Merry Christmas, my friends! In today’s lesson I’ll teach you how to play a strum-friendly arrangement of Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas. I’ll be in the Key of G, which allows us to keep things relatively accessible while still capturing this song’s magic. We’ll need a lot of different chords to pull this one off, but fear not — they’re mostly standard fare. And as usual, I’ll show some helpful tips in simplifying some of the would-be trickier ones. Let’s get into it!
Here’s a few extra videos, made in thanks to those supporting me with Premium membership here on my Song Notes website. To those showing your support, you have my true thanks and appreciation — and I hope you find these additional videos helpful!
Here’s a walkthrough of the vocal melody notes used throughout this song. Learning these was incredibly helpful for me when working on my singing — as these notes (played on the guitar) provide a reference for you to match with your vocal pitch.
This playthrough does full down-strums only, on all 1 and 3 counts. This is a helpful place to start if you’re learning the chords and/or working on memorizing the chord progressions used throughout the song. When starting out, take it slow — and work on one section at a time! It’ll all get more & more familiar with steady practice.
This is my preferred way to strum this song. I’m using a down-strum of each chord’s bass-note on the 1 and 3 counts, with a down-strum on the thinnest three or four strings on the 2 and 4 counts. This gives things a nice groove, and in a way it can make things easier. Specifically, it gives you an extra beat to position your left hand into the full chord shape — which can come in handy.
I recently discovered this channel (Piano with Nate) and am a big fan! He explains things well, shows his hands on the keyboard and a digital representation of the keys he’s playing. Here’s his lesson, which is also in the Key of G – though I’m simplifying a few of the chords he is using to make things a bit more guitar-friendly.
From ArcadianWalnut on YouTube. Love the vibe of this one! I figured out all the chords she’s playing, you can find them in the YouTube comments of the video below (note: she’s in the key of C, capo 6th fret). If you like the vibe of her playing, check out my lesson teaching Will You Love Me Tomorrow — which was largely inspired by her amazing cover of that classic tune.
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