Jingle Bells For Piano: Playing Around With Chords & Rhythm…

Good morning. This is Duane. Today I’d like to look at Jingle Bells and use some different chord progressions than you would normally use in Jingle Bells.

Jingle Bells can be played with just four chords, as you probably know. That’s one chord. That’s two chords. That’s three chords. That’s four chords. In other words, just the one, four, five and the two chord. Let’s do something a little different. I’ll talk about it as I go: Jingle Bells For Piano: Playing Around With Chords & Rhythm…

Now, the first chord I used is the C-major chord, but I used a major 7th note. Then I went to a F-major 7th, the melody’s still on top, but I put a 9th in that G. Two chords. Jingle bells, C-major 7th to G 9th, G-major 9th, and then back to C, and then back to F, then back to C. That’s G 7th was the suspension, flat 9th. That’s a major 7th. That’s a dominant 7th, and there I’m putting the 9th and the [inaudible 00:01:45]. You could tighten it with the flat 9th. Then there we are with the F chord again. Notice I have the 6th in it. It’s the F chord, but the 6th and the 9th. Then I think I’ll go to a B-flat 7th. Then back to C-major 7th, and then that’s G 7th but it’s suspension. I’m suspending the 4th in the place of the 3rd. I could go to A-flat 7th, G 7th. That’s an A 7th in the flat line, D-minor 7th, G 7th, C.

You know, you could use a walking bass. Watch. That’s just in four. My left hand is a string bass. Notice I’m, all I’m doing is I’m walking down from whatever the root of the chord is. If the chord is C, I’ll go C, B, A, G. If the chord is F, I’ll play F : Let me do it a little higher so you can see. F, E, D, C. If the chord’s G, I’ll walk down from G. If the chord’s D, I’ll walk down from D. Now, there’s other things you can do. You don’t have to always just walk down. Like you can go : I can walk through the chord and so on, okay? But you can use a walking bass like that.

In the right hand, you can just play a melody, or you can put a : You can put a chord under the melody. See that?

Well, there’s some ideas on Jingle Bells, just kind of fooling around with different chord progressions and making it a little more interesting. The first time through, of course, I was playing with the rhythm as well. Almost a 3/4 kind of waltz kind of thing.

Okay, we’ll see you tomorrow with another idea on playing Christmas carols. I’ll see you then. Bye-bye for now. For a complete course on playing beautiful arrangements of Christmas Carols click here: How To Play Spectacularly Beautiful Christmas Carols On The Piano This Christmas!

Here is the video on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F_jz1v-hFRk
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