Christmas Sheet Music is generally just like any other type of sheet music except for one thing; due to known melodies, it is more open to re-harmonization. What does that mean exactly? Well, simply by virtue of the fact that everyone knows the tune, it’s easier for the accompanying pianist to take more harmonic opportunities.

Christmas songs like Deck the Halls, Jingle Bells, Silent Night, and Joy to the World are so ingrained in our consciousness that few people have to think about the words or the melody. It’s natural for most of us, at least in Western culture, to sing along to the lyrics and melodies without thinking at all.

That’s what makes it more fun for pianists accompanying Christmas carols to take some really good harmonic opportunities with the underlying chords. Generally speaking, it doesn’t matter what you do, and as long as you keep up, no one will get lost.

Christmas sheet music is often accompanied with chord symbols to help pianists make good chord choices. Of course, the more talented the pianist, the more interesting the options will be. That’s why I like chord symbols on Christmas sheet music because it gives me a general guideline to follow and makes it easier to add more chords to the mix.

How do you do this? Take for example a song like Jingle Bells. If we’re in the key of F, the basic chord symbols in the chorus are as follows;

| F | | | | bb | F | C7 | |

| F | | | | bb | F | C7 | F |

Now how would one go about re-harmonizing this very simple chord progression? Most jazz musicians would know the answer to that question, but for everyone else the trick lies in something we call a 2-5-1 or II – V – I progression. This basically means that in front of each landing chord we can put a II – V progression with the one (I) being the landing rope or destination rope.

If in the chord progression above you were to put a II – V in front of the landing Bb chord, you would get a whole new sound. What is a II-V? In the Bb scale (our landing chord) C is the second note of the scale and F is the fifth note of the scale. So the chord progression would be C – F – Bb. However, since the second chord of the Bb scale is a C minor chord, the progression would be notated as |C- | F | Bb|.

Would you like to try something a little more complicated? Try adding sevenths to each chord. That means adding an interval of a seventh, either a major or minor seventh to each chord as reflected by the Bb major scale. Therefore, the final progression II – V – I, with Bb as the landing string, would be written as |C-7| F7 | BbM7|.

So how would the Jingle Bells chorus be noticed if it used II – V in front of each landing chord? I like this;

| F | | |C-7 F7 | BbM7 | F | G-7 | C7 |

| F | | |C-7 F7 | BbM7 | F | G7 C7 | FM7 |

As you can probably hear, if you play these chords on the piano, the progression seems much more interesting and rich. So the next time you pick up a sheet of Christmas music, take a look at the landing chords and see if you can put a II – V in front of them. Your music will have a lot of extra color and everyone will marvel at your new ability. Merry Christmas Sheet Music everyone!