Tag Archives: bass guitar note-reading

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Christmas Songbooks and Two Hanukkah Songs

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Over the past two months, I was preparing my Christmas Songbook Book 1 for publishing, and it is now live on MyScore! There are seven different versions of the book, so please make sure to chose the one that fits the best. These books were originally intended for guitar and ukulele students with treble voice, but I’ve adapted them so that they can also be used for piano, bass guitar, bass voice, mallet instruments, and melodic band/orchestra instruments (flute, trombone, violin, etc.), including transposing instruments (clarinet, saxophones, trumpet, etc.). The 24 songs included in these books are: Angels We Have Heard on High, Away in a Manger, Deck the Halls, The First Noel, God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen, Good King Wenceslas, Hark the Herald Angels Sing, I Saw Three Ships, In the Bleak Midwinter, It Came Upon a Midnight Clear, Jingle Bells, Jolly Old Saint Nicholas, Joy to the World, O Christmas Tree, O Come All Ye Faithful, O Come O Come Emmanuel, O Holy Night, O Little Town of Bethlehem, Silent Night, Up on the Housetop, The Wassail Song (Here We Come A-Caroling), We Three Kings, We Wish You a Merry Christmas, and What Child is This?

Here are the descriptions of the various versions:

Christmas Songbook, With Melodies in Treble Clef, Book 1 in C Major: A collection of 24 Christmas songs in the key of C Major (and a few in A minor). Perfect for beginning ukulele students and intermediate guitar students (who can play an FM chord). Also great for singers and non-transposing instruments who read in treble clef (flute, oboe, mallet instruments, violin, etc.) and want to play with other students who are using the C Major book.

Christmas Songbook, With Melodies in Treble Clef, Book 1 in G Major: A collection of 24 Christmas songs in the key of G Major (and a few in E minor). Perfect for beginning guitar students and intermediate ukulele students (who can play DM and Em chords). Also great for transposing instruments in the key of F who read in treble clef (horn, etc.) and want to play with other students who are using the C Major book. Beginning guitar students who want to play with other students using the C Major book can also use the G Major book if they use a capo at the 5th fret.

Christmas Songbook, With Melodies for Piano, Book 1 in C Major and G Major: A collection of 24 Christmas songs in the key of C Major or G Major (and a few in A minor or E minor). Perfect for beginning to intermediate piano students who want to play melodies using both hands, mostly in Middle C Position (some songs use a few alterations). Also great for piano students who want to play with other students who are using the C Major and/or G Major books.

Christmas Songbook, With Melodies in Bass Clef, Book 1 in C Major: A collection of 24 Christmas songs in the key of C Major (and a few in A minor). Perfect for beginning bass guitar students. Also great for singers and non-transposing instruments who read in bass clef (bassoon, trombone, tuba, cello, string bass, etc.) and want to play with other students who are using the C Major book.

Christmas Songbook, With Melodies in Bass Clef, Book 1 in G Major: A collection of 24 Christmas songs in the key of G Major (and a few in E minor). Perfect for intermediate bass guitar students. Also great for bass guitar students who want to play with beginning guitar students who are using the G Major book.

Christmas Songbook, With Melodies in Treble Clef, Book 1 in D Major: A collection of 24 Christmas songs in the key of D Major (and a few in B minor). Perfect for intermediate-advanced guitar and ukulele students who want a challenge. Also great for transposing instruments in the key of B-Flat who read in treble clef (clarinet, tenor saxophone, trumpet, etc.) and want to play with other students who are using the C Major book.

Christmas Songbook, With Melodies in Treble Clef, Book 1 in A Major: A collection of 24 Christmas songs in the key of A Major (and a few in F-Sharp minor). Perfect for advanced guitar and ukulele students who want a challenge. Also great for transposing instruments in the key of E-Flat who read in treble clef (alto or baritone saxophone, etc.) and want to play with other students who are using the C Major book.

Links to purchase my Christmas Songbook Book 1, as well as free PDFs of Two Hanukkah Songs, can be found under the FOR MY STUDENTS tab, on the BASS GUITAR, GUITAR, MALLET INSTRUMENTS, PIANO, SONGS, and UKULELE pages. As always, please let me know if you use any of these teaching materials with your students, and if you find them helpful, or if you have any questions or comments.

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July/August 2026 Lesson Materials

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Over the last two months I made many updates to my lesson materials. I updated my BASS GUITAR page with a free PDF of my Bass Guitar Chords Method part 1, a free PDF of my Strumming Rhythms Index part 1, as well as a link to purchase Book 1, a free PDF of my Bass Guitar Note-Reading Method part 1, a free PDF of my Bass Guitar Recital Songs 1 to 6,  and recordings of Recital Songs 1 to 5. I updated my Guitar and Ukulele Karate Belt Requirements by re-distributing the Strumming Rhythms Index (only starting it in Orange Belt so they can get through all of Level 1 first). I also updated my Snare Drum Method Book, Level 1 (Lessons 1 to 4), which now includes 2/4, 4/4, and 3/4 time, and I also added Snare Drum Recital Song 1.

Most of my time was spent adding to my SONGS page, including All Mixed Up by 311 (lyrics and chords), Another Brick in the Wall (Part 2) by Pink Floyd (lyrics and chords), Bad Blood by Bastille (lyrics and chords), Clint Eastwood by Gorillaz (lyrics and chords), Come Sail Away by Styx (piano and riffs), Eye of the Tiger by Survivor (riffs and lyrics and chords, with and without capo), Heathens by Twenty One Pilots (lyrics and chords), House of Gold (with and without a capo) by Twenty One Pilots (lyrics and chords), How Soon is Now? by The Smiths (lyrics and chords), Louie Louie by The Kingsmen (lyrics and chords), Lovesong by The Cure (lyrics and chords), Nutshell by Alice In Chains (riffs) and (lyrics and chords), Radioactive by Imagine Dragons (lyrics and chords), Rainbow Connection by Kermit the Frog (lyrics and chords), Ring of Fire by Johnny Cash (riffs and lyrics and chords, one with the meter simplified), Take On Me (with and without capo and acoustic version) by A-Ha (lyrics and chords), Three Little Birds by Bob Marley (lyrics and chords), and Wild Thing by The Troggs (lyrics and chords). After the addition of these songs, I also updated my Guitar, Ukulele, and Piano Setlist Curriculums.

All of these materials can be found under the FOR MY STUDENTS tab, on the BASS GUITAR, GUITAR, PIANO, SNARE DRUM, SONGS, and UKULELE pages. As always, please let me know if you use any of these teaching materials with your students, and if you find them helpful, or if you have any questions or comments.

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June Lesson Materials

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Lately I have been working on extensive additions and edits to my Ukulele, Guitar, and Bass Guitar Method Books. I wanted to add more familiar songs to my Note-Reading Method Books for Ukulele, Guitar, and Bass Guitar, so I added Hot Cross Buns, Mary Had a Little Lamb/Merrily We Roll Along (both without  and with the high note), Ode to Joy, London Bridge, Ring Around the Rosie, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, Row Row Row Your Boat, French Song, Old MacDonald, Yankee Doodle, and Happy Birthday. I added these songs at appropriate points throughout the lessons, all in various keys (mostly in C Major, F Major, and G Major, but a few of them are also in D Major and Bb Major). I also changed the name of my original Ukulele and Guitar Method Books to “Chord-Strumming Method”, in order to better differentiate it from the “Note-Reading Method”. I added and updated PDFs of all of these lessons on the “Ukulele”, “Guitar” and “Bass Guitar” pages.

In my Mallets Method Book, I added the same songs to Unit 1 (The Key of C Major), Unit 2 (The Key of G Major), and Unit 3 (The Key of F Major) and also updated the PDFs on the “Mallets” page.

For Bass Guitar, I also started a method book, which I am calling “Bass Guitar Chords Method Book” (for lack of a better name). This book parallels my Guitar Chord-Strumming Method Book, and is meant to teach a bass player what to play in order to follow the guitar player. It teaches the bass player what the root, 3rd, 5th, and octave is for each chord, so that they will know what their options are. My Guitar and Bass Guitar Method Books could be used together as a sort of “Rock Band Method Book” if a teacher needed material for guitar and bass students to play together. PDFs of the “Practice Instructions and Fretboard”, “Unit 1: Major and minor Chords”, and “Unit 2: Common Chords Progressions” of the Bass Guitar Chords Method Book can be found on my “Bass Guitar” page.

Please let me know if you use any of these teaching materials with your students, and if you find them helpful, or if you have any questions or comments.