With Christmas nearly upon us, I thought it might be a good time to do a little holiday decorating here at Fiddler's Folly. Aren't my twinkly lights totally awesome? lol. And, what better way is there to revel in the Christmas spirit than with a traditional, long-time favorite Christmas tune - fiddlized?!?Jingle Bells has to be one of the most beloved Christmas tunes of all time by kids and adults alike. But did you realize just how old this song is? The answer even surprised me. According to an entry on Jingle Bells at Wikipedia, "It was written by James Lord Pierpont (1822–1893) and copyrighted under the title "One Horse Open Sleigh" on September 16, 1857." Those bells have been jingling a long, long time!
The following sheet music is my own variation on the original Jingle Bells. I wanted to give it a bit of an old-timey feel without compromising the original tune too much while keeping it simple so that everyone can play it. (Of special note, trying to pick out simple, familiar tunes like Jingle Bells or Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star are excellent ways to improve your ear training abilities. You ear will immediately tell you if you have the correct note or not!)
I've also gotten so I like the sound of my fiddle when it is tuned FCFC (called Cross F tuning), so I worked out this particular version in Cross F. To use this sheet music (or any other pieces on this site with alternate tunings) simply tune your fiddle to the tuning indicated and then read and play the music as if you were in standard tuning.
I have included lyrics for the first verse and chorus as well. These lyrics accompanied the information I found at Wikipedia and there you can find the remaining verses if you are so inclined. The third verse is really quite charming and as the article states it is often omitted - so often, in fact, that I had never heard it before. I would like to have included these verses on the sheet music for you, however, I have yet to find a way to insert a page (solely for text) within a Finale PrintMusic project. At this point, it is looking like I don't have that capability with this particular level of Finale software (although I know the full fledged version of Finale can do it).
Anyway, I hope you enjoy it! Merry Christmas to all and to all a good time fiddling! Ho ho ho.
0 comments:
Post a Comment
Once you comment and your comment has been moderated by the blog's author (that would be me), you will be able to view your comment by clicking on the number beneath the title of the post to which you commented.
~Melissa