Jingle Bells Piano Notes: Tutorial And Free Score
Want to learn to play Jingle Bells on the piano? Youve come to the right place!
Jingle Bells is a traditional Christmas song of American origin, written by composer James Lord Pierpont in 1857, on the occasion of Thanksgiving of that year.
The song was first published in 1889 by Edison Records.
Today, Jingle Bells is one of the most popular Christmas songs in the world. On December 24 and 25, it is one of the most popular pieces of music played by pianists to brighten up the family atmosphere.
In this article, we propose you to learn how to play Jingle Bells on the piano through a tutorial describing the notes to be played for each hand and tutorial videos.
Bonus: you can also learn this song at your own pace on our piano learning application La Touche Musicale.
Bonus : you can also learn to play this song at your own pace on our interactive piano learning app La Touche Musicale.
Learning How To Play The Jingle Bells Piano Chords
Christmas songs are part of any pianists repertoire, but sometimes you wont always have the ability to look up what the chords to jingle bells are. The chords for jingle bells are not the only thing you need to know. There are a lot of situations where you may need to know how to play Jingle Bells on the piano.
During the holidays it will be very convenient to memorize the chords for Jingle Bells on piano. This way you can write them out for another musician, or a family friend over the holidays. These situations will happen as your skill grows by using a teaching app like Skooves free trial, and soon youll know the Jingle Bells chords piano.
Tips on playing the song
- The melody is written only using quarter notes, so make sure to keep the rhythm straight
- The key signature is C major, so there are no sharps or flats used in this song
- The time signature is 4 / 4, so there are only four beats in each measure.
- The numbers next to the notes in the left hand are notating the fingers that you are intended to use with the left hand. Remember finger 1 is always the thumb for both hands.
- Though this song is written for beginners, you can very easily add basic major chords of C, F and G to follow the melody and improve your experience!
Why not try playing Jingle Bells with Skoove right now?
What Are The 4 Magic Chords
The four magical chords are e, b, c# minor and a. It seems odd that so many songs should have the same progression. The answer lies in the fact that each song is written in a different key.
In the key of C major, for example, the first four notes of each chord are C, D, E and F. The fifth note of the chord is G, and the sixth note is B. This means that when you play the song in C minor, youre playing the chords C-D-E-F-G-B-C#.
If you were to play it in A minor youd be playing G#, which is the only note in that key that doesnt have a major third. So, if you wanted to write a song that ended up sounding like the Beatles I Want You , you would have to change the order of all the notes in order to make it sound like a Beatles song.
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Why Not Just Start With A Lead Sheet
I like my beginning readers to USUALLY use music that shows the grand staff, as that is how they are learning to locate Middle C it is in the middle between the two staffs. Indian Dance and Lavenders Blue are exceptions, but they are unfamiliar melodies, and I have different goals with these songs.
And because they are beginning readers when I give them this music, I want as few distractions on the music as possible.
I suggest you give it to your piano students without the chord symbols initially, or else make a point of asking them What does this letter C mean here? And this letter F? And this G? A lot of them will jump to the conclusion that the letter is telling them the name of the note below, even if they know better.
Depending on their familiarity with chords, you might be better off with a plain sheet. Or, start in the very first week asking THEM to play the chords for YOUR right-hand melody.
Jingle Bells Beyond The Notation
Learning to read music notation is just one skill that relates to playing the piano. In fact, the list below includes a concise sample of other important musical concepts:
- Hand Coordination & Finger Dexterity
Most beginners are capable of advancing in the above skills much more rapidly than in their ability to read notation. How is this possible? The same way you learn any languageimitation. The truth is, music skills develop both dependently and independentlyand at different paces. Reading notation tends to trail behind other piano playing proficiencies. However, PianoWithJonnys interactive video lessons allow beginner piano students to play more enjoyable repertoire sooner through imitation. This allows the student to enjoy their playing while their ability to read sheet music develops at a natural pace. For example, beginners can play swing rhythms by ear long before they can read the same rhythms in written form.
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Weird Fun Facts About Jingle Bells
Jingle Bells is not about Christmas.
Or Hanukkah, Kwanza, or Yule its actually a secular song! It is believed to have been written to commemorate annual sled races that actually happened closer to Thanksgiving!
Jingle Bells is basically a poem about going out with your friends and your date.
Weirdly enough, my family and I found a hundred year old family letter in a collection of family heirlooms, and its content read eerily like the lyrics of Jingle Bells. It described a date on a sleigh ride, meeting friends and going out unchaperoned oh my!
The composer of Jingle Bells is pretty disappointing
*Sigh.* Another American folk song turns out to be composed by a racist. Surprise.
Despite being from a family of abolitionists, James Lord Pierpont moved south to join the Confederate army during the Civil War. To make matters worse, it is believed that the first public performance of the piece was done in blackface.
It has been performed in amazing and innovative ways
Despite all the covers, its virtually unchanged from the original version.
Heres the second ever recording of Jingle Bells, made in 1898. It pretty much sounds the same!
Jingle Bells Piano Accompaniment Stride/ragtime Style
Before we dig in to the details of stride style, lets take a look at the whole arrangement so we know what well be learning today:
This may look like a lot, but its actually very simple! The key to this arrangement is getting the style right. When played correctly, stride and ragtime have a joyous energy thats sure to get everyones foot tapping! This energy is generated from the contrast of long and short notes. Notes or chords played on beats two and four should always be short, while other notes or bass notes can be long.
For now, start by ignoring the bottom notes with the right hand and just alternate between playing your left hand on 1 and 3 with your right hand playing short on 2 and 4. Play your left hand short, even though the sheet music is written as half notes. If done correctly, you should feel it bounce as you play along. This is what were looking for! This style is present throughout the entire arrangement, so once you have the feel of it down, lets move on to looking at the through-line.
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But There’s No Left Hand Part
I want my students to learn early on how to read chord symbols, so they can play lead sheets.
Each “C” over the melody line means “play a C chord here”. That will remain the chord of choice, typically sounded on each first beat of a measure, until a different chord symbol, such as “F” or “G”, shows up.
See below how I actually have my students play Jingle Bells sheet music, with open chords :
Please scroll down the page for the download links.
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The Notes Of The Left Hand
Once you have managed to find the first note G of the song, we will play the whole set of left hand notes one after the other:
G G G G G G A A B B C G G G G G G A A B B C C G C G+C C G B G C G F# G C G C G C G+C C G B G C G G G G G A B C.
This succession of notes corresponds to the whole melody of Jingle Bells played with the left hand on the piano.
We advise you to learn it by heart to accompany the right hand.
Jingle Bells on piano: the notes of the left hand.
Jingle Bells On Piano: Finding Your Way Around The Keyboard
To be able to play Jingle Bells, you must already know how to find your way around a piano keyboard. In the same way as we did for our tutorials dedicated to learning Greensleeves on the piano and All I Want for Christmas piano notes, this first part will be devoted to reviewing the basics concerning the identification of notes on a piano.
Lets start by recapitulating the names of the notes on a keyboard. The image below shows the piano keys and their different notes to help you find your way around the keyboard:
The name of the notes on a piano keyboard.
Looking at the picture above, you can see that each part is made of 7 white keys. Once you get to the eighth, a new section of 7 white keys starts again, which reproduces exactly the same notes in the same order. To identify your position on the piano, you can use the black notes. For example, youll notice that the note C comes back every time you come just before the group of two black notes.
Now that you know how to find your position on a keyboard, we can start learning Jingle Bells on the piano.
If you are interested in learning easy music with piano notes, you might like our article about piano songs with letters.
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Add Slides Chord Pops And Roll Ups
Now that you have the primary elements, its time to put the icing on the cake. On almost any chord, you can slide the 3rd or the 5th of the chord to give it a bluesy sound. Notice that we do this on measure 3 by sliding from the A# to B
You can add Chord Pops underneath the melody to create a nice punchy sound. Notice we do this on measure 4:
You can also add roll ups to chords, like this on measure 8, beat 1, left hand of the lesson sheet:
How To Play Jingle Bells On Piano With Letters
Its easy to play Jingle Bells on piano with letters. You dont even need to read sheet music! Let me show you the piano notes first, and then I will share with you some sheet music that youll love playing.
The easiest way to get started is to use a simple key like C major where there are no sharps or flats to remember. All the keys used on the piano are white keys. Set your right hand in middle C position on the piano. Your thumb should be on Middle C.
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Time To Get Fancy With Jingle Bells On Piano
Now that you know not only what are the notes on a piano for Jingle Bells, and how to play Jingle Bells, with two hands on the piano, its time to learn how to play Jingle Bells on piano in your own style. Your full blown performance of Jingle Bells will depend on the context that you want to play Jingle Bells on piano for. Do you want people to sing along? Would you rather play a piano solo?
When deciding how to play Jingle Bells on piano, youll want to pick which version you prefer. You can play the melody in the right hand with sustaining chords in the left hand.
If you are planning to lead a family sing-along, you may want to leave out the melody altogether and create a fun rhythmic pattern with the left hand playing bass notes and the right hand playing chords. Its a good idea to know the melody, though, in case your motley crew of singers needs a little help finding the notes!
If you want to learn how to play Jingle Bells on piano in three different styles, be sure to watch the free workshop on how to play Jingle Bells on piano in 3 ways!
Have You Always Wanted To Know How To Play Jingle Bells On Piano
Learning how to play Jingle Bells on piano feels like some sort of right of passage. I mean, if you dont know how to play Jingle Bells on piano, do you even know how to play piano?
just kidding, of course you do! But if you still dont know how to play Jingle Bells on piano, or you would like to learn how to play Jingle Bells on piano in a new style, then this FREE piano workshop is for you!
This online piano class for adults will teach you how to play Jingle Bells on piano in three totally different styles! When you sign up for the class, youll have access to three unique styles for learning how to play Jingle Bells
Take the workshop to learn how to play Jingle Bells on piano!
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So What Makes Jingle Bells Sheet Music So Versatile
- This easy piano music uses all 5 fingers of the right hand,
- stays in one position,
- can be improved by the addition of left-hand chords, and, like ,
- is easy to transpose!
This Christmas song is the perfect tool for working on pentascale positions and the three main chords.
Here it is with chord symbols:
Please scroll down the page for the download links.
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The Very Easiest Way To Add Left Hand
The first week or so, if they already have the experience of putting LH chords to a RH melody, you might suggest that they use just a C chord the whole song, with no chord change, as in Indian Dance.
Also, suggest to them that the song will sound prettier if they play it up high on the piano, so that it does sound “more like bells” – more Christmas-y.
Then add the secondary chords
After a week or so like this, you can start adding in the “G pinch” chord and the “little F” chord .
The G pinch chord is easy, especially after playing , but beginners have a hard time with the Little F chord, because it necessitates the stretch of the thumb.
And they always want to move finger 3 onto the F, despite the fact that it is already sitting right there on the F note!
Sometimes, after a struggle, I just let young pianists substitute the G7 chord for the F chords, and we come back to the F chord later.
If you are looking for more challenging versions of Jingle Bells, please go to my other piano Jingle Bells music page.
Beginner Jingle Bells With Jazz Piano Stylization
Lets look at how Jingle Bells might look for beginner piano students using a few jazz arranging techniques:
Wow, what a difference? This beginner jazz piano Jingle Bells arrangement is enjoyable to hear and play! In fact, you can download the complete lesson sheet and backing track from the bottom of this page after logging in with your membership. You can also easily transpose the sheet music to any key using our Smart Sheet Music.
Want to explore more jazz piano skills? Check out the following resources from the PWJ library on essential skills and styles for jazz piano:
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Piano With Jonny offers three core content types:
Courses
Lessons
Lessons are combined into courses. Most lessons build upon concepts of the previous lesson, with the exception of Quick Tips which stand alone.
Smartsheets
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