{"id":302,"date":"2011-11-10T15:22:56","date_gmt":"2011-11-10T22:22:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ukuleletonya.com\/blog\/?p=302"},"modified":"2013-03-05T20:05:10","modified_gmt":"2013-03-06T03:05:10","slug":"christmas-times-a-comin-revisited","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/ukuleletonya.com\/blog\/2011\/11\/christmas-times-a-comin-revisited","title":{"rendered":"Christmas Time&#8217;s a Comin&#8217;: Revisited"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"img-shadow\">It&#8217;s that season again\u2014can&#8217;t you tell by the porch-sized, light-up Santas at Costco? Yes, Christmas time&#8217;s a comin&#8217;!<\/p>\n<p>If you want to join in the holiday fun with your ukulele in hand, now&#8217;s the time to start getting a bead on those familiar Christmas tunes you&#8217;ll be singing around the tree. While there are some great &#8220;for purchase&#8221; resources with holiday tunes arranged for ukulele, a few years&#8217; back I pulled together a listing of websites from around the world featuring oodles of traditional and contemporary Christmas and holiday songsheets.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Some of those sources have disappeared and some have been added so I&#8217;ve updated the list. Browse through what you see below and get a start on your holiday playing today. Most are for songs with chords and lyrics only, some include fingerpicking (which really sounds lovely, especially &#8220;Carol of the Bells&#8221;).<\/p>\n<p>Consider them an early stocking stuffer sent your way with my best wishes! <em>(And, if you know of any sources for Christmas tunes, add yours in the &#8220;comments&#8221; box below.)<\/em><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>An <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ukeland.com\/pages\/media\/music\/Ukulele%20Christmas%20Song%20Book.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">Ukulele Christmas Songbook<\/a> provided by Ray at <strong>UKUke<\/strong> with ukulele chord shapes.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/akulele.com\/tablature.html\" target=\"_blank\">Tablature<\/a> (aka some &#8220;fingerpicking&#8221;) by the folks who make <strong>Akulele Ukuleles<\/strong>. Scroll down to see &#8220;<em>Silent Night,&#8221; Away in a Manger,&#8221;Carol of the Bells,&#8221; &#8220;Nutrcracker March&#8221;<\/em> and <em>&#8220;Ode to Joy.&#8221;<\/em><\/li>\n<li><strong>John King<\/strong> was renowned for his approach to ukulele&#8212;he delighted in playing this humble little instrument as if it were as worthy of depth and interest as any of the more &#8220;classical&#8221; stringed instruments. His ukulele arrangements of classic music and Hawaiian tunes were legendary. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nalu-music.com\/ukulele-tablature\/\" target=\"_blank\">Here<\/a> you can find tablature arrangements of &#8220;<em>What Child is This&#8221;<\/em> and &#8220;<em>Carol of the Bells,&#8221;<\/em> just in time for the holiday season.<\/li>\n<li>Not specific to ukuleles, but a variety of <a href=\"http:\/\/bettylou.zzruss.com\/xmas.htm\" target=\"_blank\">Christmas songs with chord name<\/a>s provided by <strong>BettyLou<\/strong>. Just play the named chord shape you know for your ukulele.<\/li>\n<li>Ukulele tablature by <strong>Dominator<\/strong>, a good friend who is well-known in the world of ukuleles for his tablature and inspired playing style&#8212;and now he&#8217;s <em>making<\/em> ukulele, too! His <a href=\"http:\/\/dominator.ukeland.com\/index2.shtml\" target=\"_blank\">tablature at this link<\/a> includes <em>&#8220;Christmas Island.&#8221;<\/em><\/li>\n<li>A collection of classic <a href=\"http:\/\/ukedom.com\/christmas.html\" target=\"_blank\">Christmas songs<\/a>, arranged for ukulele by <strong>Ron<\/strong>, who describes himself as an &#8220;old strummer&#8221;&#8211;but his arrangements are fresh and fun.<\/li>\n<li>The Christmas ukulele arrangements in this <a href=\"http:\/\/www.tufts.edu\/%7Egdallal\/ChristmasCarols.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">34-page PDF book<\/a> by <strong>Jerry Dallal<\/strong> just sound really good to me&#8211;and are simple to play and sing. I especially like <em>&#8220;In Excelsis Deo.&#8221;<\/em><\/li>\n<li>Jump over to <strong>Ukulele Boogaloo<\/strong> for some fun <a href=\"http:\/\/www.alligatorboogaloo.com\/uke\/xmas\/\" target=\"_blank\">holiday ukulele arrangements<\/a>&#8212;from <em>&#8220;Christmas in Killarney<\/em>&#8221; to &#8220;Santa Baby&#8221; and &#8220;Holly Jolly Christmas.&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>Ukulele entertainer extraordinaire <strong>Ralph Shaw<\/strong> worked with the Vancouver Ukulele Circle to compile a collection titled, &#8221; <a href=\"http:\/\/www.vcn.bc.ca\/vanukes\/files\/ChristmasSongbookVUCDec2004.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">The Vancouver Ukulele Circle Winter Holiday Songbook<\/a>.&#8221; You&#8217;ll find 29 songs, from classic to contemporary in this great PDF.<\/li>\n<li>Just one Christmas song at this link, but it&#8217;s in full tablature and arranged beautifully for the ukulele. Get <a href=\"http:\/\/www.mediafire.com\/?cmdxgxdzfzm\" target=\"_blank\">&#8220;The Christmas Song&#8221;<\/a> (aka<em>&#8220;Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire&#8221;<\/em>).<\/li>\n<li><strong>EZFolk<\/strong> has <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ezfolk.com\/uke\/tabs1\/index.html\" target=\"_blank\">tablature<\/a> for &#8220;<em>Greensleeves&#8221;<\/em> as well as <em>&#8220;Away in a Manger<\/em>&#8221; (for baritone ukulele players, even!).<\/li>\n<li>Alan, at formerly at <strong>4th Peg<\/strong>, enjoys Christmas tunes&#8212;and it shows in his <a href=\"http:\/\/ukes4fun.org.uk\/2010\/11\/09\/xmas-uke-songs-4th-peg-holiday-songbook\/\" target=\"_blank\">collection of  holiday songs<\/a> arranged especially for ukulele; some even feature jazzy arrangements of Vince Guaraldi songs, including <em>&#8220;O Tannenbaum&#8221;<\/em> and <em>&#8220;Christmas Time is Here.&#8221; (<\/em>Note that Alan no longer hosts 4th Peg, the songbook is now kindly hosted on the web by Ukes4Fun in the United Kingdom; thanks, folks!)<\/li>\n<li><strong>Dr. Uke<\/strong> shares his ukulele &#8220;practice&#8221; with the four-string world and his <a href=\"http:\/\/www.doctoruke.com\/songs.html\" target=\"_blank\">collection of songs<\/a> includes many holiday and Christmas tunes. there are even a few <a href=\"http:\/\/www.doctoruke.com\/medleys.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">Christmas medleys here<\/a>. Take at least two, and call me in the morning!<\/li>\n<li>If you&#8217;re &#8220;of a certain age,&#8221; you probably have been entranced with the varied songs listed on <a href=\"http:\/\/www.scorpex.net\/Uke\/\">Richard G&#8217;s Uke Songs<\/a> page\u2014so many of the tunes are the ones I remember hearing as I was negotiating those years between toddlerhood and college graduation. <strong>Richard G<\/strong> has made it easy to find the 23 holiday songs on his site by typing in &#8220;Christmas&#8221; in the search bar. Do just that and you&#8217;ll discover such gems as &#8220;All I Want for Christmas is You,&#8221; John Prine&#8217;s &#8220;Christmas in Prison&#8221; and traditional classics. What&#8217;s especially nice about Richard&#8217;s songs is that they&#8217;re typically based on the popular recorded versions you hear so they sound &#8220;familiar&#8221; as soon as you begin strumming them.<\/li>\n<li>Wilfried Welti is a Swiss ukulele player with a real bent toward adapting classical music for our four-stringed instrument. He&#8217;s put together a PDF, <a href=\"http:\/\/ukulelehunt.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/12\/weihnachtenukulele.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">Weihnachten mit der Ukulele<\/a>, which includes many traditional Christmas melodies featuring just what you need to play them in &#8220;fingerpicking&#8221; style. Yes, the text is in German, but music is the universal language and the tablature is the same no matter what country you&#8217;re from. Go to <a href=\"http:\/\/vimeo.com\/user548348\/videos\" target=\"_blank\">Wilfried&#8217;s Vimeo site<\/a> to watch and listen to videos he&#8217;s made of many of the songs.<\/li>\n<li><strong>JBoyShine<\/strong> spent a lot of time putting last year putting together several Christmas song arrangements for solo ukulele. As of now, the many selections include &#8220;Deck the Halls,&#8221; &#8220;Jingle Bell Rock,&#8221; &#8220;Little Drummer Boy&#8221; and lots more. Go here for <a href=\"http:\/\/www.box.net\/shared\/yc7nded3yh\/1\/58791139\" target=\"_blank\">solo ukulele Christmas tabs<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Curt Sheller<\/strong> is offering up a delightful arrangement of &#8220;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.curtsheller.com\/songs\/song_pages\/UL509_feliz_navidad.php\" target=\"_blank\">Feliz Navidad<\/a>&#8221; for solo ukulele. It&#8217;s written here as a song for ukuleles tuned in low G but Curt explains you can play it on high G instruments by, &#8220;not playing string four when there is a melody on string two and\/or three.&#8221;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It&#8217;s that season again\u2014can&#8217;t you tell by the porch-sized, light-up Santas at Costco? Yes, Christmas time&#8217;s a comin&#8217;! If you want to join in the holiday fun with your ukulele in hand, now&#8217;s the time to start getting a bead on those familiar Christmas tunes you&#8217;ll be singing around the tree. While there are some [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":383,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[5,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-302","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-learning","category-personal"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ukuleletonya.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/Christmas-uke1.jpg?fit=960%2C383","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6Wqkt-4S","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/ukuleletonya.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/302","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/ukuleletonya.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/ukuleletonya.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ukuleletonya.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ukuleletonya.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=302"}],"version-history":[{"count":21,"href":"http:\/\/ukuleletonya.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/302\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":442,"href":"http:\/\/ukuleletonya.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/302\/revisions\/442"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ukuleletonya.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/383"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/ukuleletonya.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=302"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ukuleletonya.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=302"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ukuleletonya.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=302"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}