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Frosty the Snowman: Mastering Christmas Songs on the Piano and Keyboard

Check out our complete series on mastering Christmas songs on Piano and Keyboard.

Frosty the Snowman

Click on any of the music scores to view/print higher resolution versions

This guide will show you how to play simple arrangements of “Frosty the Snowman”.

Frosty the Snowman: Introduction

Here, Frosty the Snowman is written and played in the key of C Major, and has a 4/4 time signature.

Frosty the Snowman: Main Melody

This well-known Christmas song is made from four distinct phrases, with the first two and last one being very similar to one another, with the third distinct ‘bridge’.

The first eight bars feature the first phrase. The second eight bars feature almost the same phrase repeated, with the exception of the final two bars.

The next eight bars are quite different, while the final eight bars replicate the second phrase.

The melody notes you need to play are:

G E F | G C B C | D C B A | G B C | D C B A A | G C E G A | G F E F | G |
G E F | G C B C | D C B A | G B C | D C B A A | G C E G A | G F E D | C C |
A A C C | B A G E | F A G F | E E | D D G G | B B D | D C B A | G F D |
G E F | G C B C | D C B A | G B C | D C B A A | G C E G A | G F E D | C |

Here’s the complete melody written out:

Frosty the Snowman melody score

Download this as a PDF

And here’s what it sounds like:

With metronome click:

Download MIDI
Download MP3
Download MP3 with click

Frosty the Snowman: Single Note Bass Line

Below is a simple bass line for the song using just one note at a time. With two half notes (minims) in each bar it provides a basic rhythm to the song.

Many of the intervals between first and second notes in each bar are an octave or a perfect fourth. Watch out for bars 5, 13 and 29 which jump down from an F to a G.

Here’s the printed music:

Frosty the Snowman bassline score

Download PDF file

And here’s what it sounds like:

With metronome click:

Download MIDI
Download MP3
Download MP3 with click

Frosty the Snowman: Playing a chord harmony

In the final version of Frosty the Snowman, I’ve added three note chords to the right hand and taken out the melody. This is a useful version if you are accompanying singers.

Note that most of the song uses C major, F major and G major chords. However, to make it both easier to play and sound better, the C major is usually played in root position, the F major in 2nd inversion (so the C is at the root of the chord) and the G major in 1st inversion (so the B is at the root of the chord).

You can see from this that the right hand fingers have to move very little in order to play the chords.

Note that in bar 23 there’s a D major chord (see the F# accidental). This is pretty much the only time the right hand has to move slightly out of position.

Here’s the printed music.

Frosty the Snowman chords score

Download PDF file

And here’s what it sounds like:

With metronome click:

Download MIDI
Download MP3
Download MP3 with click

Frosty the Snowman: Lead Sheet

Here is a lead sheet for the song, with lyrics, melody line and simple chords.

Frosty the Snowman lead sheet

Download PDF file

Video tutorial

Follow along with our lighted keyboard video to help you learn the notes for this Christmas song.

We hope you found this guide useful. Feel free to leave comments below if you have any questions or suggestions.

Check out our complete series on mastering Christmas songs on Piano and Keyboard.