When your children want to get into the Christmas spirit and play some festive songs on the piano or keyboard, start out with some of the really simple melody arrangements on this page for them to try.
No harmonies, black notes (sharps and flats) to worry about. Just the notes written on the treble clef for them to play with their right hand.
We also have “mastering” series for Christmas carols and Christmas songs, plus some other simple beginner Christmas arrangements.
Before we begin, here’s how the notes in a C major scale are written on a musical staff, and which keys they relate to on the keyboard.
Notes written higher or lower than this simply repeat across the keyboard. High notes (to the right) are written higher up on the musical staff. Lower notes (to the left) are written lower down on the musical staff. Most of the music pieces here do not have a very large range.
We Wish You A Merry Christmas
This is written in 3/4 time (often referred to as waltz time). That means there are three beats to each bar.
Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer
This is written in 4/4 time, which means four beats to the bar.
Silent Night
As for We Wish You a Merry Christmas above, this much loved hymn is in 3/4 waltz time. It is worth noting that the melody for lines three and four are identical.
Good King Wenceslas
In 4/4 time, note the first and second lines are identical.
Hark the Herald Angels Sing
In 4/4 time, it’s worth noting the repetitions and near-repeats. The first two bars of lines one and two repeat, as do the first two bars of line three straight after. And then the final two lines are almost identical except for the very last note.
