Happy Hanukkah! Happy Solstice! Merry Christmas! As I cozy up here between various holidays, watching an ice storm set in outside my window here, I’ve been playing a lot of holiday music for ukulele around here. We had the holiday version of our Ukulele Zoom Jam so early this year, I’ve missed making music with you all since then! So, I’ve included below a few tutorials and song charts to see you through the rest of the holiday season …
All of the songs below are from my YouTube Playlist of holiday music for ukulele, so feel free to hop on over there for more tutorials. Do you have a favorite holiday tune you can’t find? I love learning new music! Let me know here, and I’ll see if I can add it this holiday season, or next.
Ocho Kandelikas (Flory Jagoda)
Since learning this song last year, it’s quickly become one of my favorite Hanukkah songs. It’s got a great groove and is fairly easy to play with just three chords (though you could get away with two!), making it nice for beginners. Take a listen to Flory Jagoda’s original recording here, as well as Alisa Fineman’s arrangement here, which I used to create the song chart. Finally, just for fun, take a listen to Pink Martini’s fun performance, too.
Download the song chart here:
Light One Candle (Peter Yarrow)
Ok, THIS is my actual favorite Hanukkah song. I grew up around plenty of Jewish folks (thank you, Long Island, NY) but not in a Jewish family. As a result, I always knew about Hanukkah, but never really understood it. Until I heard this song. I still can’t get through the third verse without tearing up when I play it on my own. Listen to the original Peter, Paul and Mary recording here.
Download the song chart here:
Silent Night (Traditional)
As you’ll hear in the tutorial below, I speak German and have family and friends in Germany from when I lived there after attending college. So, I was especially excited this year to include Silent Night (originally written in German as “Stille Nacht”) in my #UkuleleHolidays YouTube Playlist. There are sooooo many recordings of this song, and it’s one of the most well-known Christmas songs, but my favorite recording has always been by John Denver and the Muppets, which also includes the story of its original writing and composition.
Download the song chart here:
If you’d like to learn the instrumental solo I included in the tutorial above, download the full instrumental notation and follow the tutorial below:
The Christians and the Pagans (Dar Williams)
Let us not forget the celebration of the Solstice! Whether you are celebrating the Winter or the Summer Solstice this month, I hope you’ll enjoy this tune about “finding faith and common ground the best that [we are] able…” Dar Williams is one of my favorite singer-songwriters and this is one of her best-loved songs, for good reason. Listen to her original recording here.
Download the song chart here:
More on the #UkuleleHolidays Playlist
As I mentioned above, you can find more holiday music for ukulele tutorials on my #UkuleleHolidays YouTube Playlist.
If you find my teaching style is a good fit for you, I encourage you to do three things:
- Subscribe to my YouTube Channel. As you might guess, I don’t just post holiday music tutorials 🙂 … I’m actually launching a membership program in the New Year, and have lots of material to help you learn to play the ukulele.
- Join our next Online Ukulele Jam. We meet 1st Saturdays, 1 – 2:30pm Pacific time, live on Zoom. Subscribe to my newsletter for the link and songbook, and we’ll hope to see you there soon!
- Consider joining a class! I’ve got new weekly classes and monthly workshops beginning again in January 2023, both in person (Portland, OR) and online (self-paced and live). Check out this blog post for complete class details, or peruse my website shop for online classes.
Enjoy these tutorials and, once again, Happy Holidays! See you all in 2023 …