Christmas Ukulele: 12 Days of Christmas (Chords)

December 9, 2008


12 Days of Christmas (Chords)(PDF)

Incredibly irritating to song to go through sober, but the big advantage of it is that all the numbers from 12 to 6 just require one strum of a D chord.

The best bit, obviously, is the ‘FIVE GOLDEN RIIIIIIIINGS’. I like to beef that part up a bit with these chords:

I also like to add bits of the melody into the chord accompaniment as well. And a solo version in this key is, handily enough, in my How to Play Christmas Ukulele ebook.

There are two different versions of the D chord in the chart: one with an open A string and one with the A string at the fifth fret. But you can use just one of them the whole way through if you’re not comfortable with either. I’m going to have to come up with a better way of referring to different inversions of a chord than calling it ‘alt’, let me know because there must be one. Perhaps calling it D, D’, D”. Let me know your suggestions.

Requested by Annie

EXPECTING TO FIND CHORDS/TABS? Try clicking where it says the name of the song in red under the video.
Written by Woodshed · Filed Under Beginners, Chords, Christmas 
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Comments

9 Responses to “Christmas Ukulele: 12 Days of Christmas (Chords)”

  1. Greg Givler on December 9th, 2008 9:03 pm

    I frequently use the D with the fifth fret D at the end of phrases because it is a chord that sounds complete. I like the idea of D’ or something as a quick and dirty way to notate it on a Chordsheet.

  2. Iain on December 9th, 2008 9:53 pm

    I still don’t know what a (four) golly bird is.

  3. Mike on December 10th, 2008 1:25 am

    I’ve tried using prime marks after the chord name for higher inversions, but there are already a bunch of little superscripted marks in use to indicate diminished, maj7, and so on, so it would just get confusing if these were combined. Now what I do is add a superscripted number _before_ the chord name: e.g., 2G (but 2 superscripted) for second-, third-position chords. I save [alt] for different fingerings of the same chord: E minor with and without a barred second fret for example.

  4. Josh Gordon on December 10th, 2008 4:06 am

    “Alt” isn’t good, because “Dalt” actually means something to us jazz players. Superscripts or subscripts might be better; or why not, say, D(I), D(II), D(III)?

  5. Woodshed on December 10th, 2008 8:27 pm

    Greg: I definitely agree with that. It gives a firmer ending.

    Iain: A racially offensive bird stereotype?

    Mike and Josh: Thanks for the suggestions. There really needs to be a standard way of doing this.

  6. Benedict on December 10th, 2008 9:11 pm

    Eddie Izzard agrees with you Woodshed about the 5 gold rings part – here: http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=BgSe_gzyM1c

  7. Woodshed on December 14th, 2008 8:09 am

    Benedict: Thanks for the link. It’s a shame he doesn’t do as much stand up any more.

  8. Emily on December 18th, 2008 11:29 pm

    Sober I will NOT be when I play this at a friend’s tree-trimming party on Saturday. You can count on some reindeer antler headband action as well.

  9. Woodshed on December 19th, 2008 8:07 pm

    Emily: Drunk is definitely the way to go. Good luck with it.

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