21 Easy Ukulele Songs for Christm

Tabl ablee of Conten Contents ts Why You Should Buy This Book  Introdu ntroduction ction How Ho w to Sign Up for the Members’ Members’ Area of ukulele.io Two Chord Christmas Songs Songs Oh Christmas Tr ee ee I Saw Three Three Ships Three Th ree Chord Christmas Christmas Songs Jingle Jing le Bells Bel ls O Com Come, e, Little Little Chil Childre dren n Good King Wenceslas King Wenceslas Up on the Housetop Awa way y in a Mange Manger  r  Over the River Ri ver and Through the Wood Silent Sil ent Night Joy to the World World Four Fo ur Chord Holiday Holiday Songs Jolly Old Saint Nicholas Nicholas Deck the Halls the Halls Auld Lang Lang Syne Minor Mi nor Mode   Patapan We Th Three ree Kings What Wh at Child Child Is This? God Rest Ye Ye Mer Merry ry Gentle Gentlem men Holiday Songs with 5 to 7 Chords O Come Come All Ye Ye Faithf Fai thful ul Hark the the Heral Herald d Angels Angels Sing The Twel welve ve Days of Chri Christm stmas as We Wis Wish h You a Mer Merrr y Chri Christmas stmas Glossary Recommended Recomm ended Readi Reading ng

Copyright © 2015 by Rebecca Bogart and Jenny Peters All Rights Rights Reserved Reserve d ISBN-13: ISBN-13: 978-1518681554 978-15186 81554

Printed in the USA All rights reserved. Except for the quotation of small passages for the purposes of criticism or review, no  part of th this publication may may be reproduced, stored stored in a retrieval system system,, or retransmitted retransmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning or otherwise, without the  permissi  permission on in writing of the the auth authors. ors. Contact Contact the the auth authors: ors: ukulele.io/contact-us

Why You Should Buy This Book  Are you tired of looking for Christmas songs at your skill level? Learning holiday music doesn’t have to  be frustrating when you learn with 21 Easy Ukulele Songs for Christmas. We’ve written it specifically for   beginning ukulele players who have learned the C, F, and G7 chords and a few basic strums. And we’ve  put careful thought into creating great sounding yet easy to play versions of seasonal favorites. We’ve arranged the book so you can master the easiest music first and then gradually tackle harder tunes as your  skills improve. Musical and Tab Notation

You’ll be able to play from 21 Easy Ukulele Songs for Christmas for more than one season because we’ve included lots of different ways to play each song.

All of the songs are written out on a standard music staff   with a treble clef. Lyrics appear below the musical notation, and a chord  letter appears above it each time there’s a chord change. Readers who  prefer to play their uke by ear will find that the lyrics and chord changes are all they need, while those who like to read music will find everything they need to play new songs in no time. We’ve also included ukulele tablature  notation for all 21 songs in this book. Below the music staff is a tab staff   that works like a road map showing you how to pluck   the melody on the strings of the ukulele. This way you can either sing the song and strum the chords, or play the melody. If you have a friend or  family member who plays ukulele, you can create duets, with one person playing melody and the other one strumming chords. We usually suggest several strumming patterns for each song. Some strums are easier when you are first learning a song, and some are more difficult so you can upgrade to a more complicated rhythm  as you gain more skill. Finally, each song has an accompanying online lesson video with lyrics and chord changes so you can hear as well as see the music. It’s a very friendly way to learn musical skills and have fun while you’re learning. To set up your account on the authors’ website, please follow the directions in the section on  page 9 called “How to Sign Up for the Members’ Area of ukulele.io ” Once you have mastered the basic sing and strum version of each song, you can add interest and variety by trying the new versions of each song provided in this book and on the web at ukulele.io. With 21 Easy Ukulele Songs for Christmas, you’ll be excited to pick up your ukulele and tackle new

music of the season! And soon you’ll find it easy to strike up an impromptu caroling session when you take out your uke and start to strum – even with people who wouldn’t be caught singing at any other time of the year! You’ll be able relax, celebrate and share the joy of Christmas music with your family and friends. You’ll find a nice mix of secular and sacred tunes in this book, with a bit of history and some little-known facts for each one: Oh Christmas Tree I Saw Three Ships Jingle Bells Good King Wenceslas Up on the Housetop Over the River and Through the Wood O Come, Little Children Away in a Manger  Silent Night Joy to the World Jolly Old Saint Nicholas Auld Lang Syne Deck the Halls Patapan God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen We Three Kings What Child Is This? O Come All Ye Faithful Hark the Herald Angels Sing The Twelve Days of Christmas We Wish You a Merry Christmas

Speaking of 21 Songs in Six Days . . . if you have any difficulty with the Christmas songs in this book, you can get all the basics of the ukulele under your belt by working through its six days and 40-plus lesson videos. Get your copy at ukulele.io/Buy21Songs . Want Ukulele Free Stuff?

ot ready to commit? Visit ukulele.io/freestuff   to sign up for lots of free ukulele stuff: lesson videos, tab sheet music for ukulele, and news about other ebooks. To make sure you get all this free stuff, you need to give us your email address. We never sell or rent out our email list, so you don’t need to worry about

spam or losing your privacy. Buy 21 Easy Ukulele Songs for Christmas now so you can share the gift of music with your family and friends this holiday season.

Introduction Welcome to 21 Easy Ukulele Songs for Christmas! We’re glad you’re here. Before we get started: if you see a word in bold italics, that means it’s defined in the glossary at the end of the book. In the lesson videos at ukulele.io we perform a simple arrangement of each tune, with one of us singing while strumming chords while the other plays a melody on the ukulele. This approach lets you see both ways of playing the song. Use your own imagination and preferences to come up with a way that works  best for you. Here’s what we do: 1. Sing and strum one or two verses 2. Jenny plays the melody and Rebecca strums the chords 3. Sing and strum another verse and/or chorus to round out the song.

Thanks for buying this book. We hope you enjoy the book and lesson videos. Sharing is a good thing, so why not leave a review of 21 Easy Ukulele Songs for Christmas on Amazon? Here’s a convenient link: ukulele.io/xmasreview . Your review will help other ukulele-playing book shoppers make their decision about what to buy. How to Read Tablature Lines of the Tab Staff 

Each line of the tab staff represents a string on the ukulele. Unfortunately, standard tab notation requires the lines to be placed upside down from how they are arranged on the ukulele. So: The top line of the tab staff is the A-string (the string closest to the floor when you’re playing). The line below that is the E-string. The line below that is the C-string. The bottom line of the tab is the G-string, which is the string closest to the ceiling when you are  playing.

Numbers on the Tab Staff 

The numbers on the lines tell you which fret to play. A 0 means to pluck a string with your right hand without using your left hand at all. A 1 means to put one of your left hand fingers in the first fret and push down on the string. This is called fretting or stopping  the string. A 2 means to stop the string in the second fret.

Our first song is Oh Christmas Tree (on page 12). Look below the regular staff for the tab staff and see which string line the number is on. Then use your left hand to stop that string in the fret that matches the number shown. Remember that 0 means an open string. For the first note , don’t do anything with your left hand and pluck the C-string with your right hand. For the second, third and fourth notes, stop the E-string in the first fret. For the fifth note, stop the E-string in the third fret.

Be sure to watch the lesson video to help you learn faster. You will see Jenny stopping and plucking the strings, and in the bottom of the screen you will see a red circle around the tab number that matches what she is doing. You will also be able to hear how the fingerpicked melody should sound. If you think the ukuleles in the lesson videos sound different from yours, it’s not your imagination! We are  playing tenor ukuleles in the videos, so our G-strings are one octave  lower than the soprano ukulele that most folks play. Tab staff doesn’t show tenor uke’s low G because there’s no room for it, but as you train our musical ear you’ll be able to hear the difference. Fingerpicking Technique

Jenny uses two different ways of fingerpicking the melodies of the songs. Plucking with your index finger: use this method for a faster moving song. Put your right thumb against the edge of the fretboard and pluck with your right index finger, pulling the string toward the ceiling to make the sound. This method will give you more rhythmic control and let you play faster. Plucking with your thumb:  use this method for a slower moving song. This method will give you a richer sound.

As you work your way through the book, we’ll also teach you how to fingerpick chords one note at a time (called “broken” chords) and how to do a technique called a “hammer on” for quick moving melody notes. Some Notes on Strumming

Here are the three main strumming patterns we will refer to in this book. Strum #1 All down strums on a steady beat

Strum #2 Down-up strums with an even division of the beat. All the strums are equally spaced.

Strum #3 Down-up strums with an uneven division of the beat. Wait a little longer after each down strum  before you play the next up strum.

Use the fingernails of your right hand for the down strum and the thumbnail of your right hand for the up strum. Learning these patterns takes time. If your fingers get sore, don’t worry. It can take a while to build up thicker skin. We’ll also suggest some more complicated strums later in the book that are derived from these three basic  patterns.

How to Sign Up for the Members’ Area of ukulele.io Before you go any farther, please visit the link below and sign up for the members-only area of ukulele.io. The special private link below is the ONLY way to create an account in the members’ area. ukulele.io/xmas ote that you cannot create a members’ area account from the home page. That’s because only purchasers of 21 Easy Ukulele Songs for Christmas are eligible to access the lesson videos. You will only need to do this once. We’ll send you an email with your user name and password so you won’t forget them. Once you’ve created your account using the private link above, then you can access the members’ area from the home page of ukulele.io. Simply click the red “login” button in the upper right corner to enter the members’ area. If you have any trouble creating an account, please drop us a note at ukulele.io/contact-us. We want you to start learning ukulele as quickly as possible!

Two Chord Christmas Songs “Let’s start at the very beginning, a very good place to start.  – RODGERS AND HAMMERSTEIN

Two chord songs are definitely a good place to begin with Christmas songs, and here are two of them to get you off to a good start. Each song will be presented as a sing and strum version with the melody and chords written in standard music notation on a treble staff. Underneath the standard musical notation is a line of tab so that you can learn to play the melody of the song too. Be sure to visit ukulele.io/xmas  to create an account in the members’ area if you haven’t already. Remember, you have to go to the secret web address ukulele.io/xmas to create your account; you can’t do it from the home page.

Learning F and C7 Chords

About the Songs Oh Christmas Tree

This cheerful carol originated in Germany as the folk song, “O Tannenbaum,” which is German for fir  tree. Although the melody dates back to the sixteenth century, the lyrics weren’t written until the early

1800s. German composer Ernst Anschütz wrote the first version of the song in 1819 as a lament about a faithless lover, unflatteringly comparing her with the constant green of the fir tree. In 1824 he converted the song to a Christmas carol, around the time that Christmas trees were becoming a popular custom in Germany. The song eventually found its way to the United States, where its melody became a state song, “Maryland, My Maryland,” in 1861. Although only the English translation of “O Tannenbaum” specifically mentions Christmas, the song is sung during the holiday season on both sides of the Atlantic. We recommend you use Strum #1 (all down strums) for Oh Christmas Tree. For fingerpicking the melody,  put your right thumb against the edge of the fretboard and pluck with your right index finger, pulling the string toward the ceiling to make the sound. This method will help you play faster. Here’s a quick review of how to read tablature. Each line represents a string on the ukulele. Standard tab notation requires the lines to be placed upside down from how they are arranged on the ukulele. So, the top line of the tab staff is the A-string (the string closest to the floor when you’re playing), the line below that is the E-string, the next line down is C-string, and the bottom line of the tab is the G-string, which is the string closest to the ceiling when you are playing. The numbers on the lines tell you which fret to play. A 0 means to pluck a string with your right hand without using your left hand at all. A 1 means to put one of your left hand fingers in the first fret and push down on the string. So, for the first note, don’t do anything with your left hand and pluck the C-string with our right hand. For the second, third and fourth notes, stop the E-string in the first fret. For the fifth note, stop the E-string in the third fret. Be sure to watch the lesson video at ukulele.io  to see how the tab symbols translate into movement and sound. I Saw Three Ships

This folk carol originated in England, probably in the fifteenth century. Very little is known about its origin. It may be based on an obscure German legend from 1162, when three ships are said to have sailed into Cologne bearing relics from the journey of the Three Wise Men at the time of the birth of Christ. The song itself doesn’t mention the Wise Men, though – the three ships refer to the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph. Although a song about ships seems a bit odd for an event that occurred in Bethlehem in the Middle East, the melody is likable and easy to play on the ukulele. For this song, you can choose from three different strumming patterns. Strum 1 (all down strums) is the easiest. Strum 3 (uneven down-up) works with the rhythm of the song since it is in 6/8 time. Fancy Triplet Strum  In the video lesson, Jenny shows how to do a triplet strum. This pattern is a down strum with the index finger, followed by a down stroke with the thumb and then an up stroke with the thumb. It makes a cool effect, but you need to practice it! Strumming up and down with your fingers rather than the whole arm will allow you to create a group of three strums at a faster speed.

Three Chord Christmas Songs Here are the three chords used in the songs in this chapter.

If you’ve never played ukulele before, you may find the G7 chord challenging. Another skill that new  players struggle with is being able to change the chords quickly and at the right time in the song. If you find playing these Christmas songs very challenging, you might want to work through our first book, 21 Songs in 6 Days: Learn Ukulele the Easy Way. We’ll walk you through learning five basic chords and give ou lots of practice on changing quickly and keeping time well. Here’s an easy link to pick up a copy:

ukulele.io/Buy21songs.

About the Songs Jingle Bells

Written in Boston in 1857, this song is not only an American Christmas carol, but a distinctly New England one. Listening to the melody, you can almost hear the clop-clop of the horses’ hooves and the ringing of sleigh bells. The composer, James S. Pierpont, wrote “Jingle Bells” for a Sunday school  program, but the song’s theme is secular, and in fact it’s probably the first secular Christmas song composed in the United States. Because sheet music versions often reference J. Pierpont as the author, the eighteenth-century Connecticut composer John Pierpont sometimes mistakenly gets credit for writing it. Even though it doesn’t contain a single reference to Christmas, “Jingle Bells” is probably the world’s most popular Christmas song. Since you probably know the melody very well, this is a great song to try learning to fingerpick the melody. Playing the chorus (“Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle all the way”) is pretty easy because it stays in the first position. Playing the verse (“Dashing through the snow”) is a lot harder because of the necessary position shifts with your left hand. Use the dots on the side of your ukulele’s fretboard to help ou gauge the distances. You can also only fingerpick the chorus and strum and sing the verses. If you haven’t watched any lesson videos yet, “Jingle Bells” is a good one to start with because Claire the Cat insistently participates in the lesson. We recommend using Strum #1 for this song, which is all down strums. O Come, Little Children

The original German title of this song is Ihr Kindelein, kommet. The lyrics were written by German Catholic priest Christoph von Schmid in 1801. Johann Abraham Peter Schulz, a German-born composer  of some note, set von Schmid’s words to music using a tune he composed while serving in the court of the King of Denmark a few years earlier. This carol celebrates the birth of Jesus by beckoning all children (and the child within each of us) to stand beside the innocent babe in the manger. It’s a lovely metaphor  and easy to add to your Christmas repertoire. Use Strum #1 to quickly learn the lyrics and chords for this simple song. Once you’ve got the hang of the lyrics and chords, try it with Strum #3 for a little more flair. Good King Wenceslas

To appreciate “Good King Wenceslas”, you need to accept a bit of artistic license. The beautiful melody dates back to the Middle Ages in Europe and was first written as a song about spring. In the 1800s, John Mason Neale, an English poet, added the lyrics and turned it into a Christmas carol. There really was a nobleman named Wenceslas. However, he was a duke, not a king, and he lived in tenth-century Bohemia rather than England. And while his name was Wenceslas, it would have been pronounced Vaclav in Czech. He did do many good deeds until his brother murdered him in a family struggle for political  power. Afterward he was considered a martyr and was declared the patron saint of Bohemia, now the Czech Republic. Although the song doesn’t mention the Christmas holiday, its theme of compassion for the  poor is an enduring message for every Christmas season. By the way, the Feast of Stephen is celebrated on

December 26th to commemorate Saint Stephen, the first Christian martyr. We’ve included a second tab version for this song so you can fingerpick the chords, which gives the song a nice medieval flavor to match the era of the tune. To make a great sounding accompaniment, your left hand continues to make the same chord shapes that you make when you are strumming while your right hand plucks one string at a time in a rhythmic pattern. Study the tab so you pluck the strings in the following order: G, A, C, E. An easier way to remember the order is that you pluck the outer strings first (going from bottom to top) and then the inner strings once (also from bottom to top). So you could chant “out, out, in, in” to keep track of what to do. Or just watch the lesson video at ukulele.io. Up on the Housetop

It’s hard to resist this sprightly little children’s carol with its vision of jolly Santa on the roof, ready to descend through the chimney with his enormous bag of Christmas toys. It was written in the 1860s by the Midwestern composer Benjamin R. Hanby. “Up on the Housetop” is second only to “Jingle Bells” as one of the earliest secular American Christmas songs. We can only hope that “good old Santa Claus” has a couple of ukuleles stashed away in his bag of Christmas joys. When you are first learning this song, use Strum #1. Once you’ve got the hang of the lyrics and chords, try this new strumming pattern of down, down-up-down, down-up-down. Each down strum comes on a beat of the music – all the down strums should be equally spaced in time – with each single up strum halfway  between two down strums.

Be sure to watch the lesson video for this song to get a feel for the rhythm. This new pattern is more complicated to learn because the amount of time after a down strum is different than the amount of time after an up strum. Away in a Manger

The rich imagery of the Nativity in this carol makes it a favorite at Christmas pageants and worship services. Its request for the Lord Jesus to “stay by my cradle ’til morning is nigh” gives it the ring of a child’s bedtime prayer or lullaby. The song is often attributed to Martin Luther, with the claim that he wrote it as a hymn for his children. Although Luther did write songs for his children, he didn’t write “Away in a Manger.” It was written by the American composer James Ramsey Murray in 1887, a few centuries after Luther’s time. “Away in a Manger” is a lullaby, so you should play it at a relaxed tempo. This song is in 3/4 time, also known as waltz time. You could use Strum #1 – all downs – or you could get a little more ambitious and try the new down, down-up, down pattern shown below. Each down strum comes on a beat of the music –  all the down strums should be equally spaced in time – with the single up strum halfway between the two down strums, between the second and third beats.

Ove r the River and Through the Wood

While the chords in this song are the same as the previous two, this song presents a new challenge. Because the rhythm or feel of the song is different, you might find maintaining a steady strum challenging. Try starting with the steady down strums of Strum #1. If you’ve mastered Strum #1 on this song, try azzing things up with Strum #3. Finally, if you’re ready for a challenge, watch the lesson video to learn how to do a triplet strum. This song was originally published as a poem in 1844 to celebrate the author’s memories of visiting her  grandmother at Thanksgiving. Lydia Maria Child was a teacher, writer, and prominent abolitionist in the American pre-Civil War era. Her poem was later set to music by an unknown composer. The song’s vivid images of traveling by horse-drawn sleigh predate “Jingle Bells,” and could have been the inspiration for  it. Depending on which holiday you’re celebrating, it’s easy to exchange “Thanksgiving” with “Christmas” in the lyrics of “Over the River” without much change in the rhythm. Silent Night

The title of this beloved Christmas carol sounds even more poetic in its original German: Stille Nacht, heilige Nacht. It was first performed in 1818 on Christmas Eve in St. Nicholas’ Church in Oberndof near  Salzburg, Austria. The musical heritage of the Salzburg area includes such legendary figures as Mozart and the Trapp Family Singers who inspired The Sound of Music, so it’s only fitting that Silent Night was created there. Father Joseph Mohr, the priest at St. Nicholas’, discovered on Christmas Eve that the church organ was unplayable, so he hurriedly wrote the lyrics and rushed them to Franz Xaver Gruber, the church organist in a neighboring village. Gruber set them to music in time for the midnight service. Since “Silent Night” is 3/4 time, you can use the down, down-up, down strumming pattern we suggested for “Away in the Manger”. Although the original performance featured a guitar  to replace the ailing organ, you can reenact it with your ukulele. Use the tab version to learn how to fingerpick the chords to accompany the melody. You can either sing the melody, or have someone play it on their ukulele. A picture is worth a thousand words, so please be sure to watch the lesson video if you are at all confused about how to fingerpick a broken chord. Joy to the World

This Christmas hymn triumphantly announces the birth of Christ. It’s a work of superb musicianship with classical overtones. The lyrics were adapted from Psalm 98 in 1719 by the English lyricist Isaac Watts, a  prolific writer who penned over 700 hymn lyrics as well 60 religious books. The music has been attributed to Handel’s Messiah, but despite the musical similarity, it’s far more likely that the tune is American in origin. The American composer Lowell Mason was well trained in classical music and  probably set Watts’ lyrics to music around 1839. The result is a delight to sing and play. The tempo of this song moves fast. When you are fingerpicking the melody, there’s a special technique called a “hammer on” to make it easier to play the notes quickly. Watch the video lesson for Jenny’s demonstration of how to place a second left hand finger on the fretboard to change the pitch of the string after you’ve plucked it with the right hand.

Four Chord Holiday Songs Our three 4-chord songs, Jolly Old St. Nicholas, Deck the Halls and Auld Lang Syne, add only one new chord to the three you played in the songs of the last chapter: A minor. Fortunately, it’s a very easy chord  – it only uses one finger.

Jolly Old Saint Nicholas

With its litany of Christmas wishes, this song about a whispered conference with Santa Claus is a children’s favorite. It’s one of the few well-known Christmas songs with no known author. Its style hints that it was written in the mid-1800s, and some musical experts suspect that its author is Benjamin R. Hanby, who wrote “Up on the Housetop” around the same time. It’s easy to make up new lyrics for  children (or adults) who want to list their favorite toys. Try inserting “bag of ukes” instead of “pair o skates” or “picture book” in the second verse and see how it works out. For this song we recommend doing Strum #1 when you are first learning it. Once you’ve got the hang o the lyrics and chords, you might try the more syncopated strumming pattern of down, down-up-down, down-up-down. This is the same pattern that we suggested for “Up on the Housetop.”

Deck the Halls

There’s no hushed reverence in this song – it’s all about Christmas partying! Although it’s one of the most famous holiday carols, very little is known about its heritage. It probably originated in Wales, but the lyrics fit the music a bit too neatly to be a translation from the Welsh language. Guesses at when it was written range from the Middle Ages in Europe, to 1881 in New York City where it was first printed. Because it has the character of an English madrigal, it seems to fit best in the sixteenth century, Shakespeare’s time. In fact, we suspect that the Bard himself was known to indulge in a bit of ”fa la la la la”! We suggest the same strums for “Deck the Halls” that we described for “Jolly Old Saint Nicholas.” In case you think we have run short on inspiration, the real reason we are suggesting the same strums again is

that often songs that have the same rhythmic feel, or meter, sound good with the same strumming patterns. In the sheet music, the meter is shown by the time signature , which is the two numbers aligned vertically over each other at the beginning of the song. Auld Lang Syne

Everyone knows and sings this classic New Year’s song. Its heritage is Scottish, and translated from its Scottish dialect the title means “old long since.” Although its first verse predates the eighteenth century, the Scottish poet Robert Burns contributed the second and third verses in 1788, so he often gets credit for  writing the entire song. In reality it’s much older than Burns, perhaps as old as the sixteenth century. “Auld Lang Syne” celebrates old times and the ringing in of the New Year. Since this song is in the same meter as “Deck the Halls” and “Up on the Housetop,” choose either all down strums, or the more ornate down, down-up-down, down-up-down pattern that we recommended for  these songs earlier in this book. “Auld Lang Syne” is played at a slow tempo, so it’s a good choice for  learning to play with up strums. This song is another one that sounds good with fingerpicked chords. Since it is in 3/4 time, you would use the same pattern of plucking described for “Silent Night”: pluck the outer  two strings once and then the inner two strings twice. We’ve made an easier version of this song with only four chords. In the video, Jenny adds an optional E7 chord in measures 7 and 14, shown in parentheses in the sheet music. Feel free to leave out this quick  chord change if it is difficult for you.

Minor Mode Two New Chords To tackle the next group of songs, you’ll have to learn three additional chords.

Patapan

This musical message to “the little drummer boy” was written long before the later song with that title. It hails from the Burgundy region of France and was written and composed by Bernard de la Monnoye around 1700. While most of us know about Burgundy because of its wine, it’s also a rich source o Christmas carols. In fact, Monnoye wrote a number of Christmas poems that are still in publication today. We love Patapan because of its brisk meter and its joyful message to Willie and his friends to celebrate Christmas with music. If you keep in mind that the E7 chord is shaped like the G7 chord it will be easier to learn. Take your time learning to play the D minor chord. It’s shaped like an F major  chord, but you have to collapse the knuckle of your middle finger to stop both the third and fourth strings at the same time. Practice changing  back and forth between F and D minor until your second finger easily drops into the collapsed position. You can simplify the process of learning this song by practicing these two chord progressions: Am to E7 to Am Am to Dm to E7 to Am

Once you are good at switching between these chord shapes, then go ahead and learn the melody, lyrics, and strumming pattern. Start with the easy pattern of one down strum per beat and put a strong accent on each down strum so it sounds like a drum. Another pattern that simulates a drumbeat is down, down-updown, down-up-down. (This is the same pattern we suggested for “Jolly Old Saint Nicholas” and “Up on the Housetop.”)

We Three Kings

The American Episcopal clergyman John Henry Hopkins, Jr., wrote this carol about the Three Wise Men to delight his nieces and nephews on a family Christmas visit to Vermont in 1857. Although the biblical Magi (Wise Men) in Matthew Chapter 2 weren’t exactly kings and their country of origin is unclear, the song tells a colorful story about their great journey as they followed the star of Bethlehem westward. We suspect that “Uncle Henry” was a master storyteller – at least on family holidays! The contrast between the verse and chorus of this song makes it more interesting. It starts out with the minor chord progression of A minor to D minor to E7 and back to A minor. It then shifts to major chords as it glowingly describes the “star of wonder” in the chorus. In the video, Rebecca uses a very easy strum – only one down strum per measure   – in order to concentrate on the chord changes. Jenny varies her strumming patterns between verse and chorus. She  begins with down, down-up, down for the verse and down-up, down-up, down-up for the chorus –  definitely for more advanced players. What Child Is This?

Set to the music of the sixteenth-century love song, “Greensleeves,” this delicate Christmas carol is a delight to play and sing. The author of “Greensleeves” is unknown, although King Henry VIII of England

claimed credit for writing it for one of his six wives. In reality it was probably written in the Elizabethan era, and in fact Shakespeare mentions it in one of his plays. The Christmas lyrics were written in 1865 by English  poet Willi William am Chatt Chatterton erton Dix. Dix. If you switch over to the the “Greensleeves” lyrics after after the the holidays are over, ou can play it all year long. We also add a fingerpicked version of the chords, to give this song a medieval flavor. Practice changing from A minor to G and back to A minor until this difficult chord progression becomes second nature. The song is in 3/4 time, so you can play a pattern of three down strums per measure, or the more challenging down, down-up, down strumming pattern. To make a great sounding fingerpicked accompaniment, begin by plucking the outer two strings. Then pluck the inner strings twice in a row  before going going back to plucking plucking the the outer outer strings. strings. Your left hand hand would continu continuee to make the the same same chord shapes that you make when you are strumming. Keep track by chanting, “out, out, in, in, in, in.” God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen

ot just another Christmas carol, this song is the carol that provided the title for Dickens’ famous Christmas story. Early in A Christmas Carol, a street child approaches Scrooge and quotes the first two lines of this song before the old man chases him away. Shortly afterward, Scrooge is given plenty o things to be dismayed about. The song itself probably predates Dickens by a few centuries. Its words and rhythm strongly resemble the style of Shakespeare’s time, which would put it in the sixteenth century. The author, however, remains unknown. This song also uses the D minor chord, so make sure you’re comfortable collapsing the knuckle of your  middle finger to stop both the third and fourth strings at once. Fortunately, A7 and C7 are both one-finger  chords to keep things simple. There’s also a C chord thrown in to keep you on your toes. Practice the following chord changes: Dm to A7 to Dm F to C7 to F

You can start out with all down strums and progress to the down, down-up-down, down-up-down pattern as you get better at the chord changes. Be sure try out the solo part in tab. It has no position shifts, so it’s easy to learn.

Holiday Songs with 5 to 7 Chords The songs in this section are more complicated. You will need to learn the D7 chord. We show two ways to play the D7 chord below. The top version of D7 is much easier because it only uses two fingers. Using the two finger version of D7 makes it much easier to switch to the three finger G chord which often occurs right after the D7 in music because the D7 shape is closely related to the G shape. We both use the two finger D7 chord shape in the lesson videos. Using the second version of D7 requires you to flatten your first finger in the second fret so you are stopping three strings with one finger. It can take quite a bit of practice to get comfortable with this flattened finger position, which is referred to as a barre  (or “bar”). The big plus with using the D7 barre chord shape is that you can then slide your left hand up and down the fret board and play lots of other  similar sounding chords using the same hand shape. Ukulele players refer to this type of chord as a movable barre chord.

We also show some more complicated strumming patterns. But it’s perfectly fine to learn the songs first with a simple down, down, down pattern and then spice up your strumming later. O Come All Ye Faithful

This stately carol is translated from the Latin original, “Adeste Fidelis.” The English Roman Catholic  priest, John Francis Wade, wrote it around 1750 while living at the Catholic college for Englishmen in

Douai, France. It is truly an international carol – written in Latin by an Englishman living at a French institution built by King Philip of Spain and carried around the world by the Portuguese. Written as a  processional (announcing the beginning of a religious service), the melody is classical in every sense o the word. We won’t mince words – the chord changes in this song are not easy! For the D7, use the easy one with only two fingers, and practice switching between D7 to G and back to D7. Try shifting both fingers down one string toward the floor at the same time and then adding your ring finger afterward. With practice ou’ll be able to do this as one motion. As you learn this song, imagine a steady marching rhythm, similar to the wedding march (“Here Comes the Bride”). A simple down strum on each beat is an easy place to start with O Come All Ye Faithful, with an even down-up, down-up, down-up, down-up pattern added later as you get better at the chord changes. Strum softly so you can hear the vocal part. Hark the Herald Angels Sing

This Christmas carol dates back to the time of Charles and John Wesley, brothers who co-founded the Methodist Church in England in the 1700s. Charles wrote the lyrics, which John then published in a book  of religious poems in 1739. In 1855, William Hayman Cummings, an English organist, set “Hark!” to music. Cummings was a fan of Felix Mendelssohn and chose a little-known snippet from the great German classical composer’s work to match with the Wesleys’ poem. If you’ve mastered the songs presented so far, then the six chords in this song probably won’t faze you. Use the easier two-fingered version of D7 and practice the G to D7 to G progression until you can move all three of your fingers smoothly from one set of strings to the other and back again. Remember to collapse the knuckle of your middle finger to stop both the third and fourth strings at once for the D minor  chord. The strumming pattern for this song is down-up, down-up, down-up, down-up, or Strum #2, but of course ou can start out with the simpler pattern of four down strums until you dial in the chord changes. The Twelve Days of Christmas

“Counting songs” are common in children’s music – for example, “Old McDonald Had a Farm” – but The Twelve Days of Christmas has an unusual pedigree. The lyrics are from English folklore, probably around the end of the seventeenth century, with charming images of leaping lords and swimming swans. The melody is another story. Since the song was published in England around 1780, the melody was also assumed to be English. However, there’s a French folk tune with a nearly identical melody, so “Twelve Days” could easily be a musical hybrid from two countries who don’t always get along. It’s fun to get silly with this song – in fact, it’s almost impossible to get too silly with it, so don’t be afraid to write your own lyrics, change the tempo, and have different people sing different verses. Be sure you practice the “partridge in a pear tree” chord progression until you can do it quite quickly. The chords are C, F, C, G7, C, with one chord per beat. See how Jenny demonstrates this in the video. This song changes both tempo and key  more and more as verses are added. The “four calling birds, three French hens” part is in 3/4 time, so a single down strum for each measure of these verses sounds great. For the 4/4 parts (“two turtle doves and a partridge in a pear tree”), play down, down-up, down, downup, or you can just keep it simple and play all down strums. Days 6-12 are in 3/4 time and can be played

with all down strums, or down, down-up, down. The “five golden rings” verse temporarily changes to the key of G major, so it deserves a bit of special treatment. You can substitute the two-fingered form of D7 in place of the three-finger D chord if you wish. It’s fun to strum a tremolo for “rings” by quickly swinging your right index finger back and forth in the middle of the fretboard. We Wish You a Merry Christmas

This little song feels light but carries a lot of weight. Practically everyone who celebrates Christmas has sung it at least once. It’s old even by Christmas carol standards, with origins as a folk carol from the West Country of England, probably dating back to the sixteenth century. It’s frequently sung to close out a Christmas concert or church pageant, despite its secular message. As its title suggests, it has a merry feeling and promotes good cheer and kinship as we celebrate the holidays. This song is last because it’s hard! It has seven chords, so you have an extra week to learn it. If you don’t learn it by Christmas, you can still use your extra week and play it on New Year’s. Practice the following chord progressions: G7 to C to G7 D7 to G to D7

You can use the easy two-fingered version of D7 to make learning easier. There’s also an E7 (which is similar to the G7), an A minor (which only requires one finger), and an F chord to keep you on your toes. This song has a strong rhythm, so it sounds perfectly fine with all down strums. Once you’ve learned the chord changes, try adding an up strum on the second and fourth beats: down, down-up, down, down-up. The down-up on the fourth beat sounds especially good on the final words of the song as you sing “happy new year.”

We hope you have enjoyed learning holiday music on the ukulele! We’d love to see you on Facebook at facebook.com/21Songsin6Days, on YouTube at ukulele.io/visitYoutube, or hear from you at ukulele.io/contact-us. You can find our complete contact information in About the Authors. Happy strumming!

Glossary Accidental - a flat, sharp or natural. Bar  - same as a measure . A measure is the space on a musical staff between two bar lines. Every measure begins with a strong beat. Bar lines  - the vertical lines on the musical and tab staffs that go from the top line of the staff to the  bottom line of the staff. Bar lines are longer than note stems and do not touch any notes. Barre or bar - using one or more fingers to stop multiple strings on the fretboard. Usually this is done with the index finger. Barre chord - a chord that contains a barre . Beat  - regularly timed sounds that occur the same distance apart in time in a row. Examples of sounds with a beat are the sound your heart makes, i.e. a heartbeat, or the sound of someone dribbling a  basketball. Blue notes - a note or group of notes that are different than the notes used in Western folk music. Usually in the blues we play the different note near its next door note so our ears can imagine the note that belongs in the African scale . In staff notation, a blue note will have a flat, sharp or natural in front of it. Blues scale  - a group of musical sounds that are spaced in the specific way that is used in blues music. The blues scale  probably came with African people to the United States. For the blues songs in this book  we are playing in the key of C, which is the same as all the white keys on the piano. When we add a black  key to the white key scale, the music sounds different. The black key, for example, E flat, added in on top of the white key, such as E, gives the music a bluesy feel. The added black key notes are an attempt to approximate African scales. Western folk music tends to use 8 notes per octave, while African folk music tends to use 5 notes equally spaced per octave. Some of these African scale notes do not exist in Western musical instruments. For example, if you look at a piano keyboard, you can see that there ARE five black  keys but the spaces between them are not equal. Thus, when you sing or play a flat note and somebody else is playing a regular note, your ear hears the sound the flat note and the regular note make together as  bluesy. Braguinha - a Portuguese fretted string instrument, like a small guitar, that was an ancestor of the ukulele. Cavaquinho - another Portuguese fretted string instrument like the braguinha. Chord  - two or more sounds played at the same time. On the ukulele, chords usually are four sounds  played together because the ukulele has four strings. Chord progression - order of chords in a song. Chord stamp - a symbol or drawing of the ukulele strings with little dots that represent where to place our fingers on the fretboard to make the chord. Etude  - a piece of music that is designed to help you learn and practice a new musical skill. In French, etude means study so etudes are sometimes called studies. Finger numbers - these are applied to the left hand. Finger 1 is the index or “pointer” finger; finger 2 is the middle finger; finger 3 is the ring finger; and finger 4 is the pinky. For playing ukulele, we do not count

the thumb because it is behind the neck of the ukulele and not available to stop a string (see “stopping”). First position - means your finger 1 (index finger) is in the first fret, the one closest to the tuning pegs. Flat  - a musical symbol placed in front of musical note. It means to lower the sound slightly, by the amount that musicians call a “half step.” When you look at a blues scale, you can see a little sign that looks like a small letter “b” next to some of the notes. That sign is called is a flat and it lowers the pitch of the note by one-half step. Fretboard - the long skinny part of the ukulele with metal strips in it. It is usually made of a different color wood than the larger curvy part of the instrument. Fretting - pushing the strings against the fretboard with the fingers of your left hand so each note you play sounds clear. “Fretting” means the same thing as “stopping.” Frets - strips of metal that run across the short dimension of the long skinny fretboard. When you push down a string with your finger in between the frets, the string is held very tightly against the fret. Guitar - a large fretted string instrument. It usually has six or more strings in comparison to the ukulele’s four strings. Key - short for “key signature,” which is a group of flats or sharps at the beginning of each line of written music. The key signature matches up to a specific group of sounds that sound good together. These sounds have precise relationships with one another, and a name: “scale.” Usually the name of the key is the same as the name of the chord that starts or ends the song. In most folk and pop music the starting and ending chords are the same. Lead shee t - a way of writing out a song without using notes on a musical staff to show the pitches of the melody. Instead, the words are written out with chord stamps above them. You have to learn the melody o the song from hearing it sung to be able to use a lead sheet of a song. Machete  - another small guitar-like instrument like the braguinha, cavaquinho, and rajão. Major  - a type of chord. The distances between the pitches of a major chord make it sound happy or   bright to most people. Measure  - the space on a musical staff between two bar lines. Every measure begins with a strong beat. Melody - notes played one at time, one after the other. Minor - another type of chord. The pitch relationships of a minor chord make it sound dark or sad to most  people. Musical improvisation - to make up music as you are playing. Natural  - a musical symbol placed in front of a musical note. It cancels any sharp or flat symbol that would normally apply to that note. Note   - a round symbol that is placed on a line or space of a musical staff. Some notes are circles or  ovals; other types of notes are circles or ovals with lines attached. The circle or oval part of the note can  be filled in (solid black) or left empty (white). This circle or oval is called the note head. Each note represents one sound. The color (either black or white) of the note head combined with the stem (the vertical line) indicates how long each sound should last. Sometimes the word “note” is used to refer to ust the sounds. For example, you might say, “she played a lot of notes in that song.”

Nut  - the raised ridge at the top of the ukulele fretboard. It holds the strings slightly away from the fretboard so they can vibrate. Octave  - distance to the same letter note, either higher or lower. You might hear an octave in action when our mom and dad sing the same note and your dad’s voice is lower and your mom’s is higher but they  both sound like they are singing the same note. In Western folk music we have eight notes in an octave. “Oct” means “eight.” Two other examples of words that use “oct” to mean eight are octagon and octopus. Pickup - a pickup means the music begins on a weak beat instead of a strong beat. Almost all music is organized into patterns of strong and weak beats. One very common pattern is strong-weak-weak-weak. Almost all the songs in this book use this pattern. Another common pattern is strong-weak-weak. Amazing Grace uses this pattern. Pitch - whether a sound is high or low. An example of a high sound would be birds tweeting. An example of a low sound would be a thunderstorm. Pluck  - pulling your right (strumming) hand finger against a string firmly and then gradually releasing it so the string vibrates and you hear a nice clear musical sound. Rajão  - a Portuguese fretted string instrument, similar to a small guitar. Braguinha, cavaquinho and machete are other similar instruments. Rhythm  - how sounds make patterns in time. For example, a rainstorm has a different rhythm than a rooster crowing. Round  - a song that can be sung by two groups or two people starting at different times. This way o singing doesn’t work with just any song – the song needs to have been written so that it will sound good when different parts of it are overlapped. Scale  - a ladder of musical notes arranged in a specific pattern, usually with small distances in pitch, all going up or down. The names of some common types of scales in Western music are major, minor, and  blues. There are hundreds of types of scales in the world. Second position - means your finger 1 (index finger) is in the second fret, one fret away from the tuning  pegs. Sharp  - a musical symbol placed in front of musical note. It means to raise the sound slightly, by the amount that musicians call a “half step.” Stopping - pushing a string against the fretboard with a finger of your left hand so that one end of the string rests against a fret. The other end of the string is tied to the bridge below the sound hole. We say the fret is “stopping” the string because the string can’t vibrate where it is being pushed onto the fret. The contact with the fret shortens the amount of the string that is vibrating. Only the part of the string that is in the air and not touching anything is free to vibrate. Sound hole  - round hole in the body of the ukulele. Staff   - a musical staff is made of five equally spaced horizontal lines. There are four spaces. Each line and space of the musical staff represents a specific musical pitch. A tab staff is also made of equally spaced horizontal lines but there are four instead of five for the ukulele. See “tab staff.” Stem - a vertical line attached to the round part of a musical note. The stem helps indicate the rhythm o the note. Note stems are shorter than bar lines and are attached directly to a round note symbol.

String numbers - ukulele strings are numbered from the floor to the ceiling when you are holding the uke in playing position. That means the string closest to your eyes is string 4 with a pitch of G. String 3 has a  pitch of C. String 2 has a pitch of E, and string 1 is closest to the floor and has a pitch of A. Strum 1- downward strums with a steady beat. Another way to think of it is down strums with equal time  between each strum so that the strums sound evenly spaced in time. Strum 2 - even down-up strokes played with a steady beat. This means there is an equal amount of time  between each down and up strum so they sound evenly spaced in time. Strum 3 - down-up strokes to a steady beat, but the time after the down stroke is longer than the time after  the up stroke. Some of the songs in this book such as Row, Row, Row Your Boat and Oats, Peas, Beans, and Barley Grow use a 6/8 time signature. The pattern of beats in 6/8 time is STRONG-weak-weak  STRONG-weak-weak. Usually when we strum a song with a 6/8 time signature we use Strum 3. We do a down strum on the STRONG and an up strum on the second weak beat just before the next STRONG. Most listeners will hear this music as having steady beats that are unevenly divided. Your feeling when ou play will be long-short long-short. This long-short pattern is the feeling of Strum 3. Tablature, or tab staff  - a staff especially for fretted stringed instruments including the ukulele. Each line represents one string of the ukulele. There are numbers on the tab staff that tell the player which fret to stop the string on. Third position  - means your finger 1 (index finger) is in the third fret, two frets away from the tuning  pegs. Time signature   - the numbers at the beginning of each song on the staff immediately to the right of the clef. It tells you how many beats are in each measure and what the pattern of strong and weak beats is in the song. The 4/4 time signature has the pattern strong-weak-weak-weak. The 3/4 time signature has the  pattern strong-weak-weak. The 6/8 time signature has the pattern STRONG-weak-weak STRONG-weakweak. Every measure begins with a strong beat. Tuning pegs - located just beyond the nut. Each string is wound around a tuning peg. You can change the  pitch of the string by turning the peg to tighten or loosen the string. Tightening the string makes the pitch go higher (a sound more like birds chirping or a girl’s voice). Loosening the string makes the pitch go down (a sound more like thunderstorm or a man’s voice). Transposing  - playing or singing music starting on a different pitch but keeping the same sound of the melody and chords. When we transpose music, we change what is called the “key.” Work song  - a song people sing while working to help them stay together or to express their feelings about their job.