We Wish You a Merry Christmas - guitar tab, notes, chords and lyrics
"We Wish You a Merry Christmas" is an anonymous English carol. It's believed to be from the 16th century, but the identity remains unsure. It was popularized by American organist and music teacher Arthur Warrell in the 20th century. He published with the title "A Merry Christmas: West Country Traditional Song". The joyful song is one of the most recognized associated with Christmas.
The music transcriptions of the song with tabs and notes are available for download as PDFs. It's free for personal use only
Melody & full accompaniment
Free tabs and notes plus sound.
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We Wish You a Merry Christmas guitar tab and notes (pdf)
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We Wish You a Merry Christmas instrumental guitar (mp3)
We Wish You a Merry Christmas (full accompaniment)
"We Wish You a Merry Christmas" for guitar with full accompaniment is found in Christmas songs arranged for guitar e-book.
We Wish You a Merry Christmas (only melody)
"We Wish You a Merry Christmas" tablature notation for guitar.
Tips on how to learn this song
After bar eight, the song should be played from the beginning again, excluding the first pickup bar. The song is played in a fast tempo, but start with a slower tempo in the beginning. The second part is simpler since there are only a few eighteen notes. Notice that the melody is played on the three highest strings, which makes the finger work and memorizing less demanding. The melody is played in the C major key, in open position and range from G to G one octave higher.
Lyrics and chords
We Wish You a Merry Christmas chords in the key of C
Verse & chorus:
We (C)wish you a merry (F)Christmas
We (D7)wish you a merry (G7)Christmas
We (E)wish you a merry (Am)Christmas and a (G7)happy new (C)year
We (C)wish you a merry (F)Christmas
We (D7)wish you a merry (G7)Christmas
We (E)wish you a merry (Am)Christmas and a (G7)happy new (C)year
Good (C)tidings we (Em)bring to (D7)you and your (G)kin
Good (C)tidings of (G)Christmas and a (G7)happy new (C)year
Download this song in pdf with chord charts, included in 60 Traditional songs e-book.
There are two non-diatonic chords, D7 and E, included. These can be regarded as borrowed chords and function in the key as IIV and III instead of the normal ii and iii. Notice also how the D7-G7 sequences goes anti-clockwise on the circle of fifths. And how the verses as well as the choruses end with a typical V-I sequence (sometimes called an “Authentic cadence”).
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: C# / Db major
- Capo 2: D major
- Capo 3: D# / Eb major
- Capo 4: E major
- Capo 5: F major
Key, time, tuning and tempo
Information about "We Wish You a Merry Christmas" considering musical key, time signature, tuning and bpm.
Key
The presented version of We Wish You a Merry Christmas is played in the key of C.
Time signature
The song is played in 3/4 tempo (counted one, two, three for each measure).
Tuning
The song is normally played in standard tuning (EADGBE).
Tempo (BPM)
The tempo in beats per minute is 140 for the presented version.