Christmas Music & A Holly Jolly Christmas Guitar Solo Tab

Merry Christmas! The day has officially arrived and although it is great I wish it were still a few days away. The anticipation always seems to be higher than the day itself and now as usual I will going through 'Christmas withdrawal' symptoms. Would be nice if the Christmas celebration would go on during the weekend since it did fall on a Friday this year. But the radio stations already start pulling the plug on the holiday music and the TV stations end their Christmas programming early on in the day. All that just adds to the feeling of withdrawal.

I probably will not be making any additional Christmas/seasonal songs for now. At least not for release during what remains of this year. I may still toy around with some ideas I have. But at the moment I am still fully absorbing the 'sounds of the season' as they say. I'll tell you the truth--it's really hard for me to just completely cut off the music once Christmas Day becomes yesterday. This may sound peculiar but I continue to play Christmas/seasonal music well into February and even March at times. It helps me accept the fact that the holiday season is over and deal with the sometimes brutal moods of winter.

I do have this seasonal tune I wrote some years back called "Wintertime Blues." I wrote it as a bit of a jazzy piece and envisioned a very simple arrangement of only guitar, bass, drums, piano & vocal. I may tinker a bit with it in the coming days and weeks.Would make a great addition to my future Christmas album of all original songs. And as I wrote before, I really want to release an album of Christmas classics as well. If all plays out well in the coming year I will make a serious effort to record another 8 to 10 instrumental covers of public domain holiday songs. Picking out the songs will be something I should start doing right now. It's a shame that I can only use public domain songs, though due to licensing rights. There are plenty of other songs I would love to record, such as "Let it Snow," "Christmastime is Here," "Little Drummer Boy," "Silver Bells" and "Holly Jolly Christmas" to name a few. Don't get me wrong--I totally understand that I can record cover versions of these songs. I just cannot sell them. And I want to put together an album that I can sell without worrying about paying royalties to others.

But speaking of "A Holly Jolly Christmas," I've always appreciated that 12 string acoustic guitar doing fills and solos throughout Burl Ives' recording. I especially like that solo after the key change and I tabbed it out for anyone who is interested. I don't have a video for this but I may make one soon since it would be a very short one. Heck, it may even already be out there on YouTube. But I've learned that everyone hears things differently so it's not a bad idea to present your interpretation to the world.

E  :----------------|--------------------|--------------------|
B  :------6---------|--------------------|--------------------|
G  :-5678--8-56-86--|5h6p5--------6------|--------------------|
D  :---------------8|-----8-4---68-86----|--------------------|
A  :----------------|-----------------6h8|-4-----46/7-8--8----|
E  :----------------|--------------------|----46--------------|

This tab will work for a regularly tuned 6 string guitar and also for a 12 string that is tuned down a whole step with a capo on the 2nd fret.

EDIT: I've decided to tab the cool little intro solo to the song as well. It's just as great as the middle solo and fun to play:

E  :----------------|----------------|-----------
B  :1-----0---------|----------------|-----------
G  :------------2-42|--------0-20-2--|-0---------
D  :----------------|-2---234--------|-----------
A  :----------------|----------------|----2------

E  :----------------|----------------|-----------

E  :------|----------------|-----------------|-----------------|
B  :------|----3-----0-----|----------1------|-----------------|
G  :----0-|234--4-02--2--0-|20----0-22--2----|-----------------|
D  :------|-------------3--|-------------0h20|h2-0-------------|
A  :------|----------------|---2-------------|----0--3---------|
E  :------|----------------|-----------------|-----------------|

Just to clarify--what appear to be '20' and '22' in the tab are actually 2,0 and 2,2.

EDIT 2: Made the video....