The Jazz Guitar Chord Dictionary
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  1. #1

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    Any suggestions for exceptional chord melody arrangements of Christmas songs?
    Wrong time of year i know....
    Rob

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  3. #2

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    Quote Originally Posted by RobKay
    Any suggestions for exceptional chord melody arrangements of Christmas songs?
    Wrong time of year i know....
    Rob
    It's the right time of year all right, given that these can be as challenging as any other tunes to bring up to performance standards.


    I have at least two of the books listed below. On this topic I have a few thoughts:
    1. Not all Christmas tunes lend themselves well to jazz guitar chord melody arrangements. Some are just too traditional and simple.

    2. Tunes that were composed on a jazz footing work well (The Christmas Song, Christmas Time is Here, etc.), but there aren't really that many.

    3. You can make your own arrangements or re-arrange/alter some of those listed below. That's what those arrangers did after all. It ain't illegal to alter a decent arrangement to your liking - in other words just treat it as a starting point. The arrangements are all obscure anyway, so no one will know if you've changed them. Just make it sound good and people will love it.




    https://www.amazon.com/Christmas-Sta...gateway&sr=8-5

    https://www.amazon.com/Christmas-Jaz...6DX3WJF00HYVCX

    https://www.amazon.com/Christmas-Car...W0RHW0905807EP

  4. #3
    Hal Leonard's "Real Christmas Book" has great jazz changes for the traditional carols and songs, if you otherwise arrange chord melody from real books etc. Much better than reinventing the wheel for once a year needs.

    It's very small for a real book , but it's money well spent if you fit in the particular niche I'm describing above.

  5. #4

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    Jeff Arnold has 3 different volumes of pickstyle Christmas chord melody solos that have nice arrangements in them that you don't have to kill yourself to play!

    There are also video clips of some of the arrangements.

  6. #5

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    Tim Lerch has some nice arrangements.

  7. #6

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    It's Beginning to Look a lot Like Christmas is a fun song to play chord-melody on.

    Bing made it a hit for that reason.

  8. #7

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  9. #8

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    Tim Lerch has already been recommended. I second that!

    There are some more arrangements in the same style on tedgreene.com

    Another forum-fellow has a book on Christmas tunes:



    I like to do it myself. It is really amazing how most of the traditional (german) carols work with 1625-progressions, no matter what the original campfire chords are.

  10. #9

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    Quote Originally Posted by Stanford J17
    I like to do it myself. It is really amazing how most of the traditional (german) carols work with 1625-progressions, no matter what the original campfire chords are.
    I’m a DIY guy too, but I learned how to do it but learning a bunch of arrangements like these. I’d probably get better add it if I learned some more advanced arrangements. Tim’s video offers both an easy and more advanced arrangement of at least one tune. That seem’s like a good idea so you have the option of choosing what you think you’re ready for, and eventually learning and comparing both.

  11. #10

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    Matt Warnock has some nice, clean Christmas solo guitar arrangements he sends out to his subscribers. They may be linked right on his site.

  12. #11

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    This collection of 2000 pieces for solo guitar includes a number of Christmas arrangements. Some are fairly complex.

    The scores are in TablEdit format. This is a notation program with a free reader for Mac, Windows, iOS and Android, that displays standard notation and/or tab, plays in midi, and has a fretboard diagram showing finger placement as the piece plays. Links are in the ReadMe file.

    Enjoy,
    John R.

    This is the download link:

    Sync.com | Control Panel
    Last edited by jrethorst; 09-05-2019 at 04:31 PM. Reason: clarify link

  13. #12

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    My repertoire at this point consists of three Christmas song instrumentals,

    The Christmas Song (a la Nat Cole)

    Oh Little Town of Bethlehem

    Let It Snow

  14. #13

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    Howard Morgen's Santa Claus is Coming to Town is accessible and cool...

  15. #14

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    Here's one I put up last year.
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