Preparing for Christmas Caroling

Preparing for Christmas Caroling is fun. The house smells like a good bakery. The turkey in the oven competes for attention in the battle for culinary Season flavors. A bouquet of nutmeg and cinnamon wafts from the kitchen and the family nonchalantly lays around the house watching TV as visions of Charlie Brown’s Christmas, the Miracle on 34th Street or the Night Before Christmas dance before everyones eyes.

And then Uncle Jerry, well into his fourth eggnog, says, “Hey, I got some guitars? Let’s sing some Christmas Carols!” Great. Let’s turn off the TV and make some seasonal music. Unfortunately what usually follows is a very un-Christmaslike hour of browsing on the internet, sifting through charts that look like they were typed by Mister Grinch on a dark Christmas Eve.

So we decided for less internet surfing and more caroling and I put a songbook together with 42 of the best known and popular Christmas Carols (old and contemporary) and added guitar chords and chord charts to each of them.
For the Trivia buffs among you I also added some fun facts and stories to each of the songs, which may (or may not) impress others over Christmas dinner.

For example, did you know that the original lyrics for that beautiful Christmas song: Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas, were quite ominous?

And for those who love to sing but can’t play an instrument, the lyrics without those hieroglyphic chord additions are repeated without visual interruption at the end of the book and can be printed out for a crowd of revelers.

42 Christmas carols, written in a format that I’ve found easiest to use in over 5 decades of playing guitar; all designed to get you playing beautiful music as quickly and easily as possible.

Old-fashioned Christmas is that Christmas thing we often call magical, and if I had to choose my favorite moment, it’s singing “Silent Night” when the clock hits midnight on Christmas Eve. We hope this songbook helps you rekindle some magic in your own home and neighborhood this holiday.

Practical Tips

Now a couple of practical tips to make it all look well-rehearsed should include a Gear Checklist for Sing-alongs including
• Songbook and Lyric Sheets
• Guitar with extra set of strings (as it may be a little colder outside)
• Capo, some spare picks (plectrums)
• Music Stand or iPad/Reader device
• Light

and if you’re caroling around your neighborhood, you’ll also need:

•  Headlamps or flashlights for everyone
•  Guitar Strap
•  A partner to hold your music
•  Cold outside? How about a chemical handwarmer to defrost your fingers in between songs? Ahhh..

Another tip: Punch binder holes in both edges of the printed pages, and organize them in a binder so that two-page songs display with the first page visible on the left, and second page on the right. This will avoid the hassle of having to flip pages mid-song, excluding of course the epic “The Twelve Days of Christmas,” also known as the “American Pie” of Christmas carols.

One last tip: I’ve tried to key each of these songs in the midrange so that both men and women can comfortably sing them. If you’re leading a spontaneous sing-along, just launching into these songs without fussing over a key should produce decent results.
If you have some time to plan, however, (a “surprise” performance at a senior citizens home of hospital wing maybe), here are some other tips. Women with high voices may want to sing an octave above the men on some songs. If all singers prefer a higher key, slap on a capo. 
If you prefer a lower key, you have two options. The first is to transpose the song if you know how and the other option is the capo-higher-to-sing-lower trick. Place the capo high on the fretboard–6th or 7th fret, or even higher if you can crowd your fingers on the frets. This would normally mean singing in a key 6 or 7 half-steps higher than the original, right? But if you sing one octave lower those incredibly high notes, you’ll now be singing in a key lower than before you slapped on the capo. Warning: Your guitar will lose some depth and power, but though I hate to admit it, finding a good singing key almost always trumps a good guitar sound.

You may purchase this great songbook “The Easy Christmas Songbook for Guitar” from Amazon for the fair price of $4.99 per download.

Preparing for Christmas Caroling will add a completely new dimension to your holiday season.