Hi all,
I took a project on about a week ago; I wanted to come up with a couple of short, easily-arranged Christmas carols that I could throw together fairly easily, and have ready for December 25th. My goal was/is to have two carols ready to play (and perhaps the Beatles tune that I've been working on since March of last year...don't ask), but I also wanted to come up with and share StaffTab charts for these two carols so that other Stickists who are beginners like myself could perhaps use them for themselves.
Featured here is Silent Night. This chart is in G major, and it's been arranged for 10-string Classic tuning. It's short and sweet, but if you want to lengthen it by a few seconds, you could use the last 4 measures as an intro, as I'm doing. Of course, if you have people singing along with you, they can sing two or three verses, and you can just repeat the chart as long as your singers have lyrics!


I MUST give a HUGE shout out to Greg for his assistance with this. He directed me as I took the StaffTab font that I had downloaded and adapted it for my PC version of Finale, and his critical eye helped me avoid a couple of mistakes that eluded me (but were perfectly obvious to him). Thanks, Greg!!
I hope someone out there finds this useful and enjoyable! I hope to post #2 in a few days. Thanks for being there, everyone!

Nice, Luc, thanks...I'll give this a look over the weekend.

...Thank you very much, Luc...
..it's very generous to share your material...
...but in my family they aren't very much amused of the use of electric instruments for these holy days, same story about playing drums during the X-mas days...

Great job Luc. I like the movement in the left hand, I'm looking forward to trying out this arrangement.

Thanks to all of you! Gene, that brings up a point I forgot to mention earlier: the choices of string/fret location and fingering in the melody were made using 3 criteria: 1) because of the way they set up arm/hand movement, 2) sometimes because of the way that notes soon to follow needed to be played, and 3) because of the timbre of the notes.
(In other words, Greg, I'm listening! )
No one HAS to follow the exact fingerings that I've indicated here, but I thought it might be useful to give a little explanation as to why I made those choices.
I hope you guys have fun with it, and are able to adapt it for yourselves, and have it grow and take shape as you play!
(PS: If anyone thinks of any better alternatives to what I've put down here, you're absolutely welcome to mention them!!)

Hi Luc,

It's a nice-looking chart. If you close the staff spacing up a bit and increase your margins you should be able to get it all on one page (always a plus).

The only real quibble I had was with the Amin chord. My ear hears that as an A9. you've already got the 9th (B) in the melody, and its a perfect time to play the 9th fret low A7 chord shape.



Thanks for adding to the StaffTab "book" of charts.

You're right...in my mind the stick in a position instrument...like guitar or trombone or many other strings intruments (cello, violin, etc). You have to think first what position is the best and on which finger you have to start having in mind the key and the scale you are using. It is one of the most difficult thing to do if you compare to the piano or the saxophone where each note has (mainly) one position. I know that it's possible to play the same note in other position on sax but it's not their main difficulty. Good job...

Another way to look at this is the complete opposite of what you are saying.

All the instruments you mention have an "articulating" device, the bowing or striking hand in the case of strings, the mouth in the case of the trombone.

We have no such luxury. For two-part music, every note must be selected and articulated by one hand. This mean assigning finger to certain frets only works well when there are no repeated notes at the same fret (up a 4th or 7th, down a 5th or 9th, and repeated notes).

My experience, especially in applying Luc's 3rd reason, getting to the place where the note has the timbre you want the most, means that the position-oriented approach is a dead end. Instead, learn the overall key pattern (using the 3 finger-scales) and can go wherever you need to without having to worry about fingering assignments. Any of the three fingers can play any note at any time.

Greg, I had toyed with the thought of making that Am9 chord an A9 (I like the sound of both of them a lot), but I had decided against it in the interest of staying diatonic in the key of G. (My idea of a beginner's chart went right down to keeping the harmonic structure beginner-friendly, too.) I'm not entirely sure why I didn't label it an Am9; I think I was thinking of keeping the chord identification simple (again, beginner's chart) and letting the melody notes do their work as guide tones.
However, your point is a very good one, and I understand the ear's desire to hear a ii-V right there. I heard it, too. I also like the hand motion from the Em to the A9. But my theory question is: when you introduce a non-diatonic note (like a #4) into the mix, what do you call it? Is it the ii-V of V in this case?

I agree a lot about this phrase Greg "My experience, especially in applying Luc's 3rd reason, getting to the place where the note has the timbre you want the most"...