Description

Play your favourite Christmas carols with simple chord charts and lead sheets!

Since David Willcocks and Reginald Jacques first published the indomitable Carols for Choirs collection in 1961, Christmas celebrations in churches everywhere have never been the same. Willcocks’ unforgettable harmonies in ‘O Come All Ye Faithful’ and ‘Hark! the Herald Angels Sing’ ring on in our ears.

But the landscape has long since changed, and in many churches guitars and drums have replaced organ pipes. What has been lost in grandeur can little be made up in style; nevertheless a greater access for more musicians to ‘simpler’ arrangements may also break down barriers to worship previously upheld by form and tradition. These carols are timeless; but my hope is that this collection prove timely. In other words, while not possibly able to reach the sublime heights or bedrock ubiquity of Carols for Choirs, I aim at least through these arrangement to provide a good starting-point for guitar-led worship teams to sing the carols we all know and love so much at Christmas time.

To that end each carol is provided in a key most suited to modern congregational singing range and for guitar-led bands. Each carol comes with a chord chart (in some cases, two – a with-capo and without-capo version – where relevant), and lead sheet (providing melody and, where relevant, descant lines). A simple tempo indication is given, leaving room for stylistic interpretation.

For more Christmas arrangements and other publications, visit olivepressmusic.com