Playing For Your Family This Christmas
It’s That Time of Year
We are now 2 days away from Christmas and for many musicians (particularly piano players) it is a time to dust of the Christmas music and entertain the family, community or ourselves with some of the classic tunes that everyone loves.
The image of someone playing piano for their family at Christmas time is one that is very stereotypically Christmas and one that many musicians aspire to be able to do without thought. Christmas is about giving, bringing people together and spending time with loved ones and what better way to do all of these than music!
However, playing Christmas songs for people comes with its own set of unique challenges. Firstly, playing music that everyone knows and will likely be singing along to means that you will need to play as fluently as you can. Secondly, you may be required to somewhat conduct a group of people that (let’s face it) are not as “musically equipped” as you may be - this can (in some cases) have an impact on your playing, because you haven’t prepared for an out of tune 90 year old distracting you (not speaking from personal experience of course)! Thirdly, Christmas songs are about warmth and creating a relaxed and comfortable environment, so you’ll need to be as relaxed as you can and embrace imperfections - Christmas music isn’t about perfection, it’s about warmth and having fun.
2. Fluency and Accepting Imperfections?
The interesting thing about classic Christmas songs is that there is no correct version of it. There are literally thousands of versions of each Christmas carol and countless versions of modern Christmas songs as well. Christmas carols are written a lot like hymns and share many of the same qualities. Much like hymns, Christmas carols are written in a very simply way, they are just made up of a set of chords and a melody. This is what makes them so memorable and easy to sing along to!
This means that depending on how comfortable you are as a player, you can make them as simple or as complex as you like! Many musicians choose to use sheet music to play Christmas songs, however, for those that are learning musicians this can take time and if you play any incorrect notes, you may be more likely to be thrown off. This is why I would recommend taking the chords and melody of the song and then making it as simple or as complex as you want to based on what you are comfortable with.
For example, We Wish You A Merry Christmas is made up of 16 bars of music (then it repeats - lots of times). The first 4 bars use the chords; G - C - A - D.
For those just starting the piano, you could play these once as a standard triad chord:
G - G B D
C - C E G
A - A C# E
D - D F# A
For those that are more advanced, you might want to add some colourful notes, add some arpeggios and other interesting ideas into the music.
Gmaj7 - G B D, F#
C9 - C E G, D
A7 - A C# E, G
Dmaj7 - D F# A, C\#
Here is a great version of most Christmas songs, to simplify the chords you can just play a simplified version of any complicated chord (e.g. instead of E7b9, you can play E):
https://www.bandsolution.net/page15/files/pd-christmas-fake-book-bb.pdf
Playing Christmas music this way allows you to find a level where you are able to keep the music going and as you play through the music and become familiar with the chords, you can try experimenting and playing them in different ways.
No matter how good you are at the piano, as you experiment with different things you can add into the music, mistakes are inevitable…but not necessarily in the way that you think! My definition of a mistake is “something that wasn’t intended”. You may play a note that you thought might sound nice and it ends up sounding less nice then planned. However, if you played it deliberately…commit to it and claim that it’s your own jazzy interpretation and that you are an avant-garde genius. If you act as though it’s intentional - then everyone thinks you’ve been reading the works of some niche composers!
Notes only become mistakes, if you react to them by losing control of the music and trying to rewind the clock and fix it. If you play something that sounds “interesting”, then think of it as something fun that makes the music more unique and then keep the music moving.
For those that are more advanced, you can play the game of finding a way to justifying the odd note that you played. No note is a mistake until you play the note that follows it! - to justify a note, try to move by step to a note that makes more sense and then you just created a moment of tension and release, rather than a mistake.
3. Performance and Mindset
Unlike regular performances, playing at Christmas time is all about sharing and giving those around you the gift of warmth and a feeling of Christmas spirit. So the aim is not for perfection and to be note perfect but to play in a meaningful way. So try to play with a feeling of freedom and like you have many possibilities on the instrument.
One of the easiest ways to free yourself up is to think about using lots of rubato (the stretching of time). Allowing yourself the flexibility to play at your pace and to enjoy the music will directly translate to what those around you experience.
This is also the case for those that are playing from sheet music in a more fixed performance environment. The way that you as the musician experiences the music will be what your audience experience as well. If you relax, enjoy the freedom of Christmas music and feel a sense of time standing still as you play - your audience will feel that too!
Whether you are playing this Christmas or you are taking a break and allowing Spotify to to do the job for you - I hope you have a wonderful Christmas and enjoy the holidays wherever you may be this year!
Matthew Cawood
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