Acoustic & Electronic Instruments, Musicians, News, Tutorials, Videos & Interesting Finds
Acoustic & Electronic Instruments, Musicians, News, Tutorials, Videos & Interesting Finds

We Wish You A Merry Christmas: Mastering Christmas Carols on the Piano and Keyboard

How to play We Wish You a Merry Christmas on piano and keyboard - mastering Christmas carols

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

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

View a range of Christmas Carols Music Books at Amazon.

We Wish You A Merry Christmas: Introduction

Like Silent Night and Away in a Manger, We Wish You A Merry Christmas is in 3/4 (waltz time).

The version presented here is played in G Major. This is a fairly easy key to play in (one sharp – F# – though there are some occasional accidentals along the way) and, importantly, to sing in.

We Wish You A Merry Christmas: Main Melody

You’ll notice that the main “We Wish You a Merry Christmas” line is repeated three times, rising in pitch but with the same basic melodic shape.

For each phrase, the first and second notes are a perfect fourth apart (find out more about songs to help you learn note intervals).

The run of notes are fairly easy to play, but it’s worth noting that, in this key, the third phrase begins on the black note of F#.

Here’s the complete melody written out:

We Wish You A Merry Christmas Melody Line

Those notes are:

D : G G A G F# : E C E : A A B A G :

F# D F# : B B C B A : G E D D : E A F# :

G D : G G G : F# F# : G F# E : D A :

B A A G G : D(high) D D D : E A F# : G

And here’s what it sounds like:

Listen

We Wish You A Merry Christmas: Single Note Bass Line

Below is a simple bass line for the carol using just one note. Most of the time, you only need to play one note (a dotted minim (half note)) per bar, except in four bars that have a minim (half note) followed by a crotchet (quarter note).

We Wish You A Merry Christmas Arrangement with Single Bass Note

And here’s what it sounds like:

Listen

We Wish You A Merry Christmas: Adding Harmony and Fullness With Additional Notes

In the third version of We Wish You a Merry Christmas,, I’ve created some depth by adding some extra notes for the right hand to play, always with the melody note as the highest note. The bass line remains the same, and you never have to play more than three notes in total — one or two with the right hand and one with the bass — at any one time.

We Wish You A Merry Christmas Arrangement with Basic Chords

And here’s what is sounds like:

Listen

We Wish You A Merry Christmas: Alternative Version With Walking Bass

This final version of We Wish You A Merry Christmas uses a walking bass style for the left hand, adding a little more movement.

We Wish You A Merry Christmas Arrangement with Walking Bass

Here’s how it sounds:

Listen

We Wish You A Merry Christmas: Chord Sheet

Finally, here’s a chord sheet and lyrics for those who prefer it.

We Wish You A Merry Christmas Chord Sheet

That’s it for now. Happy playing!

View a range of Christmas Carols Music Books at Amazon.

We Wish You A Merry Christmas: Lyrics

We wish you a Merry Christmas;
We wish you a Merry Christmas;
We wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
Good tidings we bring to you and your kin;
Good tidings for Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Oh, bring us a figgy pudding;
Oh, bring us a figgy pudding;
Oh, bring us a figgy pudding and a cup of good cheer

We won’t go until we get some;
We won’t go until we get some;
We won’t go until we get some, so bring some out here

We wish you a Merry Christmas;
We wish you a Merry Christmas;
We wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

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

One thought on “We Wish You A Merry Christmas: Mastering Christmas Carols on the Piano and Keyboard”

Comments are closed.