Tag Archives: bass guitar songbook

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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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October Lesson Materials

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I decided to rename my newly-created ROCK BAND page, so it is now called SONGS. I didn’t want it to be specific Rock music or to the Rock Band I’m teaching. Instead it is any genre of songs that I’ve come across and decided to transcribe. Also, the songs are suitable for many different ability levels, so there should be something for everyone. Since I want this to be a hub for all of the songs that I have music for, I moved “Songs with One Progression”, “Mary Had a Little Lamb / Hot Cross Buns Medley”, “Amazing Grace”, “Two Hanukkah Songs (Treble Clef and Bass Clef”, and “I Can’t Help Falling In Love With You” from the GUITAR, UKULELE, PIANO, MALLETS, and BASS GUITAR pages to the SONGS page.

With many of the songs I took multiple approaches to how I notated them. The “lyrics and chords” PDFs are similar to what you might find on most websites, except that I edited them and added a simple version of music notation using text (“|” is a barline, “/” is a beat or quarter note, “-” is a sustain, “X” is a quarter rest, etc.). For example, strumming a G Major chord for four beats (quarter notes) would look like this: |G / / / |. Strumming a G Major chord on beat one and letting it ring out for the remaining three beats (whole note) would look like this: |G – – – |. Strumming a G Major chord on beat one and then muffling/silencing it for the remaining three beats (quarter note, three quarter rests) would look like this: |G X X X |. This gives more clarity about what the harmonic rhythm is. The “tab” PDFs have text-based tablature for songs that go beyond chord-strumming and have simple riffs. The “riffs” PDFs use more detailed music notation for songs that have riffs that might be too complex for text-based tab. The “YouTube” links are so that students can listen to recordings of the songs. The “guitar tutorial” links are to YouTube videos of how to play more complex riffs and songs.

All of these materials can be found under the FOR MY STUDENTS tab, on the SONGS page. 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.