Learn to Strum Rockin Around The Christmas Tree on Guitar // Fun & Peppy Christmas Song

Hey, guitar enthusiasts. Hope you're excited, because we are going to be doing Rocking around the Christmas Tree by Brenda Lee on the acoustic guitar today. I'm super excited for this guitar lesson. Let's get into it.

Now. I really love this Christmas song because it's super peppy and it's a lot of fun to sing and play. And I want to make a note just so you guys are aware, we're going to be using a capo on. On the first fret of the guitar. So you just squeeze the capo and you clip it right onto the guitar like that. And all we're going to do is play all of our chords relative to the capo. Okay? That means that the capo acts like the nut of your guitar. Now, before we jump into the actual lesson, I always go over the chords we're going to be using for the song so that you're aware. So we do have an A minor, seven chord, a B minor. So there is one bar chord. But if you know the easy B minor chord, you can use the easy B minor works, too. We have a C chord. We have a D chord, a D7, an E minor, and a G chord. Now, for any of these seven chords, because I like to always make things as easy as possible for students. Remember, you're always trying to play guitar at your level so that you can have fun where you're at. We're not trying to push ourselves to be any more difficult than we have to. If you don't know the seven chords, for example, if you don't know an A minor 7 chord, you just play an A minor chord. Same with the D7. If you just know the D chord, that's okay. You can stay on the D chord. Now, it might not sound exactly like the song when I do the play along later, but it's going to get you through. And remember, my lessons are all about making things fun, making guitar accessible. You can always make things harder down the road. But in the beginning, remember to just have fun. So now that we've touched upon the chords we're going to be using, let's give you guys a couple strumming patterns. Let's start with the easy strumming pattern first. So the easier strumming pattern for this song is going to be 1, 2.

3, and 4, and 1, 2, 3, and four, and down, down, down, up, down, up.

Okay, so again, it's going to be.

Down, down, down, up, down, up, down, down, down, up, down, up.

Now, usually when we play this song, it has a little Bit of a swung feel to it. So be a little bit more like.

So that up after the three is usually a little bit hesitated. But if you can't do swung strumming patterns yet, don't worry. Just play it right on the downbeat, right straight on that beat and you'll be perfectly fine. Now, if you do want to challenge yourself to go a little bit further, sound a little bit more like the song, we can do a syncopated strumming pattern which is going to be down.

Down, up, up, down, up, down, down, up, up, down, up.

And I would encourage you to swing this pattern. So it's going to sound like this.

So the strumming pattern is really coming on a 16th note on the up strum. So it's 1 and a 2 and a 3 and a 4 and a half. So it's 1, 2, a 4, a 1, 2, a 4, A 1, 2, a 4,A. We call this kind of like a shuffle swung pattern. Okay. Very popular in the blues. But it kind of gives this a little bit of a swaying feeling to the song. That's why you feel like you're swaying when you play this song. So those are your two strumming options. Pick whichever one works best for you. And we're going to talk now about the format and structure of the song. So the main structure of this song has an intro. There's a verse section, there's a bridge section, a solo section, and then there's the final verse, which has a little bit of a different ending that we'll talk about. And I will do a full playthrough at the end for you guys so that you can play along with me. So the intro, very simple chord progression, very common chord progression. It's going to be G, E minor, C and D. Nothing special there. All of these chords are finished. Full measure, meaning four strums, 1, 2, 3, 4 per chord.

Okay.

And that's basically going to be our intro. Just four chords. When we get into the verses, things change up a little bit in terms of the chord progression. So we have 2G chords, 2D 7 chords. And then we have these split measures between an A minor 7 and a D7. We do that three times before we end on a G. So let's talk about what's going to happen on those split chords. Because when we strum, we're actually going to change the chord on the up strum. That's crazy. Right now if you're doing the simple pattern, you would just change on the downbeat A minor and then D7 would.

Be down, up, down, up.

Okay.

But if you're doing the syncopated pattern like I'm going to play later.

It'S down, down, up.

So the up strum becomes the D7 chord.

Down, down, up, up, down, up, down, down, up.

Hear that?

Now something I want to point out about this, a minor 7 to D7 chord switch is that this first finger never has to move. So a 7D7. So that first finger acts kind of like a pivot point for you. So that's very nice, very helpful. Okay. And then once you do that, we end on a g. So it's a minor 7 to D7 three times.

Okay. So those are our verses. Then we repeat another verse and then we come to a bridge section and we have a couple things that are cool here dynamically. So we're switching keys. Okay. This song has a lot of chords in it. So we're starting on a C chord twice. Then we have that B minor chord twice. Then we have E minor to E minor 7. Okay, if you can't play E minor 7, just play the regular E minor chord and we have an A7 chord that pops in here. Alright, so you're going to have a seven and we're going to strum and hold that chord. Okay. That's what we're going to do there.

So it'll be forces singing let's Be jolly Deck the halls with boughs of holly.

So when we get to boughs of Holly that's when the D7 chord comes in. So the bridge will be.

You will get a scent to mental feeling when you hear.

Voices singing let's be jolly Deck the hazard bowser Holly.

So you can hear that A seven. We're just strumming it real quick. And then I'm muting it very quickly with my my fretting hand. This way I mute the strings and then we jump back in on that D7 when boughs of Holly comes in. Now the solo section is nothing spectacular. It's just an instrumental verse. So you're just playing the same chord progression that you used in the verse. The last thing I want to talk about is the ending of this song before we get into the full playthrough. So the last verse starts out very much the same and that we have double G, double D7. And then we also go back to that. A minor D7, a minor D7. But this time we only do it twice. Okay, we only do it twice. And then we're going to hold onto that D7 chord. For two more measures, we're going to go to a G chord, an E minor, a C chord, and a G. Okay, we're going to strum that G.

Everyone dancing merrily and a new old fashioned way.

All right, so I'm gonna take this song from the very beginning. Count it in. If I'm going too fast, you can always use the settings cog down there to slow things down. A one, two, intro.

Rockin around Christmas tree at the Christmas hottie.

Mistletoe hunt where you can see every couple wants to stop.

Rocking around the Christmas tree Let the Christmas spirit bring later we'll have some pumpkin pie we'll do some caroling.

You will get a sentimental feeling when you hear.

Voices singing let's be jolly. Deck the halls with bounds of holly we're rocking around the Christmas tree of a happy holiday.

Everyone dancing merrily in a new old fashioned way.

Here's the solo. Ready?

A minor 7. The d7.

Then we do it all again. Ready? One more time.

G, G, D7 twice.

Here comes the bridge.

Ready?

You will get a sentimental feeling when you hear.

Voices singing let's be jolly. We'll take the house with bows and holly Rocking around the Christmas tree of a happy holiday.

Everyone dancing merrily in a new ocean.

If you guys are looking for another peppy Christmas song, I'll put up Mariah Carey's All I Want for Christmas is you up there. Or if you want to check out my entire catalog of Christmas songs, check out the playlist down there and I'll see you guys in another lesson.