Christmas Time Is Here
Here is a lesson on how to play “Christmas Time Is Here” from A Charlie Brown Christmas. It was composed by the late great Vince Guarldi. It’s hard for me to overstate how great this melody is, and how perfectly sad and happy it is at the same time. Hope you like playing it as much as I do…
This is an intermediate level lesson because you’ll need to be familiar with low first and low fourth fingering.
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Learning chunks
I’ve made some “Learning Chunks” to help you learn more easily. These focused exercises contain sheet music, tabs and mp3 snippets to guide you on your fiddle journey.
The idea of Micro-practice is to start with small musical bits, get good at those, and then put them together into bigger pieces until you have gotten better at the technique / tune.
For those of you who read (or want to read), this tune is a waltz, mostly in F and ¾ time.
This might help you practice with the Learning Chunks below.
Preparation
Warm up with the F major scale and phrases from the tune (once you’ve learned it) using a F drone:
A part, first quarter
First quarter: E0-AL2-L2-0 | A0
Try to master this, because the same rhythm is repeated throughout most of the tune.
A part, second quarter
Second quarter: E0-AL2-L2-0 | A0
A part, third quarter
Third quarter: A0-DL2-L2-1 | D3-1-1-L1
Same as first quarter.
A part, fourth quarter
Fourth quarter: D0-L2-0-L2 | D3
Interlude
Let’s pause for a moment and pay attention to how we practice.
When something is challenging, see if you can simplify the problem. Practice things in small increments.
You may find there is just a single note which is causing the struggle. If you can find that and practice it, then you systematically eliminate all hard parts. Once you get better at a small piece, test yourself by playing a bigger piece that includes it.
If you take this approach to heart and actually do it, then you can eventually learn anything.
B part, first quarter
First quarter: AL2-DL4-L4-AL2 | AL2
B part, second quarter
Second quarter: AL2-DL4-L4-AL2 | AL2
B part, third quarter
Third quarter: AL2-0-0-L2 | AL2-0-0-L1
B part, fourth quarter
Fourth quarter: AL1-D3-3-A0 | A0
Full Content
Full play-along track
“Low fiddle mix” Play-along track
The fiddle is quiet in the mix. If you get lost, stop and listen. Otherwise, when you play it will feel like you are playing solo with the guitar, organ and beat.
Full tabs
A part
First quarter: E0-AL2-L2-0 | A0
Second quarter: E0-AL2-L2-0 | A0
Third quarter: A0-DL2-L2-1 | D3-1-1-L1
Fourth quarter: D0-L2-0-L2 | D3
B part
First quarter: AL2-DL4-L4-AL2 | AL2
Second quarter: AL2-DL4-L4-AL2 | AL2
Third quarter: AL2-0-0-L2 | AL2-0-0-L1
Fourth quarter: AL1-D3-3-A0 | D3
Repeat the A part (ABA form)
Sheet music
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Further learning and practice
Other versions on Youtube
Back story on this tune
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Great arrangement! Thanks for the fiddle gift!
Thanks for the lesson, Jason. I’ve been working on a few traditional Christmas songs. This will be a nice contemporary addition.
“happy sad” positively perfect. Thanks