Christmas Medley - Carol of the Bells/God Rest

Merry Christmas everyone! I wrote this little piece after I heard an excellent song by Trans-siberian Orchestra. They did a medley where they mixed together two Christmas classics: "Carol of the Bells" and "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen". I thought the two songs sounded great together so I decided to do my own take on it, and this is what came out. I hope you...

The first thing to be aware of with this piece is the 3/4 time signature. Except for the very last part of the song, everything will remain in 3/4 time. Before you start learning the piece, make sure you can properly identify the time signature when listening along to the full track. Don't know what a 3/4 time signature is? Go ahead and check out this lesson...

Here we have the second part of the main "Carol of the Bells" melody. In bars 13 through 16, we have a different melody than the last lesson, but the rhythmic structure is exactly the same, where we have the following count: |    One   Two and    Three    | In bars 17 through 20, w...

Now comes the section where we begin playing the "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen" theme. This section begins at a very soft volume and I'd suggest using your picking-hand's thumb to gently play the notes. Look for the "T" markings under the notes which indicate to use your thumb. When you watch the full track video, you can see how I also turn down the volume ...

To close out the piece, we'll be playing a rockin' breakdown that will be sure to wreak havoc on the North Pole. So get ready to rock! We'll now be playing in a standard 4/4 time signature. If you need a quick overview of that time signature, feel free to check out this lesson. Also, the tempo for this section is a bit slower than the rest of the song. You...

Okay, now it's time to rock out to the backing track. But make sure you drink a lot of eggnog first. The Christmasy magic of eggnog will help you play better! As always, if you ever make a recording of yourself playing along to the backing track, be sure to post it in the forum so all can hear. See you next time and Merry Christmas! Sean