The holidays always bring with them a lot of preparation and stress - why not find a way to make them more simple and more fun? In this article, I share with you how to host the perfect Christmas holiday singalong, from assembling your perfect sonbook to creating fantastic accompaniments.
What could be more fun than gathering around the piano and singing your favorite carols along with your family, friends, students or members of your community?
Want to get your piano skills ready to host your holiday singalong? Sign up for The Holiday Singalong Piano Workshop here!
Sing Your Holiday Stress Away
I know I’m not the only person who feels like the holidays have become about rampant consumerism and the stress of buying and juggling a million activities. Whether Christmas is a time of worship for your family or you think of this holiday time in a more secular way, I think of a singalong as a beautiful and simple way to bring people together to share a special moment.
Anyone who can talk can sing, and there is no better way to create community than singing together and sharing your favorite holiday memories and stories.
My life in a thousand singalongs
I started my professional career as a singalong piano bar entertainer on cruise ships, so I know a LOT about singalongs. On the ships I would play up to 5 holiday singalongs per DAY, so I got very good at making everyone excited about it. Since then, I have hosted singalongs in nursing homes, hospitals, fancy holiday parties on Fifth Avenue, seniors centers, at family events and weekly at a residency at the Ronald McDonald House in NYC.
I have learned a lot about how to organize all of the songs, how to play piano supportively and to make people feel inspired to sing. Here are my absolute best tips!
Assemble the perfect book
In order to ensure that your Christmas singalong is a success, you'll want to have a a collection of songs that you have all ready to play. Here are some things to consider:
- Consider who you’ll be singing with. Church groups will likely want more carols, groups with children should include songs from the classic movies. Does anyone speak Spanish? Should you avoid religious songs?
- Find the perfect book for your skill set. Fake book or fully notated sheet music. I created my own songbook made up of copies of my favorite versions of each
- Put all of the music in a binder so that the page turns are easy.
- Create a book of lyrics in alphabetical order with page numbers and a table of contents. Organize your own music accordingly.
Want to get your piano skills ready to host your holiday singalong?
My Favorite Christmas Holiday Songbooks
Lyrics Sheets for the Singers
Never rely on people’s memories! To encourage more participation, you wan to have lyric sheets for everyone. This will eliminate the problem of people not remembering which songs to choose and will ensure they have all the lyrics in front of them.
Over the years, I have collected lyrics to the 60 most often requested Christmas and holidaysongs and put them all in a single document organized alpabetically. I numbered each page and included a Table of Contents to make it easy to find carols as people call them.
You can print out copies of them and hand them out at the singalong, making sure to pick them up to use for next time.
For tech-savvy singalongs, you can share these documents as a PDF or even get a QR code for people to scan so they can read the lyrics off their phones or tablets.
How am I supposed to play all of those Christmas holiday songs on piano?!?
This is the biggest question people ask.
Since I am a professional pianist, I don’t have an issue playing a huge volume of music, but I know that this is not the case for most people. After teaching HUNDREDS of folks how to play piano, I have devised a simple way to move through a lot of repertoire.
Rather than trying to make your way through page after page of written notation, your best bet is to use my Piano Skills for Singers method.
The Piano Skills for Singers method is combining the chords with rhythmic accompaniment strategies to created an approximated arrangement of the song.
This skill, called “faking” means that you could take 60 holiday songs and organize them by accompaniment strategy.
For example, Jingle Bell Rock, Frosty the Snowman, Let it Snow and White Christmas can all be played using the same accompaniment strategy. Once you are able to play the chords of each song, all you have to do is apply the same strategy (shown below) and you are good to go.
I have discovered that you can play most Christmas and holiday songs using only six simple accompanment strategies. As long as you can play major and minor chords, then you’ll be able to host a singalong with a couple of weeks of practice rather than years of study.
Want to get your piano skills ready to host your holiday singalong? Sign up for The Holiday Singalong Piano Workshop here!
Need to learn chords?
Sign up and get my free Ultimate Chord cheat sheets! Perfect for mastering your chords on piano.
Seven tips to create the best holiday singalong
- Set up the piano/keyboard in a central location so you’re in the middle of the action.
- Buddy up with another singalong enthusiast to help you pass out music, lead the songs and share the singing.
- Create the holiday tradition with your family - choose an afternoon or evening to have friends and neighbors over
- Look around your community to find organizations that might enjoy some holiday entertainment - clubs, hospitals, shelters, schools, retirement homes, etc. You could bring a group with you and even bring treats to share!
- Bring multiple copies of lyrics sheets with you to pass out, or include a QR code for people to download to their moblie devices.
- Collect some fun facts about the songs you are singing. Eveyone loves music trivia and it’s a great way to share some music edcuation.
- Have people share their favorite songs and memories - this is a wonderful time for people to connect over their favorite holiday memories.
How to get people to ACTUALLY SING ALONG
- Invite people to sing even though they might not be Mariah Carey! Make them feel comfortable.
- Make sure that the keys of the songs aren’t too high.
- Consider doing a few vocal warmups before the singalong, or start with a few easy ones to get everyone’s voices working first.
- Play clear introductions so people can be reminded of the tune of the song. Always pause a little before playing the beginning of the song (provide a video example)
- Sing along, but not so agressively that people feel like they are at a concert.
- Applaud each song and cheer people on!
I hope you start the tradition of singing during the holidays. It is an incredible way to have some laughs, make some memories and spread some cheer in your community. It’s also a great way to dive into your own piano skills and have fun doing it!
Want to get your piano skills ready to host your holiday singalong? Sign up for The Holiday Singalong Piano Workshop here!
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