PDA

View Full Version : Some Christmas Music



jpfeifer
December 16th, 2006, 10:43 PM
Hi Everyone,

I've really been looking forward to doing some more home recording lately. I've been going through some rough times lately and there's nothing like playing a little guitar to lift the spirits.

I've always loved to play instrumental Christmas tunes on the guitar. I've been working on several arrangements to get them good enough to record them. I have posted a couple of these solo guitar pieces on my music site:
http://www.soundclick.com/bands/pagemusic.cfm?bandID=301718

I hope that you enjoy them. I'm still not playing these as clean as I would like but I figured that I should go ahead and put them out there.

I recorded the acoustic tune on my beloved Martin, which I've been rediscovering lately. I recorded the electric tune over a year ago with my Hamer Newport, which worked suprisingly well as a solo instrument.

Thanks, -- Jim

Justaguyin_nc
December 17th, 2006, 12:30 AM
Nice arrangements Jim... thanks for the spirit of Christmas... was a joy to listen to..

SuperSwede
December 17th, 2006, 07:46 AM
Very nice Jim! I´m glad to hear your guitar again!

Both songs were great, but I missed some christmas sleighbells on the first one! :)

Hogfullofblues
December 17th, 2006, 07:58 AM
The Christmas Song is my favorite holiday tune and you did it proud. I really enjoyed your playing and sound on every song.

tot_Ou_tard
December 17th, 2006, 08:45 AM
Thanks Jim!! I was trimming the tree yesterday & for some reason couldn't find our box of Christmas CD's. So I put on the Old 97's. My wife said that although the Old 97's are good, it is not quite the same thing. ;)

It's nice to hear your tunes, *now* it seems like Christmas.

sunvalleylaw
December 17th, 2006, 12:46 PM
Hi Everyone,

I've really been looking forward to doing some more home recording lately. I've been going through some rough times lately and there's nothing like playing a little guitar to lift the spirits.

I've always loved to play instrumental Christmas tunes on the guitar. I've been working on several arrangements to get them good enough to record them. I have posted a couple of these solo guitar pieces on my music site:
http://www.soundclick.com/bands/pagemusic.cfm?bandID=301718

I hope that you enjoy them. I'm still not playing these as clean as I would like but I figured that I should go ahead and put them out there.

I recorded the acoustic tune on my beloved Martin, which I've been rediscovering lately. I recorded the electric tune over a year ago with my Hamer Newport, which worked suprisingly well as a solo instrument.

Thanks, -- Jim


Wow Jim! Just beautiful. I especially like your take on Christmas Time is Here. I love the quiet, (almost melancholy but not quite), peace of that tune. I hope you take some peace in sharing your gift with us.

jpfeifer
December 17th, 2006, 02:26 PM
Thanks so much for listening to the tunes guys. I appreciate it.

That "Christmas Time is Here" tune is one of my favorite songs of all time, but it is a real pain to play on guitar. I've been working on that arrangement for about 1 year, and still trying to work out all the kinks in it. But I love songs like that where the chord changes themselves are so nice, it makes it worthwhile to try to work them up as a solo arrangement. I remember seeing the Charlie Brown Christmas Special when I was a little kid, and I always thought that this song was the best one in that show, next to "Linus and Lucy".

-- Jim

Plank_Spanker
December 17th, 2006, 02:34 PM
Absolutely lovely! :D

Great playing and great production.

My wife listened with me, and she is now digging out our Christmas music.

Merry Christmas, Jim!

jpfeifer
December 17th, 2006, 02:55 PM
Thanks Plank Spanker,

I just uploaded another tune that I've been working on, "Jingle Bell Rock". I've been working up a sort of Chet Atkins style arrangement of that tune. It still needs some cleaning up but I thought that I should include that one too.

-- Jim

Tim
December 17th, 2006, 02:59 PM
I love your style of playing Jim. Looks to me you accomplshed your wish to arranmge and play a few Christmas songs.


I enjoyed the other songs you had posted too. I really like the beat. I hope you guitar playing is helping you through your difficulties.

Merry Christmas to you and your's Jim.

oldguy
December 17th, 2006, 05:36 PM
Hi, Jim.
Thanks so much, I needed that!:)
The Christmas Song... I closed my eyes and sat here smiling.:)
Christmas Time Is Here... got big tears in my eyes...don't know why exactly.
Jingle Bell Rock...grinning from ear to ear... wonderful:D
Since my mom's stroke, and subsequent "episodes", with her slowly getting worse, the holidays have been a little tough for me also. I just wanted to let you know your music has really helped, and I'm very happy you took the time to share that with us. Sometimes, hearing someone else playing can ease a burden. And it did, for me, not once, but three times... so thanks again, and I wish you and your family all the best, and you are all in our thoughts and prayers. Thank you, Jim.
Glenn

jpfeifer
December 17th, 2006, 09:22 PM
Hi Glenn,

That's one of the nicest things that anyone has ever said about my recordings. Thanks so much.

All the best to you and your family for Christmas too!

-- Jim

Robert
December 17th, 2006, 09:29 PM
Sweet arrangements, Jim! Did you come with all of those yourself? Very impressive. I can't play stuff like that.

SixStringJoe
December 17th, 2006, 09:45 PM
Very nice playing Jim.

Few of my buddies who listened to it liked it too. I just remembered it was Christmas season in this part of the world. :D

jpfeifer
December 18th, 2006, 07:15 AM
Thanks Robert! I really appreciate it.

The arrangement for "The Christmas Song" is not mine but I did come up with the arrangements for the other tunes.

"The Christmas Song" arrangement was done by one of my previous guitar teachers, Pat McCauley. He was a master of that style of solo Jazz playing and he taught me that arrangement. It took me a long time to learn how to play it, and even longer to understand all the harmony in the chord changes that he used. It's still the most difficult tune for me to play in my list of solo guitar arrangements. I pull that tune out every year and re-learn it for the holidays. I finally sat down this year and created the tab for this tune so that I could teach it to other people. I'd be happy to share the tab for this song if anyone is interested in learning it.

I've been working on the arrangements for the other tunes for over 1 year now. I've been trying to learn how to do more of those techniques with harp harmonics that I hear Chet Atkins and Lenny Breau do so I put those into the arrangement for "Christmas Time is Here".

Thanks again, -- Jim

M29
December 18th, 2006, 08:43 AM
Thank you Jim that is a great treat! Very nice indeed this has really lifted my spirits, I will definately be playing these some more. You have a nice feel for guitar and a beautiful sound.

Merry Christmas to you and your family.

M29

sunvalleylaw
October 18th, 2007, 09:28 AM
Jim, my instructor has assigned Jingle Bell Rock as a student group project to perform as a group this coming Christmas season. I was re-listening to your wonderful recordings for inspiration. Yours sounds to my ear to track the 1957 sheet music I was given using C, Csharp/dim, Dm7, G7, etc. Is that the case? I don't mean you are playing those exact chord structures, but generally the key, etc?

Tone2TheBone
October 18th, 2007, 03:11 PM
Oh WOW Jim that was awesome!!! Great playing and arrangement...and I love Christmas music! Made my day totally thanks! :)

jpfeifer
October 18th, 2007, 04:01 PM
Hi Steve,

Thanks so much for digging these songs up and listenting to them again. It's hard to believe that I was working on these nearly 1 year ago.

In terms of the arrangement, I was trying to copy the same arrangement that I'd learned with a cover band that I'd played with, but I did change the key to A so that I could use some open string voicings to help out with covering the melody and keeping the bass line going. I find that I need to do that when I'm trying get that Chet Atkins alternating bass style going. When you find the right key for the song you can take advantage of open string voicings to get cover alot more ground.

You're right about the chord changes only changing it to the key of A.
Good luck on your performance!

-- Jim

sunvalleylaw
October 18th, 2007, 04:03 PM
Oh WOW Jim that was awesome!!! Great playing and arrangement...and I love Christmas music! Made my day totally thanks! :)

Yeah, isn't it great?! I love the Peanuts piece. I am a Peanuts special addict anyway. I even still remember the Dolly Madison ads and the early CocaCola commercials (I want to give the world a Coke . . . . ) from those days. For those young enough that they didn't start watching TV til the 80s or so, remember, no VCRs or TiVo. If you missed it, you were hosed.

The other (non-Christmas) songs on Jim's sounclick page are awesome too! :AOK:

Tone2TheBone
October 18th, 2007, 04:41 PM
Yeah, isn't it great?! I love the Peanuts piece. I am a Peanuts special addict anyway. I even still remember the Dolly Madison ads and the early CocaCola commercials (I want to give the world a Coke . . . . ) from those days. For those young enough that they didn't start watching TV til the 80s or so, remember, no VCRs or TiVo. If you missed it, you were hosed.

The other (non-Christmas) songs on Jim's sounclick page are awesome too! :AOK:

I was raised on Peanuts and actually lived near the Daisy Hill Puppy Farm ok I'm just kidding.

We're near the same age so I also remember the Coke and Dolly Madison commercials. And we're both ex Dogtown skaters. :beer: :AOK:

sunvalleylaw
October 18th, 2007, 05:12 PM
Hi Steve,

Thanks so much for digging these songs up and listenting to them again. It's hard to believe that I was working on these nearly 1 year ago.

In terms of the arrangement, I was trying to copy the same arrangement that I'd learned with a cover band that I'd played with, but I did change the key to A so that I could use some open string voicings to help out with covering the melody and keeping the bass line going. I find that I need to do that when I'm trying get that Chet Atkins alternating bass style going. When you find the right key for the song you can take advantage of open string voicings to get cover alot more ground.

You're right about the chord changes only changing it to the key of A.
Good luck on your performance!

-- Jim

Thanks Jim. What I am going to do will be a lot more basic than your beautiful performances, but I can take inspiration and instruction from listening. Thanks for sharing them.

jpfeifer
October 18th, 2007, 05:13 PM
Thanks again guys. "I'm not worthy"
I listen to my tunes and hear all the warts, but it's nice to know that some people like them.

I really love the music from the original Charlie Brown Christmas Special. I used to watch that show every time it aired (once per year) in the days before Tivo. "The Wizard of Oz" was the same way. You could only see it at Thanksgiving and that was it for the whole year.

I think that the music is a big part of why the Charlie Brown Christmas Special was so good. You had this really cool Jazz music with all these interesting chords as the sound track to what was supposed to be a children's show. That music made all the characters seem more interesting in some way. Snoopy wouldn't have appeared so cool if he was dancing to something other than the "Linus and Lucy" theme. I was reading an interview with Charles Shultz who was talking about that first animated Christmas Special that he made and he mentioned that the network absolutely hated it and almost pulled the plug on it when they first saw it. They thought the music was too sophisticated for kids to appreciate and they hated the animation. It's funny how wrong these guys were about the whole thing.

-- Jim

sunvalleylaw
October 18th, 2007, 05:17 PM
I was raised on Peanuts and actually lived near the Daisy Hill Puppy Farm ok I'm just kidding.

We're near the same age so I also remember the Coke and Dolly Madison commercials. And we're both ex Dogtown skaters. :beer: :AOK:

That's right brotha! Thanks Jim for helping re-live our TV influenced youth again. :beer:

sunvalleylaw
December 20th, 2010, 11:30 PM
Hi Jim, digging up this thread once again! I love your stuff, and am still trying to learn a version of "Christmastime", which I agree is one of my all time favorites. The chords are so cool.

I found this little tutorial for a version in E, which the instructor thinks is easier than the original F for guitar. I tabbed it out for myself based on what he is showing and a chord calculator, and he voices the chords a little differently, but it seems to sound nice. What do you think? Any tips for me?

Thanks!

Steve

Also, I was thinking of using a pick instead of fingerstyle like he is doing. (EDIT: not gunna work without changing some stuff. Fingers work better).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vbh7hfKP91I


EDIT: I just tried working through these chords, and this is going to take me a LONG time to get right. :thwap :pancake Boy, makes me respect and admire all the more your beautiful playing on this great song!

Jimi75
December 21st, 2010, 03:09 AM
Ahhh Jim that's great. Thanks for posting. Your guitar playing is really inspiring.
I appreicate when someone manages to catch the atmosphere of Christmas with his music and you did this in a great manner!

:applause

jpfeifer
December 21st, 2010, 09:22 AM
Thanks Jimi, I appreciate it.

I love working out solo guitar arrangements. They are always the most challenging and the whole process of making a solo guitar arrangement (of any song) teaches me a lot of things.

--Jim

helliott
December 21st, 2010, 09:20 PM
No idea how I missed this, but very glad I found it now. Super work to be proud of, and many thanks for sharing it.

sunvalleylaw
December 15th, 2011, 12:40 PM
BUMP!! For those of you who have not heard Jim's beautiful playing, and for those who may want a little bump into the Christmas spirit. Enjoy Jim's music linked at the beginning of the thread!

I still want to learn to play "Christmastime is Here" and still don't have it down. I will have to break out the Hagstrom and give it a go again!

jpfeifer
December 15th, 2011, 05:54 PM
Hey thanks a lot Steve! I appreciate it.

--Jim

sunvalleylaw
December 24th, 2013, 08:38 AM
Holy Holiday Thread Revival!!!

I just had to bump this thread as part of wishing all the Fretters here a Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!! Jim shared these tunes way back in 2006 just a couple months after I had first joined The Fret. I thought his arrangements and playing were so beautiful back then and still do. So do yourselves a favor and go to Jim's Soundclick page and check out The Christmas Song, Christmas Time is here, and Jingle Bell Rock. Perfect for bringing in the season.

I hope that all you Fretters are well and enjoying the season. I hope also the new year brings you health and happiness, and that more of us find time to share our passions and friendship here at Robert's amazing forum. I love you all. Merry Chistmas!!