Christmas song summary sheet

Whistle
1

I have been asked to learn some Christmas tunes for an upcoming public performance. Searching the archives brought this thread:

http://chiffboard.mati.ca/viewtopic.php?t=15007&highlight=christmas

Lee Marsh provides an excellent summary sheet in GIF (picture) format. For those that prefer ASCII, I have typed it in.

Enjoy.

Christmas song summary sheet:

Lead notes are in ABC notation, lower case is one octave higher, commas denote rests.
key / Title / Lead Notes
G Hark! The Herald Angels Sing DGGF#
D First Noel F#ED, EF#G
G What Child is This E, GABcb
D Joy to the World dc#B, AG
G Bethlehem B, BBA#B
G Jingle Bells DBAG, DDD
G God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen E,EBBA
G We Wish You a Merry Christmas D, GGAGF#
G We Three Kings B, AG, EF, GFE
C O Holy Night EEE,GGAAFA
G O Come, O Come, Emmanuel
C Silent Night GAGE
G Angels We Have Heard on High BBBd,dcb

If you need to learn the entire song, Tune Finder has a variety of formats for download:
http://trillian.mit.edu/~jc/cgi/abc/findtune

2

I just recorded 4 of these tunes and Tony was kind enough to post them on Clips](http://www.tinwhistletunes.com/clipssnip/misc.html%3EClips) and Snip (Tin Whistle Tunes) under Misc.

Here’s a link to the gif with the Christmas](http://w3.mivlmd.cablespeed.com/~leemarsh/ChristmasCheatSheet.gif%3EChristmas) Cheat Sheet if you want to download it into a document and print it.

'Tis the season to …

3

Thanks again Lee.

At least one typo in my original post:

G O Come, O Come Emmanuel E, GGGB,

For folks unfamiliar with ABC notation, it is easy on the whistle. On a D whistle the acronym is BAGFED. Meaning B is the top hole only covered, A top two holes, G top three, F# top four, E top five, D all six holes covered.

Christmas tunes are ingrained in the minds of many. Some folks will be able to sound out the rest of the song given the opening measures. If not the tune finder is a good resource for complete scores in a variety of formats. Enjoy.

  • Bill
4

A few songs that I like to play weren’t listed in the other thread or this one, so I thought I would include them here:

The Twelve Days of Christmas—I like to play this one on my uilleann pipes, and I try to vary the song like a singer would, with plenty of ornaments and vibrato to get the listeners through the twelve verses. I especially like a hard D in the phrase “two_ tur-tle Doves,” and some tight playing around the back D in “e-lev-en pi-pers pip-ing.”

The Carol of the Bells—A nice one.

Good King Wenceslas—I didn’t like this one much until I read the lyrics. Now I think it’s jolly good.

Ed