Mastering Christmas Songs on the Piano and Keyboard: An Introduction

With Christmas just around the corner, you may want to begin brushing up on your Christmas carols and Christmas songs.

In this ongoing series, I’ll take a look at some of the more popular songs, and show you ways of learning and playing them quickly and simply no matter what your proficiency (having said that, if you are already a virtuoso on the piano, you may be better off buying the sheet music and practising the full arrangements yourself.)

Christmas songs often seem complicated, and because they’re only called for during a short period of time in the year, they’re not always polished.

Often the song can be vastly simplified and still sound good – certainly good enough for a sing-song around the piano. Often it’s enough to be able to pitch the tune or play a basic bass and accompaniment to keep singers in tune.