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This is one of a million ways of expressing "Jingle Bells" on a guitar ... two ways really, since the two halves are played differently. The arrangement started out much simpler and took on more and more detail as I delved into it.
I did this one in the key of G. G is a great key as the I-IV-V chord, the central structure of any key, is G-C-D. These chords have nice open positions on a guitar, and as I mentioned in the previous lesson, the 3 open strings BGD together make a G triad, the I chord. This leave a lot of room for open strings to drone and give a nice ringing quality to the piece.
If you just wanted to strum this tune, so the family can all sing along, just play:
| G - - - | G - - - | G - - - |G - - - |
| C - - - | G - - - | A7 - - - | D7 - - - |
| G - - - | G - - - | G - - - |G - - - |
| C - - - | G - - - | D7 - - - | G - - - |
In Roman Numerals, that's
| I - - - | I - - - | I - - - |I - - - |
| IV - - - | I - - - | II7 - - - | V7 - - - |
| I - - - | I - - - | I - - - |I - - - |
| IV - - - | I - - - | V7 - - - | I - - - |
That II7 is the only 'outside chord' ... the normal A chord in the key of G is Am, which would read ii7; this is a case of 'Majorizing' one of the minor chords of the key, which is common way of deviating from the 'pure' related chords. It's something that you begin to hear after a while, and instantly recognize.
From the top:
I start this version with a descending bass line woven into a repeating finger picking pattern. The bass line is a 1 to a maj7 to a 6 to a sharp5 of G. You'll see that for the 8 bars, I keep repeating the same three notes above that bass line, which are an open G string and the D and G above. The first two bars, I barre the top two strings for the two treble notes, but at bar three, I change my hand position so I'm fretting both notes at the third fret. I don't move those fingers for the next 6 bars. Everything else happens with the ring finger and little finger firmly holding down those two notes and the picking fingers relentlessly playing the repeated arpeggio pattern. "Jingle Bells" hasn't really identified itself yet, but at bar 3 I play a harmony to the line "jingle all the way", and that hint is enough to perk the ears up a bit.
Bars 5 to 8 I alternate bass notes from within each of the next four chords and continue to repeat the top pattern. Jingle Bells is still not fully formed, but the chords keep going to the right places and it's becoming more and more obvious that that's what we're listening to.
Bar 9 the center of tonality moves down an octave and now the familiar one-note melody line begins and it has now really gelled into JB. The same descending bass line as the first half underpins the one-note melody, but it's a closer harmony now. That D# bass note (the sharp 5 note) gives the piece a sort of melancholy vibe at that point, but it works well for the tune. Bars 11 and 12 echo the harmony line from the fist half, but in a different configuration.
The last 4 bars I keep a fairly regular picking pattern, using the notes from the chord shapes, with the melody line woven in. As always, the melody is mostly chord tones, so it's not all the difficult to get flowing properly.
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