I'm curious:
What are some favorite Christmas and winter/holiday pieces, tunes and songs to play on mandolin and mando family instruments?
I'm asking to get ideas for church, work and my own amazement.
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I'm curious:
What are some favorite Christmas and winter/holiday pieces, tunes and songs to play on mandolin and mando family instruments?
I'm asking to get ideas for church, work and my own amazement.
Man, I like any of the standard Christmas hymns/carols because the melodies are so well known and generally easy to play. I also like the traditional tune Cold, Frosty Morning. That one was a tune of the month in Newbies group awhile back.
Quote:
Originally Posted by BluesPreacher
The Rocking Carol, aka The Shepherd's Rocking Carol.
Can be found in Paul Hardy's Christmas tunebook.
http://pghardy.net/concertina/tunebooks/#xmas
White Christmas (Chords are easy and it's great tremolo practice when you play the melody) and Blue Christmas.
I like to take simple and familiar melodies as I mentioned in my first post, and figure them out, then try adding in doublestops or chords with the melody. It's a fun thing to do for your own amazement IMO. Here's an early one I did, December 2016. I haven't gone back to polish it up, but the fun was in figuring it out as a relative newbie on mandolin.Quote:
Originally Posted by BluesPreacher
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FcsfCBsk7rI
My 2-cent contribution . . . .
(No refund requests, please!)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xqlI-PEhx48
Here is one I did last year. I don't think it started out as a holiday piece but it felt like one to me.
http://honketyhank.com/2017/12/21/20...-of-savannagh/
We did this version of Joy to the World at our church staff meeting today... I hadn't heard of this group until the Band leader shared this YT link with me yesterday... great version IMO:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GjBa-tg2bHs
My favorite to play by far is Butch Baldassari's arrangement of "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen" off his Evergreen album and the Evergreen instruction book. The arrangement uses "double picking" (two notes picked for every one note of the tune) which sounds really cool. It's exciting to play and sounds unique and really great.
Play this one at your church; they need to hear it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sy_3B2hiPf0
the original LP version from 1974, Lyrics/sound are clearer on this
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xfmeEsQjBx8
NH
The Wexford Carol is a beautiful piece and a little out of the beaten path.
How about " Grand Ma got Ran Over by a Reindeer ? :)
I came across this and the few that I looked at were accurate.
http://howardknight.net/mandolin/christmas-songs.html
Roland White has some real neat arrangements with video/tab on his website, and his Christmas carols book is also excellent. The doublestops are super.
they got a lotta nerve
My trio has put together a short list of Christmas songs to mix in with our regular swing and ragtime set. Songs, meaning we sing the lyrics, not just play the melodies.
All I Want for Christmas is My Two Front Teeth
Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas (from Meet Me In St. Louis) - we play it more up tempo than the version Judy sang
Calypso Carol
Jolly Old Saint Nicolaus
Jingle Bell Rock
I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus
Grandma's Killer Fruitcake
Mary Had a Baby
That is not all of the tunes, but ones that I recommend.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XcgdgpGBIOM&index=1&list=PLNf_NkEwN77pppJ6 5ozhiyYh9KhplRMm7
Cool hipness that Ray Benson may aspire to, yet never, never achieve. You're either born with it or you're not!
Baldassari was amazing! He was taken from us to soon. Here's his arrangement:Quote:
Originally Posted by John Flynn
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eWD07i8ct3g
A great tune that I have just arranged for two mandolins:
God rest ye merry, gentlemen
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rmP1Z152Wgc
Sheet music is available on my musicaneo site:
Very nice. One of my favorites and I like your interpretation.
Speaking of Butch, here's a festive number, with hip improv solos by Aubrey Haynie and Richard Kriehn
One of my favorite Christmas Carols is the German Maria durch ein Dornwald ging.
I recorded it with mandolin and guitar:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eU5Je9oS_0Y&feature=youtu.be
Martin Jonas has arranged it as a nice trio:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qPVtfKSlwoI
A German Christmas song found in an old book with songs with lute accompaniment "Deutsches Lautenlied":
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1FJH4ogYzmg