Christmas Guitar Video Reviews

Christmas carols are still firmly entrenched within the holiday tradition in North America. Whether crooning them with friends and family, or bustling from house to house with a group of other eager singers to serenade neighbours, chances are, we as guitarists will be called upon to play carols sometime this Christmas season. And with Christmas less than two weeks away, the requests, for many of us, have already begun.
The problem is; how many of us know how to play more than a few Christmas carols on guitar? While some of them are rather easy, a surprisingly large percentage of Christmas tunes are filled with tricky chords, which might make playing them by ear rather tough.
In response to this, several instructional Christmas guitar videos have surfaced. The creators of Song Xpress have assembled two videos, Yuletide Tunes Volumes 1 & 2, which focus on teaching guitarists to play the chords for Christmas tunes, so that others can sing along with them. Two other videos from the "Beyond Basics" series, Fingerstyle Christmas Volumes 1 & 2, illustrate detailed solo guitar arrangements for popular Christmas carols.

Yuletide Tunes Vol. 1

• Jingle Bell Rock
• Santa Claus is Comin' to Town
• Silent Night
• Winter Wonderland

Tommy Anthony, a regular instructor in many of the other Song Xpress videos, is at the helm again here in the first Christmas edition. The choice of material is good... each of these tunes are popular, and you'll surely get asked to play them frequently.
The pace of this video is reasonably quick; if you're comfortable with playing, and navigating through all the basic open chords, you shouldn't have a problem. If you're a guitarist who isn't totally comfortable with switching basic chords quickly, however, you'll probably need to spend some time rewinding the tape, and reviewing the material.
Anthony does a good job of organizing the songs here; he includes basic chords, then also spends some times detailing "licks" and intros that a more experienced player might want to add to spice up the material.
Something is immediately apparent when watching the video; there is a strange, "overexposed" look to the video quality, that makes everything appear "washed out". This in reality doesn't affect the quality of the instruction at all, but it is somewhat off putting at first, and bears mentioning.
Despite the inferior video quality, the beginner/intermediate guitarist will find much to learn from Yuletide Tunes Vol.1, and it's $9.95 list price makes the instructional video a great value.

Buy Yuletide Tunes Vol.1 from SongXpress website.

Yuletide Tunes Vol.2

• Deck the Hall
• Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas
• Here Comes Santa Claus
• Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow

Instructor Magda Hiller takes over for the second volume in this series, and the change in pace of the video is immediately noticeable. Hiller tends to move much more slowly than Anthony, explaining how to play even the most basic of chords. She also provides more detail on how to strum each of the tunes, something Anthony tends to gliss over. So, if you're a novice guitarist, you might find this edition more user-friendly than volume 1. However, if you've got more experience, you might find the directions a tad tedious.
The choice of songs on Volume 2 is again very good, and the explanations of each are equally fine. The difficulty level of the tunes vary slightly. "Deck the Hall" uses a plucked (rather than strummed) style, and might prove to be rather difficult for novices. "Have yourself a Merry Little Christmas", similarly, might be overwhelming for beginners, as it contains a large number of chords, many of them being somewhat unusual.
My only qualm with Volume 2 was the lack of a performance by Hiller of "Here Comes Santa Claus". Song Xpress videos almost always include the instructor playing a complete performance of each tune they teach, so it was conspicuous by it's absence.
Despite that minor flaw, Yuletide Tunes Vol. 2 should provide guitarists will all the information they need to confidently perform each of the four tunes on the video. Hiller's explanations are good and thorough, and should answer any questions that may arise when learning the material. And again, the $9.95 list price makes the video that much more attractive.

Buy Yuletide Tunes Vol.2 from SongXpress website.

Beyond Basics
Fingerstyle Christmas Guitar Vol.1

• It Came Upon a Midnight Clear
• The First Noel
• Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas
• Angels We Have Heard on High

Guitarist Mark Hanson, writer and editor for Frets, Acoustic Guitar, Fingerstyle Guitar, and Guitar Player magazines, guides viewers through his personal arrangements of four Christmas classics. Targeting a much more musically advanced audience than the Song Xpress videos, Fingerstyle Christmas Guitar Volume 1 contains arrangements that range in difficulty and length, all of which should take some practice for even the most seasoned guitarists. The video is accompanied by a small booklet containing full tablature (no standard notation) for each of the arrangements.
Volume 1 contains two arrangements (The First Noel, It Came Upon a Midnight Clear) which are only slightly difficult, and should prove fairly easy to master. The remaining two tunes are much more difficult, yet sound much more impressive. Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas contains beautiful harp-like runs, phrases played in harmonics, and more. Angels We Have Heard on High is equally stunning, using open G major-seven tuning to create some very intriguing sounds.
The pacing of the video is excellent; Hanson plays the arrangement once through at the beginning of each segment, then details any specific parts of the tune that may cause the viewer problems. Time restraints dictate that Hanson can not go over each portion of the arrangement in full-detail, but the tab booklet will answer any remaining questions you have.
This video comes extremely highly recommended for more advanced guitarists. The arrangements are uniformly excellent, and some of the techniques Hanson uses should provide you with food for thought for your own music. This could be a valuable resource for teachers wishing to learn holiday music to teach ambitious students, for a musician looking to find seasonal work playing Christmas music, or for intrigued guitarists interested in learning some impressive music to add to their repertoire. The low $14.95 price tag make the video even more desirable. Extremely highly recommended.

Beyond Basics
Fingerstyle Christmas Guitar Vol.2

• Silent Night
• Oh, Little Town of Bethlehem
• Joy to the World
• Winter Wonderland

Volume 2 of this series picks up right where the first left off, and is just as impressive as it's predecessor. The arrangements here are wonderful to listen to and play, and should delight any audiences you may happen to play them for. As with Volume 1, Mark Hanson's arrangements are completely "self-contained", including both the chords and the melody, so singing along would only distract from the delicacy of the arrangements.
Also similar to volume 1 is the video's format; two of the arrangements are more simple (Joy to the World, Silent Night), whereas the other two are much more difficult, all of which are tabbed out fully in the accompanying booklet. Walking in a Winter Wonderland in particular is extremely tricky, and should provide guitarists with hours of challenging material to practice. It should also be noted that in volume 2, two of the four arrangments are written in open tunings, so if you are a guitarist who doesn't like to play in anything but standard tuning, you might want to avoid this volume.
Another high recommendation for Beyond Basics: Fingerstyle Christmas Guitar Vol. 2. If you're looking to be challenged with some great guitar music this holidays, this is certainly the place to start. The price tag for this edition is a thrifty $14.95, so this should provide further incentive to pick up the video and start playing guitar festive-style!

Buy Fingerstyle Christmas Vol. 2 from Warner Bros. site.

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