Oh Little Town Of Bethlehem
In the spirit of fiddling, I arranged this classic melody as a folk waltz. Even though it’s a simple and recognizable melody, I think it’s an intermediate level tune because you need to use raised third finger on the G string.
Video
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Preparation
Scale and drone
Warm up:
D Major scale: D0-1-2-3-A0-1-2-3 | E0-1-L2-3-4
D Drone
Further warmups
Supplemental video
Chord Backup
Here’s a “performance” pdf without finger notation and chords. Use this to practice reading sheet music.
Oh Little Town of Bethlehem – performance version pdf
Chord shapes
Or…
B major: G2D2
F# Major: GH3D2
Further learning
Learn more holiday tunes here: Holiday Songs
Then put on a little show for your friends and family. Better yet, use your fiddle to lead them all in a song. 🎅🏿 🎄
Other versions
Nat King Cole
This sweet version actually starts with a solo violin playing the end of the melody. It comes back an octave higher at 1:04.
Elvis!
Audio 🔈
Sheet music 🎶
Here’s a learning version with finger notation, brackets, and color-coded repeating patterns.
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This is so pretty, I wish there was a play along track. Any chance you can add one? 🙂
See the audio loops at the bottom…
I really like this arrangement! Thanx!
It’s interesting over in The States you guys have a different tune for a number of these Christmas Carols than we have in the UK 😊🌲 I wonder what tune the other European & antipodean countries have…..
I didn’t know that. Maybe you can make a video of the UK version 🎥