Jingle Bells Chord Melody For Guitar – Part 1

Jingle Bells Chord Melody For Guitar – Part 1

Hi everyone, its Jingle Bells time!  I thought I would get a few tunes together for you for the holiday season that you can entertain your family and friends with.

This is part one of 2, second part coming soon.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KD5d98A4Kro?rel=0]

Looking at this tune from a harmony perspective, it is a typical I VI II V progression for the first 2 bars in the key of E.

In bar 3 I substituted a IIm to IIm7b5 chord (borrowed from the parallel key of Em) for the IVmaj chord that would normally be found in that measure, and then I subbed a VIm for the Imaj7 chord on beat 4.  In bar 4 on beat 2 I subbed a bII+6 chord leading  to the V7 on beat 3 and then another substitution of a bII+6 on beat 4 leads us back to the Imaj7 chord.

You’re probably wondering, “WTF is a bII+6 chord?  That looks like a dominant chord with an extension.”  Well you are right, it is a dominant chord but the way a dom7 chord is analyzed when leading to a chord a half step below it is as a bII+6.  Think about it; if you raise the major 6th of a chord, you get a b7 which would be the note needed to sound a dominant 7 chord (along with the major 3rd of course).

Continuing on, after the repeat we make our way to the 2nd ending where I sub a II7sus4  and a bVIIdim7 (inverted then root position) for IIm and V7 chords respectively.  I end it off with a B augmented chord in open position as it will lead nicely to the next section in part 2 of this song.

If this theory stuff is something you are really keen on, I can teach you from the ground up all the theory you would need to arrange something like this yourself.

 

Anyway, I hope you have fun with this and I will see you soon!