WHITE CHRISTMAS BY BING CROSBY UKULELE TUTORIAL

Firstly, Jenny presents a sing and strum or what others call a play along version. In addition, she shows how to fingerpick the melody on the second part.

For this White Christmas by Bing Crosby ukulele tutorial for beginners, we will need ten chords. Although playing with ten chords seem to be daunting, these chords are fairly simply ones as illustrated by Jenny in the video. The chords are: C, Dm, G7, F, Cmaj7, C7, Fm, A7, D7 and C#dim7. Finally, Jenny uses a D-D-UD-DU (D-down, U-up) strumming pattern for the sing and strum version.

If you want to learn more about how the melody is played, tune in on Facebook this Saturday, December 15^th at 4 PM Central for Jenny’s live session.

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MADE POPULAR BY BING CROSBY

One of the greatest American songwriters, Irving Berlin, composed White Christmas in the early 1940s. Subsequently, Bing Crosby first performed it in 1941 for Christmas day and made it popular. Decca Records released Crosby’s original recording of the song in 1942. Surprisingly, the song became a chart-topper during the holiday season for several years.

Two musical films which both starred Bing Crosby featured this beloved Christmas song. These films are Holiday Inn (1942) and White Christmas (1954) and both movies made their mark. For instance, the Oscars awarded Best Original Song in 1942 to Holiday Inn for the White Christmas composition. On the other hand, the 1954 White Christmas film became the highest grossing movie that year. Crosby made separate studio recordings for the soundtracks of both movies.

BEST-SELLING SINGLE

Did you know that according to Guinness World Records, Bing Crosby’s White Christmas recording is the best-selling single of all time? Guinness World Records estimated sales figures of the record to be more than fifty million copies.

Accordingly, the original 1942 recording was used so frequently that the master was damaged. In 1947, Crosby had to re-record White Christmas with the same accompanying orchestra and back-up singers. This recording is the rendition commonly played today during the holidays.

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

We wish happy holidays to all our subscribers and ukulele lovers out there! May your days be merry and bright! And may all your Christmases be white! Although for some, the holidays are not filled with snow and winter frolic. Nevertheless, holidays filled with sunshine and palm trees are also full of fun and in some ways more relaxing. (See our ukulele tutorial for Mele Kalikimaka and learn to say Merry Christmas the Hawaiian way.) In any case, it does not matter really if your Christmas is white or green, as long it’s happy and meaningful, right?