Tag Archives: Christmas Music

teaching

Christmas Songbooks

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I’m finally putting the finishing touches on my Christmas Songbooks and getting them ready to sell! Originally they were intended for my ukulele and guitar students, and a rough draft had been available on my website. Now I’ve separated the songs into two books, and both are available in the key of C Major and the key of G Major. For beginners I recommend the C Major version for ukulele students and the G Major version for guitar students, because they use the easier chords that are initially learned on those instruments. For intermediate students who have gone on to learn even more chords, I recommend the opposite keys (G Major for ukulele and C Major for guitar). Coming soon, there will be bass clef versions of both books, available in the same two keys, and possibly an alto clef version if there is enough demand for it. In the rough draft there were also two Hanukkah songs, but I took those two songs out and they are available separately for free (under “For My Students” on the instrument pages). 

All of the songs are arranged in the same way: with the melody and words in the top staff, and the chords with basic rhythm slashes in the bottom staff, which allows for the songs to be played in a number of ways. The initial way I intended is to stem the chords in the written rhythm, while singing the words and melody. If a student has started working on different strumming rhythms (from my Strumming Rhythms Index or from other resources) they could strum one of the other rhythms they learned in place of the written rhythm. If a student has learned to read the notes on the staff, they could play the notes of the melody (as long as the melody is within the range of the instrument). If the student has learned finger-picking, they could do finger-picking patterns for the chords instead of strumming them. If the student has started learning scales, they could play major and minor pentatonic riffs/solos over the chords.

There is also the potential for the books to be used for other instruments as well. If a piano student knows chords, they could play the melody in their right hand and play the chords in their left hand, or they could sing the melody, play the chords with their right hand and play the bass notes with their left hand. If a piano student doesn’t know chords, they could still play the melody with their right hand and play the bass notes with their left hand, or just the melody by itself with their right hand or both hands. (For piano students, I recommend C Major for beginners and G Major for intermediate students.) Voice students could sing the melody while they or their teacher plays the chords on piano as accompaniment. Any melodic instruments that read treble clef like flute, violin, mallet percussion instruments, etc. could also play the melody while their teacher plays the chords on piano. Instruments or singers that read bass clef like cello, string bass, bass guitar, bassoon, trombone, tuba, etc. could play the melody from the bass clef version of the books. (If enough viola students are interested, I will make alto clef versions of the books.) They could also be used to put ensembles of instruments together where some instruments/voices are playing the melody, others are playing the chords, and others a playing the bass.

The prices will soon be finalized once I finish assessing the printing costs, but they will all be reasonably priced. Book 1 is slightly shorter because it has 24 easier, mostly one-page songs, so it will be slightly less expensive. Book 2 is slightly longer with a few more songs than Book 1 and most of them are more difficult and two pages long, so it will be slightly more expensive. Soon there will be links to purchase all versions of the books on the instruments pages on my website.

teaching

Wrapping Up 2023

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Here’s a summary of all of the projects I worked on at the end of 2023.

In my Guitar Method Book I added Unit 7 (Minor Bar Chords, Root on the E String) and Unit 8 (Major Bar Chords, Root on the A String). I also started working on some basic riff exercises which I will post once I’ve tried them out with some of my students and revised them. In my Ukulele Method Book I added Unit 6 (The Key of A Major), Unit 7 (The Key of E Major), and Unit 8 (Progressions in Minor Keys). I also started working on a Bass Guitar Method Book with a focus on note-reading.

With my previous set of Practice Tracks, I realized there were two problems: (1) it was taking me forever to make them since I had to be very specific about the bass guitar part so that it would exactly match every chord progression, and (2) if the tempo was too fast for a student then they couldn’t use them at all. In my new Practice Tracks I used just drum set (no bass guitar) so that any chord progression can be played with them. They are organized by number of measures, so you just have to find the right amount of measures and the right musical form for the exercise or song that you want to play with them (four-measure phrases with repeats, 12-Bar Blues with repeats, and even full songs like Jingle Bells which is 32 measures in AABB form). To better accomodate a student’s gradual progress throughout the week, each Practice Track is now at seven different tempi, from slow to fast: 60, 75, 90, 105, 120, 135, and 150 beats-per-minute. I recommend starting with the middle speed (105 BpM), then adjusting from there (if it’s too fast, go to the previous one and if it’s too slow, go to the next one). Also, they used to be on separate pages (one for ukulele, one for guitar) but now they are all on the PRACTICE TRACKS page in the FOR MY STUDENTS drop-down menu, because they can be used with any instrument (ukulele, guitar, piano, bass guitar, etc.).

My big end of the year project was to create a songbook of winter holiday music. Since all of my private students celebrate Christmas it is mostly Christmas songs, but there are also two popular Hanukkah songs. There are 50 songs total, and each one is in both the keys of C Major and G Major (to accommodate ukulele and guitar chords as well as different voice ranges). Eventually I am going to split it into four separate books (easy songs in C Major, intermediate songs in C Major, easy songs in G Major, and intermediate songs in G Major), but for now it is just one big book. Even though it was originally intended for ukulele and guitar, it can be used by anyone who knows how to read notes on treble clef and/or anyone who knows chords. It can be found on the METHOD BOOK pages for guitar, ukulele, and piano.

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.

Concert Music

A Winter Carol for piano and orchestra

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Seasons Greetings!

I composed A Winter Carol a few years ago for a contest, and I recently cleaned up the orchestration and made a new mockup. If you are interested in performing it with your orchestra, let me know and I can send you a score to look over (if you don’t have access to a piano, we can figure out an alternative). If you have a concert band (or some other ensemble), let me know and I’ll do an arrangement to suit your ensemble.

A Winter Carol showcases the two best parts of winter: sitting inside where it’s warm (maybe with your favorite warm drink) while watching the falling snow, and playing outside in the snow.

Happy Holidays!