Christmas Solos Advanced Package

Lessons

• Lesson 1: Here Comes Santa Claus - Solo Fingerstyle Arrangement

  Here Comes Santa Claus was written and first recorded by American singing cowboy Gene Autry in the 1940s. This solo guitar arrangement treats it in a ragtime style, inspired by John Fahey's take on some Christmas tunes from his early album The New Possibility. It is done with a steady alternating bass in swing time and has some challenging techniques for both hands.

• Lesson 2: Let It Snow - Solo Fingerstyle Arrangement

  Let It Snow is another Christmas classic from the American Songbook of Sammy Cahn and Jule Styne. This solo guitar lesson is done in a manner similar to Here Comes Santa Claus and Winter Wonderland, and makes a great medley with those as they are all in the key of C.

• Lesson 3: Silent Night in DADGAD - Solo Fingerstyle Arrangement

  In this finger style instrumental lesson, we’ll explore DADGAD tuning with a Christmas theme, using Silent Night as a vehicle to learn a bit about DADGAD as well as the process of arranging a tune.
  
  We’ll look at the melody, locate basic chords in DADGAD, and then build an arrangement step by step, combining melody and bass notes, adding harmony, and exploring some embellishments.

• Lesson 4: I Wonder As I Wander - Solo Fingerstyle Arrangement

  I Wonder As I Wander is based in American folk tradition and was first collected by John Jacob Niles in 1933. The melancholy melody makes a great base for a solo guitar arrangement, and lends itself well to improvising as well. This arrangement is similar to the way I played it on my album A Christmas Collection. It is in 3/4 time and includes 2 verses with different feels. It includes some advanced right-hand techniques as well as thoughts on playing it with feeling.

• Lesson 5: O Come All Ye Faithful – Fingerpicking Solo

  This is another Christmas Carol that is fun to play in ragtime. It includes some quick chord changes. We run through two verses, each of which uses an important fingerpicking technique.
  
  The first uses many filler notes on the ‘and’ of beat 4 to create a pick-up feel into the next measure. The second verse makes great use of syncopated bass notes, meaning bass notes hit on the ‘ands’ rather than on the beats.

• Lesson 6: God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen - Solo Fingerstyle Arrangement

  God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen is a traditional English carol that goes back a few, if not many centuries. It has a modal melody (Aeolian) that lends itself very well to a bluesy-ragtime interpretation. This version is another of many that I have to give credit to John Fahey for taking it in this direction. It is played with a steady alternating bass (Travis style), although we take the bass notes off the beats for some catchy syncopation as well.