Some Christmas Music

[jpfeifer]

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/page...?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]

Nice arrangements Jim... thanks for the spirit of Christmas... was a joy to listen to..

[SuperSwede]

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]

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]

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]

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/page...?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]

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]

Absolutely lovely!

Great playing and great production.

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

Merry Christmas, Jim!

[jpfeifer]

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]

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]

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
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]

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****]

Sweet arrangements, Jim! Did you come with all of those yourself? Very impressive. I can't play stuff like that.

[SixStringJoe]

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.

[jpfeifer]

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]

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]

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]

Oh WOW Jim that was awesome!!! Great playing and arrangement...and I love Christmas music! Made my day totally thanks!

[jpfeifer]

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