Jingle Bells - guitar tab, notes, chords and lyrics
"Jingle Bells" originally published as "One Horse Open Sleigh" is one of the most well-known Christmas songs in the English language. It is also one of the most popular since the melody is easy to memorize and play on many instruments. There are, however, easier Christmas songs since Jingle Bells is played in a rather high tempo. Neither is the lyrics all that easy to learn because of some unusual words (by the way, "upsot" in the lyrics is not a typo but a poetic form of "upset" used in the 19th century).
The music transcriptions of the song with tabs and notes are available for download as PDFs. It's free for personal use only.
Jingle Bells for flute
"Jingle Bells" for flute in the key of C. Free download in pdf-file and audio.
Jingle Bells flute
Jingle Bells (only melody)
"Jingle Bells" standard and tablature notation for guitar. This is a shortened version (full versions for only melody and with accompaniment can be downloaded as pdf).
Tips on how to learn this song
Concerning the melody, there are only five notes used in the choruses: B, C, D, G and A. In the verses, E and F# are used as well. In all, these are the seven notes of the G Major scale. Thus, the song stays in the same key throughout and don't use any notes outside the key.
Also notice that the melody in the chorus only makes use of two strings. The melody of the verses make use of four strings, which makes the verses somewhat harder to learn.
If you are using a plectrum, alternate picking is effective in this song since there are many parts with repetitions of the same tone.
Lyrics and chords
Jingle Bells chords in the key of G
Chorus:
(G)Jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the (G7)way,
(C)Oh what fun it (G)is to ride in a (A7)one-horse open (D7)sleigh, hey,
(G)Jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the (G7)way,
(C)Oh what fun it (G)is to ride in a (D7)one-horse open (G)sleigh
Verse 1:
(G)Dashing through the snow, in a one-horse open (C)sleigh,
(G)O'er the fields we (D7)go, laughing all the (G)way,
(G)Bells on bobtails ring, making spirits (C)bright,
(C)What fun it is to (D7)ride and sing a sleighing song to(G)night!
Chorus:
(G)Jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the (G7)way,
(C)Oh what fun it (G)is to ride in a (A7)one-horse open (D7)sleigh, hey,
(G)Jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the (G7)way,
(C)Oh what fun it (G)is to ride in a (D7)one-horse open (G)sleigh
Verse 2:
(G) A day or two ago, I thought I'd take a (C)ride
(G) And soon Miss Fanny (D7)Bright, was seated by my (G)side,
(G) The horse was lean and lank, misfortune seemed his (C)lot
(C) He got into a drifted (D7)bank, and then we got (G)upsot.
Chorus:
(G)Jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the (G7)way,
(C)Oh what fun it (G)is to ride in a (A7)one-horse open (D7)sleigh, hey,
(G)Jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the (G7)way,
(C)Oh what fun it (G)is to ride in a (D7)one-horse open (G)sleigh
Verse 3:
(G)Now the ground is white, go it while you're (C)young,
(G)Take the girls to(D7)night and sing this sleighing (G)song;
(G)Just get a bobtailed bay, two forty as his (C)speed
(C)Hitch him to an open (D7)sleigh and crack! you'll take the (G)lead.
Chorus:
(G)Jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the (G7)way,
(C)Oh what fun it (G)is to ride in a (A7)one-horse open (D7)sleigh, hey,
(G)Jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the (G7)way,
(C)Oh what fun it (G)is to ride in a (D7)one-horse open (G)sleigh
Poetic and archaic words:
o'er = over
upsot = upset
Download this song in pdf with chord charts, included in 60 Traditional songs e-book.
The order of verse and chorus can shift in different versions of this song. There are also some slight variations of the lyrics (and notice the same text in some occasions has alternative chord changes). The verses will be easier to learn by detecting the patterns of I - IV and I - V7 - I in every other line.
There are possibilities to change to key by using a capo. These are the keys that the song would transpose in depending on which fret the capo is put:
- Capo 1: G# / Ab major
- Capo 2: A major
- Capo 3: A# / Bb major
- Capo 4: B major
- Capo 5: C major
Key, time, tuning and tempo
Information about "Jingle Bells" considering musical key, time signature, tuning and bpm.
Key
The presented version of Jingle Bells is played in the key of G.
Time signature
The song is played in 4/4 tempo (counted one, two, three, four for each measure).
Tuning
The song is normally played in standard tuning (EADGBE).
Tempo (BPM)
The tempo in beats per minute is 180 for the presented version.