Jingle Bells Chord Melody For Guitar – Part 1
Hi everyone, its Jingle Bells time! I thought I would get a few tunes together for you for the holiday season that you can entertain your family and friends with.
This is part one of 2, second part coming soon.
Looking at this tune from a harmony perspective, it is a typical I VI II V progression for the first 2 bars in the key of E.
In bar 3 I substituted a IIm to IIm7b5 chord (borrowed from the parallel key of Em) for the IVmaj chord that would normally be found in that measure, and then I subbed a VIm for the Imaj7 chord on beat 4. In bar 4 on beat 2 I subbed a bII+6 chord leading to the V7 on beat 3 and then another substitution of a bII+6 on beat 4 leads us back to the Imaj7 chord.
You’re probably wondering, “WTF is a bII+6 chord? That looks like a dominant chord with an extension.” Well you are right, it is a dominant chord but the way a dom7 chord is analyzed when leading to a chord a half step below it is as a bII+6. Think about it; if you raise the major 6th of a chord, you get a b7 which would be the note needed to sound a dominant 7 chord (along with the major 3rd of course).
Continuing on, after the repeat we make our way to the 2nd ending where I sub a II7sus4 and a bVIIdim7 (inverted then root position) for IIm and V7 chords respectively. I end it off with a B augmented chord in open position as it will lead nicely to the next section in part 2 of this song.
If this theory stuff is something you are really keen on, I can teach you from the ground up all the theory you would need to arrange something like this yourself.
Anyway, I hope you have fun with this and I will see you soon!