Christmas Music

[jazzjune18]

Its getting to be that time of the year again...long, cold nights, egg nog, etc....Any recommendations on books out there with fun variations on christmas tunes? I dont want a simple fakebook, but something with more variations using double stops, cross picking, etc....more than just your usual melody....last year i bought the Hal Leonard "Christmas Carols for Mandolin" and had a lot of fun with that one.

Again, looking for something that is MUCH MORE than just the melody. As far as skill level is concerned, i am somewhere between intermediate and advanced (whatever that means)......

I know there are a ton of resources in the fiddle world, and i can read standard notation, but sometimes in these cold fall evenings im just too lazy and prefer tab.

Any suggestions?

[bigskygirl]

Steve Kaufman has a book with Christmas for mandolin and an associated one for guitar too. I have not attempted any but do listen to the CD at holiday time and they are nice arrangements.

[Explorer]

Have you considered trying to do your own arrangements?

When I bought my first mandolin, I arranged all kinds of carols that first year, and drew on versions which had stuck in my mind. The mournful voice leading on "god rest ye merry gentlemen," the interlocking voices on "angels we have heard on high," and other such features are good arranging technique exercise fodder.

In addition, I wound up inadvertently reinventing techniques like split courses in order to get certain voicings at the low end, and those techniques remain a part of my playing and arranging.

If you need written music, you can get a collection which already has four-part harmonies, written for piano but usable for vocals... and for deriving your own arrangements.

Whatever you choose to do, good luck!

[DavidKOS]

Again, looking for something that is MUCH MORE than just the melody. As far as skill level is concerned, i am somewhere between intermediate and advanced (whatever that means)......

Have you considered trying to do your own arrangements?

I agree, do your own arrangements, you'll learn a lot and have something special.

Heck, learn to improvise double-stops and such on the fly, then you can just go off on those Christmas songs. Have fun!

[Joseph Baker]

I don't know if it would be what you are looking for, but on Nov 22, 2014, in the Celtic, Nordic, Quebecois, European Folk Forum, a Free Book of Tunes For Winter was posted.
There's lots of good music in it.
A Dec 2, 2014 post includes tablature for the tunes.

Joseph W Baker

[Explorer]

Heck, learn to improvise double-stops and such on the fly, then you can just go off on those Christmas songs. Have fun!

Which would mean that knowledge of applying the appropriate double stops based on the current chord/harmony could be applied elsewhere.

Good point!

[mlinkins]

I love doing X-Mas music on mando, and I agree with the above suggestions about trying your own arrangements. If you are interested, I've recorded a lot of Christmas Music on mandolin. I don't have tab for any of these, but I do have standard notation for some. You'll find some that include crosspicking and quite a few in GDAD tuning. Let me know if you are interested in any of these. My You-Tube channel is brunomandos and most of the solo mando X-mas stuff is older. I'll post 1 or 2 here.

[mlinkins]

And another...

[jazzjune18]

Mlinkins. Awesome. Christmas music and cross picking are the perfect combination!

[EdHanrahan]

The good part: Some nice-sounding and moderately-challenging mandolin arrangements in here (NFI):
http://www.amazon.com/Christmas-Caro...lin+song+books

The bad part: Who put a strap button on the face of that sweet L&H? Ouch! And then someone saw fit to photograph it for a book cover.

[K. WONG]

You can try "Christmas Song" by Giuseppe Pettine. It is quite challenging.

[fernando.f]

Why don't you try to take inspiration from Bela Bartòk's Romanian Carols (for piano)?
http://conquest.imslp.info/files/img...Piano-Solo.pdf
From sheetmusicplus at $8.95
http://www.sheetmusicplus.com/title/...-music/4090135

Ciao.

Fernando