Jingle Bells

About this piece

The tune stays on the open strings and the first three frets, and it leans on the open E string. The strum is the folk strum: down, down-up, (miss), up-down-up. Keep the hand moving down and up even where it misses the strings, and the rhythm takes care of itself. Bar 7 changes from C to G7 halfway through.

What it practices

• C, F and G7
• the folk strum
• repeated notes
• a dotted rhythm

Chords in this song

C · F · G7

Each link opens the chord finder with more ways to play that chord.

Where the notes come from

Melody as in our piano version of Jingle Bells, whose chorus was checked note by note against an ABC tune file from a University of Calgary course page (pages.cpsc.ucalgary.ca). The chords follow that version’s left hand, with G7 for G. Our checking script compares the two melodies beat by beat.

How to practice with it

1. Listen first. Press Play and follow along. The note being played lights up in the tab, in the notation and on the fretboard, and the chord being played lights up in the row of chord diagrams.
2. Learn the chords. Press each diagram to hear it, then practice changing between them slowly, before you add the strum pattern under the tab.
3. Slow it down. Use − and + to set the tempo. 60% is a good place to start; the notes keep their pitch.
4. One part at a time. Choose Tab only to hear the tune alone, or the other part alone, then put them together.
5. Loop the hard part. Under More…, turn on Loop, pick the bars, and play them a few times in a row. Count-in gives you a bar of clicks before it starts.

Click a bar in the music to start from there. Space plays and pauses. Left-handed? Turn on the left-handed view: the chord diagrams and the fretboard are mirrored to match your instrument. Tab reads the same either way: the top line is always the first (highest) string.