Are you looking for a great Christmas carol to play on the piano? Jingle Bells is one of the most popular Christmas carols and a great carol to learn to play on the piano. Many children already know the lyrics and the melody, which makes it easier if they should learn this song during a piano lesson. In this free piano tutorial we will learn a little more about the origin of Jingle Bells and show you how to play it on the piano with letter notes and the sheet music. You can also download the lyrics with the letter and sheet music for free as PDF printables at the end of the article.
Origin of Jingle Bells
Jingle Bells is one of the most famous Christmas songs today, written by James Lord Pierpont in 1857. Originally titled “The One Horse Open Sleigh,” it was intended as a Thanksgiving song. Pierpont composed it while living in Savannah, Georgia, and was inspired by the winter sleigh races in Medford, Massachusetts, where he had spent time. Despite its initial connection to Thanksgiving, the song quickly became associated with Christmas due to its festive melody and lyrics celebrating winter fun. Over time, Jingle Bells has become a holiday classic, beloved for its upbeat melody and joyful spirit.
Piano Letter Notes for Jingle Bells
Jingle Bells is a beautiful Christmas carol for piano beginners. Usually piano songs are played with notes written in sheet music. But this can be overwhelming for young students and if they don’t know how to read music they need an easier introduction to some simple songs. That’s why, at the beginning, it’s quite enough to have the piano notes written over the lyrics. Sure, they need to know where to find each note on the piano, but you can label the piano keys for beginners so they know how to identify the right keys.
Here are the keys on the keyboard that you have to use for the carol Jingle Bells
However, in order to reduce the student’s dependence on the piano key labels, you should remove them after the child can confidently play a few songs. And be sure to check out our article on how to read piano notes, where we explain how to easily remember and find the piano keys on the keyboard, and how they correspond to the notes on the sheet music.
You may have noticed that we need to use two different G and A notes on the piano, a lower and a higher version of each note. In order to distinguish between these two notes, we will refer to the higher note as G’ and A’ in the following section, where you will find the lyrics with the piano letter notes.
The following chart with the lyrics and the letter notes enables you to learn and play Jingle Bells in an easy way:
Check the piano recording below to play along or to check if you got it right on the piano!
Every Christmas carol can be played with either one or two hands. While using only one hand is simpler than playing with both hands simultaneously, playing single notes with one hand is also easier than playing chords. For this reason, beginners should start by playing the melody one note at a time with one hand. Intermediate players can progress to combining both the right and left hands in their playing.
Piano Sheet Music for Jingle Bells
When we play a song on the piano, we usually use notes. As mentioned earlier, reading music can be quite challenging for young beginners. But if you or your students already know some basics about music theory and how to read music, then playing the song using the sheet music is much more efficient than using the lyrics only with the letter notes.
Here are the music notes for Jingle Bells
Free PDF Printables for Jingle Bells
Download the free PDF files for the piano letter notes and sheet music and print them out, so that you can learn and teach Jingle Bells anywhere you want!
Interested in instruments other than the piano? You can also find a free lesson on how to play Jingle Bells on the guitar, ukulele and recorder.
