing,
And heaven, and heaven, and nature sing.

Joy to the world, the Savior reigns!
Let men their songs employ;
While fields and floods, rocks, hills and plains
Repeat the sounding joy,
Repeat the sounding joy,
Repeat, repeat, the sounding joy.

No more let sins and sorrows grow,
Nor thorns infest the ground;
He comes to make His blessings flow
Far as the curse is found,
Far as the curse is found,
Far as, far as, the curse is found.

He rules the world with truth and grace,
And makes the nations prove
The glories of His righteousness,
And wonders of His love,
And wonders of His love,
And wonders, wonders, of His love.

Here are a few random ideas on how you might create a fresh new sound for an old Christmas Carol:

For ideas galore on arranging Christmas Carols go to “The Secret of Arranging Spectacularly Beautiful Christmas Carols”

You can make an old Christmas Carol (or any song, for that matter) really come to life through the use of chord substitutions. Watch this free short video as I demonstrate how you can create an entirely new “feel” to an old carol such as “Silent Night”:

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If you enjoy this process, come on over to “The Secret of Arranging Spectacularly Beautiful Christmas Carols!”

Watch this short video for some ideas on re-harmonizing any song:

Using chord substitutions to re-harmonize a song is an excellent way to develop your own sound, your own style. For a complete course on arranging Christmas Carols on the Piano, click on this link:

Christmas Carols on the Piano

It seems like a long time until Christmas, but it has a way of sneaking up on us gradually until suddenly it’s upon us. If you want to be ready to play some Christmas carols, get out your carol books and start reviewing, and then come up with some new arrangements for an old carol to make it sound more interesting.

Here is a short video that illustrates one way you can do that:

Learn to arrange Christmas Carols!