How To Teach Holiday Music
Teaching Holiday Music to Piano Students
In this post, rather than focus on one particular piece of intermediate repertoire, I’d like to discuss how to teach holiday music. Currently, due to my demographic, 100% of my students celebrate Christmas, at least on a secular level, although that hasn’t always been the case. So, for this post, I’m going to use examples from the massive canon of secular and sacred tunes that Americans associate with the Christmas holiday.
Your studio might look different than mine depending on your location, demographic, and personal beliefs, and of course it is appropriate to be sensitive to your students and fine to avoid religious music altogether if that is best for you.
Not just Christmas music!
While all of the above might mean that the specific repertoire doesn’t apply to you, hopefully there are some principles here that will be helpful when considering any type of music that is familiar to students (pop music, Broadway or movie tunes, other religious music, folk music, etc.).
No more Christmas recitals for me…
I stopped doing recitals in December many, many years ago - although I broke that resolution in 2020 due to strange circumstances! - because it is just too busy at that time of year for suburban American kids. So for me, there is never a big push to prepare Christmas music for any formal performance. If holiday recitals are a big priority for you, then my methods will likely look different from yours.
How do you teach piano students holiday tunes?
My favorite ways to teach holiday music actually do not include using printed arrangements. This is especially true for students at the intermediate level and above. Therefore, my recommended methods would be:
Figure out a song’s melody by ear or by rote
For beginners, I usually teach them Jingle Bells by rote. It’s one of the few tunes that all American children seem to know. For absolute beginners, I teach their right hands to play the melody in C major. Once they have mastered that, I encourage them to have their right hand “teach” their left hands how to do it as well.
For students who already know some primary chords, they can also experiment with adding those. Alternatively, I can help them add a single-note left hand bass line that only contains a few notes. Or there’s always the option of improvising a teacher duet to the melody.
🎵 For more help on teaching students Christmas carols by ear, check out
Amy Chaplin’s Christmas By Ear.
Play a holiday tune off of a lead sheet
I try to do this each year with all of my students who are at the late elementary level or above. The beauty here is that you can can so easily and extensively scale this activity. The simplest version would be to play the lead sheet exactly as written with solid, blocked chords. By contrast, the student could use the lead sheet as only a starting point, leading to a complex solo piano arrangement or collaboration with another student on another instrument, creating something truly amazing!
This approach tends to work best for songs conceived in more of a popular or jazz style (such as Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree, Rudolf the Red-nosed Reindeer, Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas, and more), but can be used with any lead sheet.
🎵 Many thanks to Tim Topham for the free lead sheets available in this post.
🎵 I also use the Hal Leonard Ultimate Christmas Fake Book
as well as lead sheets from other sources in my teaching.
Teach late-intermediate to advanced students how to play from a hymnal
This obviously only applies to sacred Christmas songs, and care should be taken to start with one that is less harmonically complex. For students who might find themselves playing in a church context, this is an activity that I want to share with them prior to them leaving my studio. There are many ways to play more than what is on the page, and it’s a unique skill that is best done first with something very familiar, such as Silent Night, Joy to the World, or O Little Town of Bethlehem.
Teach holiday tunes in printed duet arrangements
Since holidays are a time usually spent with family, it’s often nice to assign a duet for a sibling pair or parent-child pair. I typically assign duets that are at an easier level than a student’s current ability, so these can be learned quickly and then practiced together as holiday time allows.
Here are a few of my frequently used books or series:
DuetTime Christmas Level 2 (Faber)
The Magic of Christmas (Alexander)
Christmas Encores for Two (Bober)
Grand Duets for Christmas (Bober)
Teach traditional solo piano arrangements
Now, all of the above does not mean that I don’t ever use printed solo music - I often do, especially for early-intermediate students who are reading well and cranking through a lot of music. I typically tend to assign arrangements just below a student’s current level so they can learn them quickly and feel a sense of mastery within a few weeks. We have a limited number of lessons in the holiday season, and I’d rather not do a lot of Christmas music in October!
Here are a few of my frequently used books or series:
Christmas books that correlate with methods such as Piano Adventures, Alfred Premier
In Recital with Christmas Favorites (FJH - Helen Marlais)
Any arrangements by Melody Bober (such as Christmas Memories or Grand Solos for Christmas)
Christmas Jazz, Rags, & Blues (Alfred - Martha Mier)
How about you, teachers? Do you have favorite activities involving holiday music? Favorite published collections to use?
BONUS: One more video, with an additional, more advanced variation style:
The above are Amazon and Sheet Music Plus affiliate links. If you click on a product link and make a purchase, Janna will receive a small commission.
