Jingle Bells is one of the most popular, most cheery of all Christmas songs. The 19th Century original by James Pierpont (itβs Wikipedia entry is well worth a read) refers to sleigh bells as βjingle bellsβ - but you donβt have to be in a snow-bound place to know this song - it gets sung everywhere from Greenland to the Australian Outback! This finger-style version includes chord symbols so a second guitar/ukulele can accompany with the chords, or for a sing along and hey-ho, the whole lot can go together! Merry Christmas all!
Genre: Christmas song
Chords: C F D7 G G7
Acoustic or Electric? Will sound best on a good acoustic guitar; steel strings or nylon.
Can we change the key? This version is in the key of C Major. To play it in the key of D the chords you need are D G E7 A A7. For the key of A play A D B7 E E7. For any other key itβs best just to use a capo and copy the C major version.
Picking style: This arrangement of Jingle Bells is written for finger picking on acoustic guitar. It suits both steel and nylon string . Th classic Country/Folk style of this chart requires the thumb (p) to maintain the tempo with strong bass notes on the 1st and 3rd beats, and your index and middle fingers (i & m) picking the the melody notes. Ho ho ho !
Can it work with a thumb-pick & hybrid picking? Yes, definitely! This works perfectly on steel string acoustics and gives the arrangement a fun Folksy-Country vibe. Not so suitable for the softer action of a nylon-string acoustic though; classical finger-style is best for that.
Relevant pages in Modern Guitar Chord Styles 1: To learn more about the chords and finger picking in JIngle Bells go to pages 7 - 8, 12, 18-19, 43 and 45 in MGCS1. For a detailed course in finger picking and itβs stylistic applications check out the very useful Modern Guitar Fingerstyle 1.
Need a bit of help?
Modern Guitar Fingerstyle 1 is the perfect companion for our fingerpicking song guides- it is specifically designed to help beginners develop finger independence, tone and articulation, helping guitarists master their fingerpicking abilities!
