The Christmas Song chord progression

Hey Gang, new here and this is my first post. I’ve been reading for a while, love the site, look forward to becoming friends with some of you.

I am working on “The Christmas Song”
I already have my own tab figured out, and I’m wanting to get a chord progression (it’s not in the only mandolin Christmas book that I have)
My tab starts with a C note (for “Chest-“) so I believe that means that my particular version would be in the key of C. Is that correct?

And, I know it’s a beautiful song with a lot of chord changes, often difficult chords....
Is there a simple chord progression that I can use for now? If it helps, my tab starts out like


5 (4th string) (C note)
3-2-0 (2nd string)
5-3-2-2-2 (3rd string)


Hope this makes sense...

First two notes are the octave: both C notes. This is a good indicator that the first chord is probably a C chord. Beware of thinking that the first note of a song is the key of the musical piece! It may well be, and it may very well not be.

As far as the chord progression goes, you can easily find chord progressions for common tunes with a google search. You need not search for mandolin music, you only need the chord names. And you can transcribe the chords to other keys once you have a reliable chord progression.

I don't know if this at all helpful, but Don Julin has a splendid chord melody of this song out there somewhere. It shouldn't be hard to find YouTube and tab.

And by the way - WELCOME!

Just by the way.
If you ever find a note on the fretboard and you think it’s the key then try playing the closed position major scale using it as the root.

Example: Fourth string 5th fret, then 7, 9, 10. Then third string 5th fret then 7,9... 10th fret (which is another C an octave above)

Play this for a while as the chords in the song you’re hearing change, and if this doesn’t seem to fit in the song, then do the same thing starting on the note that’s on the same fret number but one string towards the sky (not available so use the diagonal up: string 3, fret 3) and then try starting the scale one fret towards the ground (string 3 fret 5).

These two other notes are the first note’s fourth and fifth.
Good luck!

Don Julin’s including tab is in this thread.

https://www.mandolincafe.com/forum/t...Christmas-Song