Christmas Carol Chords for Guitar: Free Sheets in Any Key
Every year around the start of October my students start asking the same question: can we learn a few Christmas songs before the family gets together? The answer is always yes, and carols are honestly some of the best teaching material there is. Everyone already knows the melodies, the chord changes are mostly the same handful of shapes, and there is a built-in deadline, which does wonders for practice habits.
This year I put together a set of chord sheets for the carols I get asked for most, so I can hand students a clean printout instead of a photocopy of a photocopy. They are free to print, and I am sharing them here for anyone who wants them.
The carols I teach first
If you only have a few weeks, start with the ones that use open chords and move slowly:
- Silent Night: three chords in G (G, C and D7) in a gentle 3/4. The first carol I give almost every beginner.
- Jingle Bells: the same three chords plus one A7, and a strum you can keep steady at any tempo.
- Away in a Manger: another slow 3/4 in G, with an Am to make it interesting.
- Joy to the World: D, G and A7, a little quicker, and a good one for practicing the D to G change.
Once those are comfortable, O Holy Night and What Child Is This (Greensleeves with new words) are the ones that make a room go quiet. They take more work, but they are worth it.
Pick the key for the singer, not the guitar
This is the part most chord sites get wrong. The key that is easiest on guitar is often too high or too low for the people singing along, and a carol that sits badly for the singer never sounds good no matter how clean the chords are. Try the first phrase with whoever will be singing before you settle on a key.
The fix is the capo. Keep the easy open shapes and move the capo until the singer is comfortable. Every sheet in the set comes in all twelve keys with the capo position worked out for you, so you can read the open-chord version in G with a capo at the third fret and the room hears B flat. I have the full list on one page: Christmas carol chord sheets in every key.
A few teaching notes
- Learn the chorus first. In most carols the chorus is the part everyone sings loudest, so if you only get one section solid, make it that one.
- Strum on the beat only until the changes are clean. Carols are slow enough that a plain down-strum sounds fine, and it keeps you from rushing.
- If a chord has a name you do not recognize, play the chord tones one at a time into the chord finder and it will tell you what you are holding. Students find this more useful than a chord dictionary because it works backwards from their own fingers.
- Print the sheets. A phone screen dims, locks and gets handed around. Paper on a music stand stays put.
These charts are public domain carols, so the words and the chords are free to share with students, church groups and anyone else. If you teach and want to write out your own arrangements, the same site has the chord sheet maker I used to build these, and it is free too.
Want to learn a few of these in person before the holidays? I teach guitar lessons in Vista, and December fills up early.