The Christmas Song Guitar Tutorial Video Lecture - The Ultimate Guitar

full disclosure I'm not really a
Christmas guy because I'm usually
listening to tool or Black Sabbath
because I'm a badass but I'm making an
exception for the Christmas song and
specifically the rendition I did with
Ferrand so I'm gonna link you below if
you haven't seen that because that's
gonna be kind of the one we're talking
about and this could be a lesson in kind
of arrangement and taking a cord sheet
because also link you to the cord sheet
I was very loosely working on and
somewhat arranging around it to kind of
make I don't know a little bit of a
different version of it so yeah anyways
by the way what what kind of balls
didn't that King Cole have to name this
the Christmas song anyways really cool
song and we're gonna kind of break it
down and we're gonna start with the
intro of it which is AC major seven
voice board I'm just gonna kind of speed
through this so otherwise it'd be like
like a 40-minute video so anyways you
can just kind of I'm gonna break into
parts you can revisit these if you want
but it starts with a C major 7 voicing
right here so pointer finger on the C
the 8th fret of the E string and we'll
talk a little bit about the theory
behind this too and then your ring
finger is on the 7 right here so which
is actually 9th fret of the D string
thank you right behind that on 9 G
middle finger on 8b alright so and then
we're gonna hit the chord first and then
we're gonna kind of do a little melody
run to kind of introduce the song so so
really I'm taking it from one C major 7
chord voicing it I'm gonna kind of do a
little melody run or I go to the high E
string
8 7 up a string ten eight six leading
myself into another C major seven chord
voicing that has the melody note that
I'm looking for so I've got my C on
three ef3 hey make it a power board 5 D
middle finger for G pinky
five beer so you can see this is like a
cool example of maybe finding a malady
note within a chord I'm kind of
strumming down or playing a finger style
I also played this on the Cordoba in the
video but I'm playing it here because it
has the inlays and stuff so I'm playing
the chord up to the melody putting the
melody on top making this B string ring
out a little bit and then hitting the
high E string and then back to the B
string so that's the way you can kind of
incorporate a melody into what you're
kind of doing so we've got C major seven
so again I'm just kind of adding his
melody notes into the chord three five
six F major seven which is the same
voicing we did on the C and our doing on
the app
and I'm gonna jump to this so this is
really just kind of I'm thinking almost
like like a g-minor farmers barring the
third front and the bottom three strings
I'm adding the melody after this court
so 5 e 3 e 6 5 3 and then here's
something that I think a lot of times
you'll see like an F minor 7 and this I
forget what the chord she says but I
kind of wanted a sample of a difference
so a minor 7 flat 5 or voicing right
here which is open D 1 1 1 by the way
when I say the way I arranged it I feel
like I sound like such a douchebag like
I arranged it like it I don't know it's
a great song somebody else wrote I'm
just kind of throwing different chord
voicings that I thought sounded good
please feel free to change these chord
voicings to whatever you want and then
just try to make anything your own and
that can be your arrangement as it were
but anyways after this minor 7 flat 5
chord we're gonna go to an e7 open e to
a and open D Wan Jia
into a g7 now the reason this is kind of
like a good way to end an intro maybe is
it ends on a g7 the dominant 7 voicing
where G is the 5 so if G is the 5 was
the one if we go backwards we find out
the one is a SIA and since the song
starts on that's CES the 5 kind of
creates attention to start it off where
where the the vocals begin and again
Ferran just killed it on the song
incredible singer if I were to try to
just sing the song you would have to be
like Bing Crosby style like chestnuts
roasting on an open fire but anyways now
we're just gonna kind of get into more
of like just a chord type thing so we're
gonna start with that same thing at the
beginning and the way I was playing out
I was just kind of doing like two baby
hits per chord so like a C major seven
to a d-minor 9 now this really cool
chord voicing if you don't know this one
the root note is right here five eight
there's a deer I'm playing it's minor
third which is 3d then I'm going back to
5g5 beer right really cool kind of jazzy
and sound recorder we've got C major
seven - D - E minor seven - a minor
seven now I realize there are much more
efficient ways you can play this you can
play a c7 E
Hey but just the way I wanted to do this
I wanted to create a lot of movement and
that's kind of my style I guess it's
kind of moving around so it's just kind
of swapping out different chord voicing
so think of the first grouping of four
chords C major seven D minor 9 e minor 7
which is 7 a as your root and then you
kind of take like a regular minor for
the lift your pinkie you get a minor 7
into an a minor 7 rooted on the E string
so I have five to give the a string 5 5
5 right now again these are kind of
extending chords like seven four is nine
chords whatever you can always simplify
that like if you see like a like a
d-minor 9 you can always simplify that
to just a d minor you can just take that
number out there in this case it would
leave you with a C to a d minor to a a
minor to an E minor all right
same difference whatever just kind of
however you want to do it but either way
we've got C major seven to the D I'm
kind of hammering it on and adding my
pinkie right there to the a and then I
know I'm gonna work my way back to the F
major 7 so I'm just kind of adding notes
in the scale to get to this snow right
here this C alright so what the weighted
that is on the B string six five three F
major 7 and then
and that is the melody run of that part
right Jack Frost nippin Nancy oh no and
then it's the same thing as the intro
right it's that same little Ronnie and
I'm trying to accomplish Aaron's voice
is doing so Jack Frost nipping at your
nose and when you're comping with a
singer like a cool thing to do is maybe
take the note if they're playing and try
to work it into the core of it without
it without stepping all over what
they're doing so it can be kind of a
fine line but I think it always sounds
kind of cool if you try to add a little
bit of the melody to the chord so after
that the intro thing again where we just
did in this little run to the half
diminish
seven then I'm walking up to the a minor
seven EGA and then back to a Jia it's
kind of like a jazzy kind of walking
bass line thing eg a - Evan walk-in back
chromatically into a Jia
and a G with the three be on top not a
full G because we want the melyandd
there because then we have somewhere to
go once again there's a melody again if
that's kind of live the part of the song
b13 e35 e7 we can kind of add that to
chords so we have a C chord I can do all
I can add all those notes on top of a
regular open C chord bum bum bum bum bum
I'm just moving the shape with me to the
fifth fret and then I want to end up on
7e so I'm gonna throw a b7 right there
which ends there it's just kind of like
the four voice you can pick to kind of
get that note America bum bum bum bum
and then E major 7 is right here which
is the same voicing we used in the C
chord or she like gotta know your chord
voicings people it's a 7 a and then it
goes 7 9 8 9 and then I'm just kind of
hanging out on this until I go to a Gio
do a g7 all right bum bum bum bum bum
bum to do did it it adieu Jian everybody
knows and that goes back to at the
beginning so we'll go back to the same
chords if you see you - D - E - a do
this same run then back to this bar half
diminished
then to a back to G then the run-up to
the b7 and then this is where we go into
the bridge
we'll find it hard to sleep to 9:00
all right so we're kind of camping every
note there and the way we're gonna do
this run is a minor 7 a minor 7 is that
d-minor 9 g7 C major 7 great exercise
for just kind of running through chords
really quickly just one versatile
doo-doo-doo-doo and then this is where
it gets to the bridge so we go from a C
and major seven to a C dominant seven
and the way to do that all you have to
do is just pop your middle finger up and
it takes a major 7 into a flat 7 so it's
kind of like a key chain drive so you're
going from C major 7 just c7 then now
we're kind of in a different realm here
for what I would consider the bridge of
this arm G minor 7 F to G minor 6 I can
never stay still too long
whenever I'm playing a chord so Moy
switching it which is like how annoying
is that you're trying to learn a song
and the guy you're trying to like learn
the song form changes it every single
time
that he does it I'm really sorry about
that you have to deal with it but yeah
so do do do do so it's really just kind
of two chords G minor to F but I'm
playing a G minor 7 2 minor 6 if you
don't know minor 6 it's three skip one
two three three two F major seven maybe
one thing but I think I was probably
adding my pinkie to the 3rd fret of the
B string F major 7 inflection
back to the gene that happens twice now
we're gonna do the same thing down a
step and again seeing how the intervals
relate again this is just a minor chord
move down two frets to a major 7 chord
[Music]
memorizing a bunch of chords in a song
can be like totally hard so one cool
thing to do is to kind of think how they
relate to each other so if you think of
this I I've got this minor down to a
major 7 move that whole thing down a
step so what's the step down from G yo G
to F sharp to F so now instead of going
G minor to F major we're going F minor
and then you go a step down from F which
you can't really do it yet because
here's f E and being an E flat major
seven so we're gonna go up here we're
gonna play the F minor up here so G
minor to F major now move it down a step
even though we move down a step
compositionally we're actually going
higher to get to the f minor 7 so the e
flat major 7 so again it's the same
thing we're mirroring its need to act
and then F to E flat same thing but down
to step so it's easy to remember one
progression down two steps than like
more corazon in my opinion right so
anyways the whole bridge G minor 7 to
the six to F major 7 you know if I get
that again
[Music]
move it down a step okay and again this
is just my root note is 8 K which is 1/2
from the minor 7 shape to 6 Hey
which is a key flat major 7 and then
we're gonna take this to a dominant D a
d7 right ok and I'm just playing you
probably even played this from from the
top it's 2 e 1 B 2 Jia and I'm just
getting the battle for string and the
way I'm inflicting that is I'm opening
up the E string and then back to the G
to the 7 so this is kind of how we're
bringing it back home this diya kind of
leads us into a gia and again this is
just kind of about dominant I'm gonna do
a separate voicing on the beauty of
using dominant 7th chords
compositionally because they always lead
back to the tonic or whatever so if
we're thinking of a d7 that's gonna
resolve on a G which it does I think I
should put open G in the song and then
we're gonna make that its own dominant 7
g7 which is gonna resolve to Asiya
which is where we're back to the
beginning part that verse right so it's
a cool way if you're you know interested
in like your own songwriting how do you
get out of a key and how do you get back
a lot of times down into seven voicings
are gonna be the key to unlocking how
you get back into a different key I
guess there's actually a pun didn't mean
it to be that way anyways so after the
d7
we're gonna go to a G than to a g7
and then that's just a little whatever
rotten a little to give back to see Rana
EDC BC I think one way to even kind of
like strengthen the resolution is to
kind of dance around in a scale and feed
it back to where you're going and then
now once we're here we're back to the
original verse chord see you did there's
that nine minor to a back to a minor
seven to G then the long fretboard run
and then this is kind of like the place
where we're gonna kind of end it right
so I forget to that b7 so this is the
Merry Christmas part obviously the
really pulling at the heartstrings at
this point we've got a seek or just a
regular C bar quarter because here's the
melody Merry Christmas
810 b8 b210 D so I'm adding all of this
from a C bar for Tom a threat
you kind of play up Oh as one cord to
you now this right here this is a deer
if you call this D major nine something
like that right this is of the sport
pants 5 a 4 D 5 g 5 beer and then n on a
C major 7 because no no snow arranger
because that's what I'm doing I'm
arranging the song my personal
arrangement douche bag is I can be
complete without ending on a major 7
right because it's a little bit of uh
we're not just gonna end it we're not
gonna go up see no that doesn't leave
the mystery we have to end it like this
a C major 7 voicing a different one so
my middle finger is on the g3 e3 a 2d
and I'm a stopping short of my strum so
I really get that B because the B is the
major 7th that's what kind of gives this
court its
as unresolved feel okay so again for
this your honor C major seven so yeah
feel free to try to tackle this one or
change it however you want you can just
go straight on the chord chart it's cool
I think one of the most fun things about
guitar is being able to take existing
songs and maybe rearranging them in a
way that is more your style or just kind
of something little bit different so I
hope you enjoyed it and I hope you have
a very Merry Christmas thanks