Christmas Guitar Lessons

Ho, ho, ho! Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays and all that jazz. What better way to celebrate than by serenading your friends and family with an electrified version of one of the most beautifu...

Hey fellow IGers! T'is the season once again. This year, I decided to take a holiday favorite, Silent Night, and arrange it in such a way that is quite simplistic, with the entire melody lin...

Well that time of the year has crept out of nowhere on us all again. So let's get in the spirit of Christmas by taking a look at one of the most popular seasonal tunes of all, 'Jingle Bells'...

Hope you all enjoyed that 'special' performance lol! OK, let's get cracking with this rather festive tutorial of an arrangement I made of this classic Christmas song (NO vocals this time I ...

Welcome one and all to this very special rendition of the classic Christmas song 'Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas' performed just for you even more special IG'ists. Snuggle up to the...

Ho-Ho-Ho Holiday Guitar Slingers! Welcome to the Infinite Guitar Santa's Christmas Knuckle Busters! In this tutorial we will look at some exercises to help you with both right/left hand co...

Ahh, the Grinch, the furry little green devil of Christmas that just won't leave us alone! But, in the spirit of his genial personality and insanity, I've devised a special treat for all you...

Welcome to part one! The opening of this arrangement is very homophonic in nature, using a variety of inversions in block chord format. Take for instance the opening bar. In its most basic ...

Rhythm   This system of interpreting music has a very handy visual method of showing rhythms. All the chords are broken down into measures. When you look at a chart, you can see exact...

This part is for those of you Elves that have graduated primary school and are ready to move on to Elf college! Here it gets a little more tricky. The example below is a very simple 3-note ...

The most technically demanding aspect of this arrangement is the control of the individual voices. It is a good idea to study the score away from your guitar and grab a pencil and mark in a...

Okay! For those of you Elves that have passed the previous example, it's time to advance to the level of Gnome! You should all be familiar with the standard A minor (Aeolian) scale by now, ...

This section moves away from the previous homophonic approach and incorporates a lot more changes in rhythm with a more jazzy harmony. It is essential that you sustain the melody wherever p...

Technically, you may find the position shifts need the most work in this section as the alternation between the chords and the octave figures require considerable shifts from a lower to high...

OK, now we come to the repeat section which is exactly the same as section 1 up until we get to bar 30. Bars 31-32 may require a little experimentation with left hand positioning if you are...

Here is a backing track where you'll hear the triplet rhythm pattern from the Grinch example, now looped. You can play along with this to make sure you are keeping the rhythm and then try it...

Hey fellow IGers! T'is the season once again so let's sink our teeth into another good ol' holiday classic. This month's lesson is comprised of a Chet Atkins-esque finger style arrangement o...

Around this time of year, we begin hearing tons and tons of the traditional songs which serve as landmarks for the season. If you're like myself, things tend to get old after about the 487th...

Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer. This is the segment where we totally sell-out and play one of the all-time most famous Christmas songs. Forced into a new meter, 4/4, this is yet another sec...

The first half of our rendition involves playing the melody in a lower register. We'll gradually climb an octave in an effort to build momentum, but for now, focus heavily on phrasing. Ensur...

In this second half, we're stepping it up a notch. The melody has crept up an octave, and we're implementing fills between many of the phrases. Be creative - The only real barrier here is th...

Enjoy playing along to the backing track! I'd love to see your rendition. Feel free to tag me on social media and I'll be sure to check it out!

This song is in a three-feel, so be sure to get into the swing of the rhythm before you dive in. There are three verses to the song, so the melody line (as transcribed below) basically repea...

Download the Backing Track here!