Today I want to show you how to play one of my favorite Christmas songs, “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas.”
This is a nice tune to learn because it’s quite repetitive. It’s a classic melody and, it’s a fun tune to play for friends at Christmas Time.
In this lesson, you will learn how to play the melody all the way through.
Don’t forget to download the free backing track and worksheet below the video.
Looking for the tenor version? Find it here.
So to start with, I’m going to play a shorter version of the melody, just one time through, with the backing track. And then we’ll go back and we’ll learn the notes step by step.
It’s really fun to play with this backing track because it’s in a kind of jazzy style which feels extra Christmassy.
The A section
On the alto saxophone we’re in the key of E Major, and that means we’ve got four sharps.
So all the way through you’re going to see:
- F sharps
- C sharps
- G sharps
- D sharps.
Get our fingering chart here for a reminder of these notes.
This tune is quite repetitive which makes it easier to learn.
The very first phrase starts on low E. The notes are:
E, G sharp, B, then up to E with the octave key on, B, A, G sharp, F sharp, E, F sharp.
The next phrase is almost the same. E G sharp, B, E, B.
Should we try that so far? Listen as I play it.
Now, we’re doing a jazzy version of this tune. So I’m going to jazz up the rhythms a little bit. I’m going to just swing a little bit and make it a bit more relaxed, a bit more fun.
The next phrase is the same shape, but it starts in G sharp. So we’ve got G sharp, B, E, high G sharp, F sharp, E, D sharp, C sharp, B, A, G sharp.
All right. The next phrase is like the first one: E, G sharp, B, E, B, A, G sharp, F sharp, E, F sharp.
If you want to make it a little bit cooler, just before we go into that phrase, we play a B. So we’ll play B, then down to an E, G sharp, B, E, B, A, G sharp, F sharp, E, F sharp. And the next phrase, same again – E, G sharp, B, E, B.
Going into the last phrase of this section, there’s a little triplet pick-up: B, A sharp A, and down to the G sharp.
And then the phrase continues from the G sharp, B, E, G sharp, A, G sharp, F sharp, E, D sharp, F sharp, E.
All right, so that’s all the way through that first A section. Let’s try playing all of that together. Go nice and slowly to see if we can get all those little pickups and things.
Let’s play together from A.
Okay. That’s the whole of the first A section.
Section B
So let’s have a look at the B section now – the middle bit. So this is from bar 21 in your PDF.
It starts on a high G sharp.There are two phrases here really.
So the notes in the first phrase are:
G sharp, G sharp, G sharp, F sharp, E, D sharp, E, F sharp, E, D sharp, C sharp, D sharp, E, D Sharp, B.
Try playing this little section.
The next phrase is the same shape, but it starts on E.
E, E, E, D sharp, C sharp, B, C sharp, D sharp, B, C sharp, D sharp, E, F sharp, F sharp, G sharp, F sharp.
So remember, when you’re learning a tune, you should try to get the fingers right first. Forget about blowing. The first step should always be working through the tune with your fingers, making sure your fingers are moving smoothly, and you’re keeping your fingers close to the keys.
And once you’re really comfortable with just the movement of your fingers, then move on to actually playing through the saxophone and blowing the notes out.
If you think about those steps, it’s going to make it much quicker for you when you’re learning new tunes.
So let’s go all the way through that B section from bar 21.
Section C
So now we’re down to figure C in the music. Now, figure C is the same as figure A, so we’ll move through this pretty quickly.
WE’ve got a little pickup of a B first, and then it’s the same as the first section.
From bar 33 it’s a little bit different. We’re starting with G sharp, then we go to the B, E, G sharp, and then high A, G sharp, F sharp, E, D sharp, F sharp, G sharp.
Let’s try playing that from bar 33.
Just one phrase left to go. And it goes like this:
G sharp, G sharp, down to A, C sharp, E, G sharp, F sharp, E, D sharp, C sharp, D sharp, E.
So that’s all the way through the melody.
Now I’ve got a couple of other things to tell you.
The backing track
First of all, the backing track is twice through that melody. So all the notes that I’ve shown you, from the beginning of the chart, all the way down to bar 39, is the first time through. And then the backing track plays all the way through that again. So if you move on to the second page of the music, you can see the notes for the same.
A change second time around
The second thing I’ve got to tell you is that, there is just one change at the end of the second time through the melody. The tempo changes a little bit and we slow it down (from bar 73).
By the way, when I played it through for you with the backing track, I played a shorter version and I only played it through once, so you could hear what happens at the end of the second time.
Playing All The Way Through
Let’s play all the way through the melody from the top of the page (A) down to bar 39. And then we’ll move over to look at the second page.
Then we go through and play all that through the second time, for the second page of the music.
Let’s jump forward now and look at the part where it gets slower (bar 73). So if you have a look in your music it’s from bar 73.
There are a few things that are marked on the chart. The first thing is in bar 73, it says rall which is short for rallentando. In music this means “gradually slower”. So the tempo slows down in that bar all the way through, gradually, into bar 74.
And in bar 75 it says “slower”.That’s where we start playing and we play this phrase from earlier in the melody:
G sharp, G sharp, down to A, C sharp, E, G sharp, F sharp, E, D sharp, C sharp, D sharp, E.
So we’ve already learned the notes from the first time through. The notes are the same.
This time we play them a little bit slower, just for a little bit of Christmas drama and tension and a bit of effect.
So it’s slower through bar 75, slower through bar 76, and in bar 77 it says a tempo. And in music, that means “back to the original tempo”. So when we get to bar 77, right on beat one of bar 77, it’s back into a tempo, or the original speed, and that takes us through to the end of the chart.
We’ve got four bars of resting then, where the rest of the horns are doing the intro or the outro lines – that’s a little line from the beginning of the chart, which gets played again at the end.
I’ve got one last bar to show you. The notes are dead easy. It’s an E, then another E, and then an F sharp.
But the only tricky thing about it is the rhythm. If you have a look at the chart, there’s a rest and then there’s two Es. Each of them is a crotchet or a quarter note, which is normally one beat.
But the rest, and the 2 quarter notes are grouped together as a triplet. Triplets are three notes in the time of two notes. So we’ve got a rest, and then two more one-beat notes in the time of two of beats – an F sharp to finish.
Listen as I demonstrate how that sounds.
And if you have a listen to the backing track, that’s exactly what the rest of the band is doing as well. So if you’re unsure about the rhythm, listen to the backing track and follow along with them.
Wrapping Up
So that’s all the way through this chart. I hope you’ve enjoyed working through it.
There’s loads more Christmas and holiday tunes for you to learn, as well as tunes in evert different style, inside Sax School PRO. Find out more and get started here.
