Jingle Bells (opening refrain, arranged for beginners)

Learn this piece

Composer

James Lord Pierpont

Arrangement

Musicanyya practice material

Level

Beginner

Key

C major

Metre

4/4

Tempo

96 BPM

Length

8 bars, about 1 minute

Hands

both

Trains

A very well-known, mostly repeated-note and stepwise melody in quarter/half notes over a single sustained bass note per bar, at a brisk tempo.

How to practise it

• Bars 1 and 2 are only E's: two quarter notes and a half note, twice. Hear the steady pulse in Listen, then play along with the Metronome at 72 BPM.
• Bar 3 has the biggest jump in the tune, from G down to C. Loop bars 3-4 until your hand finds the C without looking.
• Bars 5-8 start on four F's, then bar 7 comes down G, G, F, D to the home C. Hold that last C for all four beats while the left hand's C sounds with it.

Where this score came from

Arrangement for this app (CC0)

Only the familiar refrain ("Jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way / Oh what fun it is to ride in a one-horse open sleigh") is arranged here, 8 bars, key of C major, quarter=96 - not the full song with its verses. The changes are listed in departures. The left-hand bass note per bar is our own.

Changes from the source: Only the chorus, once, with its final ending ("...one-horse open sleigh!"); the verses are left out. Key and values: C major (the 1908 printing is in G), with every note value doubled (eighths become quarters). Bars 3 and 5: the dotted figure on "all the" and the dotted-and-sixteenth notes of "Oh! what fun it is" are even quarters; bars 4 and 8: the last note is held for the whole bar. Bars 5-6: "in a" is sung on one note E (the printing has two sixteenths). Left hand: our own single bass note per bar; the printing has its own piano part.

More at this level

• Amazing Grace (arranged for beginners) Traditional (American hymn tune "New Britain")
• Lullaby (arranged for beginners) Johannes Brahms (Wiegenlied, Op. 49 No. 4)
• Waltz, Op. 39 No. 15 (theme, arranged for beginners) Johannes Brahms (Waltz in A-flat major, Op. 39 No. 15)
• Greensleeves (arranged for beginners) Traditional (English, 16th century)
• In the Hall of the Mountain King (theme, arranged for beginners) Edvard Grieg (Peer Gynt Suite No. 1, Op. 46 No. 4)