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Do you enjoy playing Christmas ukulele songs? Would you like to share your music with family and friends?
I remember when Rebecca and I were growing up and taking piano lessons. We had a great big book of Christmas Carols for piano called “The Joy of Christmas.”
In our first few years of lessons, we could play simple two-line songs where we didn’t have to move our hands very much. When we got a little older, we could play some of the harder songs. But it was always fun to play the old songs and see how much progress we had made!
When I was in high school, I could sit down and play the whole book from start to finish. It was such good stress relief. I could also lead sing-alongs and encourage my family members to sing carols around the piano. When I was older, I could make up my own fancier arrangements that fit the mood of the day. It was a wonderful way to engage with my feelings about the holidays and to share them with others.
Now I do that with the ukulele. When I travel to visit family I bring 21 Easy Ukulele Songs for Christmas and my soprano ukulele. It’s so much fun to sit on the couch by the fireplace and lead everyone in singing festive carols for the season!
How would you like to be able to do that?
Well, here are some suggestions:
Get our Christmas Book, 21 Easy Ukulele Songs for Christmas, and learn to sing and strum all the songs.
Great book, songs include both fingerpicking and strumming info. My daughter and I will be a hit at our Christmas party, we are planning ukulele duets. Thanks.
A few weeks ago, I bought three ukuleles for my granddaughters and myself. I found your Christmas book on Amazon and purchased it. I was looking for something that I could do when I visit with my granddaughters. Learning to play an instrument will help them to develop stronger focus, and will give them a new skill. It will also create a lot of fun memories.
Once you can play and share with others, consider moving on to chord melody. Chord melody is the art of combining both chords and melody in one musical arrangement. We have a course, Learn Easy Ukulele Chord Melody Today, which teaches you the art of playing chord melodies. It uses mainly Christmas music. This course is seasonal. You can buy it for two weeks each year in late November. Click here to find out more and to get your name on the mailing list.
Here’s an example of the progression of “Jingle Bells” from easier to harder versions. When you first learn “Jingle Bells”, try a sing and strum version.
When you’re a little more advanced, try fingerpicking the melody and strumming the chords. This split-screen video shows how these parts might be combined.
If you can play all the melodies and you can sing and strum all the songs in the book, try learning a chord melody version.
I have arranged several more chord melody versions of Christmas Carols. We are always looking at new product ideas. If chord melody versions of Christmas Carols interest you, leave a comment below. We are thinking of offering more chord melodies for sale on our site.
We are also thinking of offering a course in learning to create your own chord melodies. Wouldn’t it be fun to compose and arrange your own music? Let me know if you’re interested in that too.
But it’s probably too hard for me. Not true!
In this course you’ll learn easy full-sounding music using techniques you know.
So you want to learn how to play Greensleeves on ukulele? Greensleeves is a beautiful old, English folk song dating from the 1500s. It has a haunting melody that reminds me of people dancing in the meadows during the time of King Henry the 8th. He was a musician and composer as well as the King of England.
The video lessons teach you how to play the rolling lute-like arpeggios.
This first video lesson below shows how to sing and strum the song.
You can also learn to play the melody by reading the melody tab. The video below shows how to do that.
Greensleeves sounds beautiful as chord melody too. If you click here, you can hear a lesson I created on this song at a Facebook Live session.
I also created a ukulele orchestra arrangement of Greensleeves.
Greensleeves has different words when sung as a Christmas Carol. “What Child is This?” uses the same music but different lyrics. It is in our Christmas book, 21 Easy Ukulele Songs for Christmas.
If you want to learn Greensleeves, it’s in our book Beginning Ukulele Songs: Five with Five Chords. We write out the fingerpicking so it is easy for you to figure it out.
Both types of music are spiritual and uplifting. Hymns and carols are similar, yet they are different.
Things are tough right now. You would like a hobby that lifts you up and brings you joy. Having a chance to focus on joy and gratitude with your ukulele, sounds great. You want to play uplifting music on your ukulele. Both hymns and carols will do that for you.
Can be played at any time of year-often used for worship
Expresses many different kinds of moods
Many different feelings depending on the text. Can offer a sense of comfort
Seasonal-associated with Winter and Christmas-not necessarily used for worship
Focus on the joy and festivity of Christmas
Feelings of coziness, warmth and togetherness. Positive, festive, popular
Carols are associated with Christmas and are usually joyful. Some carols are about the Winter. Man of these songs, such as “Jingle Bells,” have become associated with Christmas. They evoke feelings of coziness, warmth and togetherness. They are positive, festive and popular.
We have two products that teach Carols: 21 Easy Ukulele Songs for Christmas and Learn Easy Ukulele Chord Melody Today. If you want to play the simpler carols, try out our Christmas book.
If you want to learn to play Chord Melody, sign up for our email list at Learn Easy Ukulele Chord Melody Today. Chord Melody is where you play both the melody and the chords at the same time. This course teaches you how to play Christmas songs as Chord Melodies. We offer it for a limited time between Thanksgiving and Christmas each year.
They are religious in nature and are often used for worship. They express many moods and can offer a sense of comfort. In our Hymn Kits, you’ll find something for varied learners from beginners to a little more advanced. You can click here to learn more.
We offer 34 hymns, many in two different keys, so you can choose the one that is easier to play or sing. We also offer fingerpicking and suggested strumming patterns. Finally, we offer 13 chord melodies so you can play both the melody and the chords at the same time. This product is always available. You can find out more here.
I hope you’ve enjoyed finding out more about Hymns and Carols. But don’t take my word for it. Look at what Randy has to say. Maybe you’ll want to try out both types of music just like he did!
I’ve purchased your Christmas Carol and Hymns books. I ordered your Christmas Carol book after purchasing my first ever ukulele in mid-November (first ever instrument in fact other than playing trumpet in my youth) with a goal of playing Silent Night on Christmas eve. Turned out I not only played Silent Night, but I was playing through almost all the Carols by the end of the year and moved on to your Hymns book in January. I’m a 61-year-old man who has been a singer all my life, but I’ve found it a blast to now be able to pick up my uke and play. So, thank you for your great product, it’s been a key to my early success and it’s very rewarding.
Enjoy!
Want to read more about ukulele chord melodies and the arrangements we have created? Check out the following articles:
To read more about “Sakura”, check out the following articles:
In our Hymn Kits you'll find something for varied learners, from beginners to a little more advanced.
Learn how to play a beautiful hymn with our What Wondrous Love Is This ukulele tutorial! In this video, you will see lyrics, chords, strumming pattern and melody tab on the screen. In these trying times, the message of this gospel song gives hope.
If you visit our blog page, you will see many other videos and tutorials of easy ukulele songs. Sign up here to receive free sheet music and video lessons in your inbox every week.
As Jenny shows in the What Wondrous Love Is This ukulele tutorial video, you’ll need five chords: Dm, C, Am, F and G. These are fairly easy chords, C and Am are one-finger chords. You’ll probably need to practice more on just one chord which is the D minor chord (Dm).
In the video, Jenny shows two ways you can play the song. First, she plays sing and strum version. Then she shows how to do a melody tab version.
“What a Wondrous Love Is This” is a sentimental hymn which speaks about the sacrificial love of Jesus. He who “laid aside His crown to bear the dreadful curse” and save His people. The song’s history goes as far back as the early 1800’s. Because it’s a very old song, historians don’t know precisely who wrote the song. Some hymnologists suggest that the song may have been written by James Christopher. But there’s not enough evidence to prove this. Some scholars also attribute the song to a professor named Alexander Means (1801-1883). However, this is also doubtful considering that the first publication of “What a Wondrous Love Is This” was in 1811 and Alexander Means would have been only ten years old then.
Although the author is still unknown, scholars have found that the lyrics of the hymn had been printed in 1811, in two different books. One book was a collection of hymns by Stith Mead called “General Selection of the Newest and Most Admired Hymns and Spiritual Songs Now in Use”. The other book, which featured slightly different text of the hymn, was titled “Hymns and Spirtiual Songs, Original and Selected” by Starke Dupuy.
In our Hymn Kits you'll find something for varied learners, from beginners to a little more advanced.
If you enjoyed this post about “What Wondrous Love Is This,” you’ll enjoy these related posts:
These posts will show you how to play other hymns on the ukulele.
During these trying times, we find that ukulele hymns help us get through this pandemic. We’re in a time of social distancing which means that work, pleasure, and even worship is happening at home. This past week I had the opportunity to lead a hymn for my congregation from a Zoom call. I opened the service with a hymn on ukulele. I used many of the skills that are in our book and hymn kits: changing strumming patterns and using chord melody. It was a beautiful way to begin the service.
Our religious institutions are closed, so Zoom worship is where it’s at. People are experiencing fear and anxiety. Worship participation is up across religious faiths in the United States.
We have heard about the choir practices where members of a choir got Covid 19 following a rehearsal. Also, we have heard about indoor sporting events where athletes got sick after the game. We want to get back together, but we also want to be safe. Bottom line is we want to know the best way to balance these competing ideas.
When we sing or take part in athletics inside, there is more spread of aerosol droplets from our breath. At first, some doctors recommended canceling ALL sports and music in schools until there is widespread immunity to Covid 19. But, there are ways to make these activities safe. It is important to look at these ideas.
There has to be a middle ground. We need to be able to express our emotions through music. To do this, we can have smaller groups or sit further apart. We can listen to live music with the audience sitting far apart. Also, we can think about partitions between musicians. Or we can continue our music remotely until it is safe to meet in person.
Some questions include: How big of a group can you have? How far apart do you have to sit? Can you sing? Can you play an instrument? How do you find music that is adaptable to your situation?
All the national music education organizations are joining together to address these questions. They are writing new music for smaller groups. They are researching ways to clean instruments or place partitions between performers.
Every day performers are streaming live music from living rooms across the country. People are flocking to online lessons and YouTube channels. People now have time to learn ukulele. One person calls it his “Corona Improvement Project.”
Our new book and hymn kits will give you the opportunity to learn music YOUR way. Do you need to play something by yourself without singing? Then, learn one of the 13 chord melodies where you combine melody and accompaniment at the same time.
Do you want to lead singing through a Zoom call or in person? Then sing and strum the song. You can vary the strumming patterns for each verse and add a little fingerpicking to the mix as well. Do you want to create a duet for one? Then experiment with some of the fun apps such as Acapella that let you do that.
They also include a video course to teach you all these songs. All the hymns have melody tab. You can create duets for one, or duets with another person. Or, you can record one part and play the other if you are sheltering in place.
In our Hymn Kits you'll find something for varied learners, from beginners to a little more advanced.
If you enjoyed this post, you’ll enjoy these related posts:
These posts will show you how to play hymns on the ukulele.
