Christmas Sheet Music

OK, so it’s almost that time again: Turkey, Christmas pudding, guy with fat red suit, feuerzangenbowle…however you chose to celebrate in you own country there will be one thing in common for all of us: friends and relatives. Whether it’s you’re Gran and Grandma coming over tell you how much you’ve grown, or you’re closest friends having a few drinks there’ll undoubtedly come a time for the entertainment. This means getting your guitar out!

If you’ve suffered through this time every year, or you’ve never done it before, there always comes the problem of knowing what to play. So I’ve decided to offer a little help with your Christmas repertoire, thanks to Virtual Sheet Music.com (who I am an affiliate of). Who have a great collection of Christmassy carols and tunes that should keep your grandma/drunken mates entertained for the rest of the evening- because we all like a good sing along, don’t we?

That’s not all! If all I had to tell you in this post was that you can buy sheet music from the Internet it, frankly, wouldn’t be worth my time writing a whole post. If you’re Internet-savvy enough to find and read my blog, you’re going to know that you can also buy things on the Internet. That’s not the good part.

You see, not only do Virtual Sheet Music.com have all the classic Christmas sheet music (Jingle Bells, Silent Night, We Wish You a Merry Christmas…) for most types of ensembles (so, if some of your mates play other instruments, get them involved too!), they also provide MP3 backing tracks for most of the carols. This means that even if you have no friends (or at least no musical friends), you can still strum along to a backing track and keep your aunt and uncle entertained. Easy, right?

…but that’s not all…

Have an iPhone? Well, Virtual Sheet Music.com have this cool new iPhone application which includes the basic Christmas carols.

I would like to state that I wouldn’t even be talking about this unless I thought it could be helpful. I mean, I’ve done it myself when friends and relatives come to visit- there is invariably always one who goes “Go on! Get yer guitar out!”. The problem is that most of the time you’re unprepared (no matter how many times it’s happened in previous years!). At least this way, when the time comes, you’ll be able to whip out “Jingle Bells” and keep your Grandma happy.

I’ve always stressed the importance of learning to read sheet music over guitar tab, and why it’s a good idea to learn to sight-read. However, if you’re unable to read sheet music (yet…), there’s a large selection of Christmas tabs at Ultimate Guitar.com. The main disadvantage of a tab site like this is that the tabs are written by members, which leads to some being very inaccurate- I’ve even seen many where the whole tune is tabbed out on only one string!

Either way, I wish you all the best for this Christmas, and if you want to stay updated on my blog, please don’t forget to subscribe!

December 23, 2009 at 11:24 am | Music News and Opinions | No comments