One of my best Christmas gifts was a guitar when I was age 13. My parents gave me a beginner nylon string classical guitar. When I was 14, I started taking guitar lessons at a local music store. Gratefully, I still continue to play guitar, as well as bass, harmonica, and more recently I started learning to play the ukulele.
Another favorite Christmas gift from my parents, two years later, was a songbook of Christmas Carols for beginner guitar. The first carol I learned to play on guitar was “Silent Night”. This carol is in 3/4 time (3-count) and is well-suited for beginner guitar players, as the tempo is slow to moderate. This song also uses only three chords (C, F, G). The G chord is sometimes played as G7.
In addition, there are melody phrases that are repeated, which make learning to play this song easier. For example, the opening phrase (measures / bars 1 – 2) is repeated in measures 3 – 4. This opening phrase also appears in the last two bars of these 4-bar phrases: measures 9 – 12 and 13 – 16. Those two 4-bar phrases are also another example of melody repetition.
I have included two related posts for Silent Night, one for guitar and one for ukulele, and both in the key of C. That means if you have a friend or family member who plays ukulele, you can play a duet of Silent Night. One person can play the melody and the other the chords. You can repeat a second verse and switch who plays the chord and melody parts. Your duet could also be two guitars or two ukuleles.
Merry Christmas!
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