Song 1 - Jingle bells

Hello and welcome to this little series that I am calling the 12 Songs of Christmas. In this series we'll be checking out 12 well-known Christmas songs and Christmas carols that are perfect for having a strum and sing-along, be it either with friends and family or along to me with you joining in these videos. Uh, this first song is, uh, of course, the quintessential Christmas song Jingle Bells. No Christmas is kind of complete without this. And sleigh, uh, you may notice that I'm wearing my specs in this video. Uh, I'm wearing my glasses. Um, that's not just because I'm a little old now, I'm 34, thanks for asking. Um, but I do have these, uh, chord sheets, but every song in this entire series, they're downloadable. Um, and they'll all be embedded directly underneath the videos, um, so that you can work from those as well, and I want to be able to see those as clearly as possible to make sure I play them accurate to those as we go along. Uh, this first song as well just has four basic open chords. They are. The G major chord, which I'm gonna be playing like this. And uh I'll cover why in one second. This is the forefinger way of playing a G chord. The next chord in the song is a C major chord. We also have a D major chord. And it is that D major chord, which is why I'm playing this way of doing a G so that we've got that anchor finger between the G and the D, because this chord change happens an awful lot, so that may be something that you want to. Have a little practise over. And we do have a have 1/4 chord, but it only happens very briefly. It's the A major chords just on one horse open sleigh, hey, OK? So that A, we don't have to worry about it too much. What we need is a good change between the G, the C major. And the D major chords. Now we do have an easier option, um, although I really wanna encourage, you know, we're gonna be doing basic strumming in this song, it's so fast anyway that if I've found over the years that if we have faster strumming in this as well, it just tends to get a little bit hectic and it's not needed. So all we're gonna be going for is just strumming the pulse of this song. But if you still find it too much of a change from the G to the C chord, I would recommend that you go for a C, add 9 instead. So this is G And CA 9 like this. We can then change to the D, but when we do that, we're not moving that third finger, and therefore it's gonna have even more of a line, so if it means an easier change, your fingers are gonna get more tired more quickly if we have them down all the time. So fingers aren't being used, rest them is one of my biggest tips there. Um, so just to give you a gist of the way that I would have you do this, if we look at that chorus burst of all, this would go jingle. away. Oh what is to One horse open sleigh, hey. OK, and that's as difficult as it gets, that is as difficult as this song gets, other than just, you know, learning, uh, the whole thing, but if you can follow a chord sheet and you practise following chord sheets, that won't be too tough for you at all. What was happening there was I was strumming on the pulse of the song, which is called the beat, so a count of 1234. But rather than worrying about where the bars and beats are and how, you know, how many strums to do per chord, I'm just keeping ticking away on the G chord. Until we get to, so from jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way. Oh what fun. So it's which chord uh happens on a certain word, which is the method that we're going through through this entire course. Probably the most common way that you may have learnt songs so far. Um, it's on oh what fun. It is to ride, it's back to the G. A one horse open sleigh. So jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way. Oh what fun it is to ride in a one horse open sleigh. Let's just do that one more time, but we'll do the second part of the verse, which is a different finish. It's one horse open sleigh. It's D to G right at the end there. So that second half of the verse, jingle bells, jingle bells. All the way I I to O slain, and that's where throughout this course and throughout any time you're learning any song where the chord sheet is laid out such as this, that's the first thing we do. Just have a strum through it, strumming each chord once, saying the words, um, you know, or singing them, but even just speaking the words to the right rhythm means you can get a handle on what's happening. And then we just need to feel that beat or the pulse that's happening behind the song, sort of jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way. And that's all we're gonna do with the strumming hand, we're just gonna keep ticking away. Just drumming, and then it's the chord hand that needs to change at the appropriate time. OK, so let's have it, let's go through that chorus using that method. If you have to rewind the video and check this out a couple of times, that's totally fine. And I encourage you to join in with me at all times where possible. Grab your guitar and join in with me. From the top of the chorus on the G chord. Strumming on the beat, 234, jingle. one. A one horse. Slave. So there's just that slight change at the end there when instead of going to the A, it goes to the D because of the change of melody in a. And throughout all this song, that right hand should be ticking away, so even if you slow this down, do it slower, jingle. Vowels. Keep that right hand even and just keep it ticking away, and it's the job of the other hand to change in time on the correct word that is said. Let's have a look at the first verse now. All the verses are exactly the same, but, but the chord sheet shows every verse with the chords along with it, so you know exactly what to do throughout this entire song. Let me give you an example of the first half of that verse so we can see what's happening. 2, 3, 4, dash. Fields we So same idea as the verse, but just changing between the G. and the D. Top tips with the C chord if you're struggling with it at all. Keep your elbow in, keep your fingers curled over like you're, like you're kind of an angry wolf or something, or ah kinda like that. Honestly, that's exactly what we need to do, and having the elbow in puts your fingers on this angle just like this, and then curling the fingers over means that all the strings ring out. I also have my thumb on top. Uh, which just mutes it, that means that I can actually strum all six strings at all times. If you can't do that, just try not to let that thickest string ring out too much. Don't, don't strum it, basically, just aim a little bit lower. But it's really best to try and just have that thumb on top, but therefore we really have to focus on that Wolfman curling the fingers over. It's really important. Of course, you have the Siad knife. If you're unsure at any point, you just in your mind, swap out that C for a CA 9 to you, they have a very similar function. So once throughout the whole verse, just strumming once per chord, every time you see that chord, you strum and join along with me. In 234. The snow in a one horse open sleigh. Over fields we Laughing all the Bobtail ring, making spirits. What fun it is to Sing a sleigh. So that's just strumming once per chord every time we see that chord written down and now we're gonna go through the same thing nice and slowly.