Oh Come All Ye Faithful
Hey there fiddler!
We’ll learn to play Oh Come All Ye Faithful by ear. This was originally given as a live Zoom lesson. You’re about to take the archived version…which is better in a lot of ways! Mainly because I add more content after the workshop.
Have fun…
Video replay
Let’s practice
Prepare for the journey
Warm up by playing the scale.
G Major
G Major scale: G0-1-2-3-D0-1-2-3 | D3-A0-1-L2-3-E0-1-L2
G Major Play-along track
G drone
Use this to practice the scale at your own pace.
Outline
Full outline will be posted after the lesson…
G drone
Warmup
Tone-building on D3 with G drone
G major scale, lower octave, upper octave and 2-octave
Practice strategies
We’ll use these strategies to learn this song by ear:
Play/Hum – this is more internal than singing, so more like audiation.
Reflection
What did you learn?
What was challenging?
What will you use in your practice
Takeaways
Strategies used
- Call-and-response
- Looping
- Chaining
- Play/Sing
- Audiation
- Hum/Sing
- Fiddle variation
You can learn tunes from recordings on your own.
- Start with simple melodies (like Twinkle Little Star).
- Slow down the recording on YouTube or with Amazing Slow Downer.
- Learn in small chunks
Audio & Basic Sheet Music
Hornpipe version!
I convert this classic carol into a fiddle hornpipe. In a nutshell, I broke up the long notes with swung eighth notes.
Then I added the usual colors from the fiddle pallette: slides, double stops, Irish ornaments and melodic variation.
You can learn more about these variation techniques in the Art Of Fiddling and Irish Fiddle Journeys courses.
@fiddl3hed Take Christmas carols and transform into fiddle tunes! #fiddletok #violintok #holidaymusic #violinlesson ♬ original sound – FiddleHed
Oh Come All Ye Faithful Hornpipe pdf
Reflection
What was challenging?
What did you learn? Try to put it into words.
How can you use this in your own practice?
Write down your thoughts below in either a comment or Your Practice Journal.
Further learning
If you liked this lesson, you may also like:
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Why did you change the key in the hornpipe version? Is it because of the style or because a part is easier to do in that key?
Thanks for the fun call-and-response lesson!
(I’m referring to the hornpipe sheet music on this page, because I think you played it in the same key on your Twitter video.)