Anyone know any good christmas music books for Piano ?

I am around grade 1 standard so nothing too complex.

Hi there, most of my students love 'Christmas Jazzin' About' by Pam Wedgwood. I like it too. At your standard you may not be able to manage all of the pieces, but I'm sure you could cope with some of them, and Christmas books are for life, aren't they.

The Jazzin About is probably nearer grade 4, I think, but I agree it's a good book. If you're specifically wanting grade 1, then there are other books around for various ages.
There are possibly 3 appropriate books I can think of.

Easy to Play Carols published by Kevin Mayhew. (Grade 1-2, although there are no fingerings marked.)
Making the Grade at Christmas by Jerry Lanning. (Grades 1-2)
Chester Easiest Carols by Carol Barratt. (Despite a kiddy cover and larger print, there are no baby-ish pictures inside, and the arrangements range from very simple (for immediate sight-reading) through to grade 1 level but no higher.)

Hope this helps.

There's a Christmas piece called 'Jingle Bells' in a book called Piano Time [blue], which is the first book I used for piano a couple of years ago. Can't remember who's it's by, though.

Car Expert

Not sure whether to ever suggest the playing of christmas pieces to my students again....
I like to offer so that they can learn some things that they know for christmas.
They say yes, they would like to ... but then there isn't anything they actually KNOW!! And certainly never enough to be woorth them buying a book for.

It doesn't matter. Our common carols are usually pretty catchy and the parents always know them. It's not long before the students do too and for some reason they are so popular.

I always try to pick carols that would be classed as quite easy (learnt in a week or two). I prefer to have them learn a number of easy ones for Christmas than one hard one.

BTW, a number of my students have been learning I saw 3 ships written by Jon Schmidt. http://www.jonschmidt.com/

It's free and great fun to play. Most of my Grade 5+ lot have loved his music. If you visit his website, have a look at the video of one of his concerts. Very inspiring. I have a 12 year old who is having a ball with Waterfall. Great stuff - all 12 pages of it

They've also enjoyed the carols from the Christopher Norton Concert Collection. Fun to play. Again about Grade 5+ which I realise is too advanced for the OP, but might be of interest to others.

Alfred and Hal Leonard both do a series of Christmas books in levels, from virtually nothing to Level 5 (about grade 3). They are usually quite good, but you'll find the American versions of Away in a Manger and O Little Town.

My early players love the Piano Time Christmas Carols. There's a good mixture of some really easy stuff, along with something a little harder. So I set an easy one a week and a harder one that will take a bit longer.

Also the old favourite by Eleanor Pike (Christmas Carols Book 1 I think), is still enjoyed. Simple and well known carols, even though, yep, the younger ones don't know them yet

Sorry to go off topic here,but does anyone have a copy of Edward Heath's Xmas Carol book or know where I could get hold of one? Please don't mention Ebay

One of my pupils had a hardback edition many years ago.They were very nice arrangements...something to dip into year after year.

Thanks.

Edit: I think it could be this...Carols: The Joy of Christmas (1977)

No doubt it will be hideously expensive!

Or this...Joy of Christmas: A Selection of Carols...but I'm not paying 32 quid for it.

My reason for the original posting was that the only christmas tunes we had was my wife's book "with christmas in mind" which was far too difficult for me.

I seem to have the problem that the books I see in shops seem to be either far too difficult or far too easy.

I wouldn't mind a book with a range of ability levels, I'd just like to learn 1 or 2 tunes for christmas.

Ian.What standard of playing are you? Do you prefer the more traditional carols?

Try this - Alfred books are pretty well recommended.

http://www.sheetmusicplus.com/pages.html?c...&k=&r=wwws-err5

Why not have a bowse here:

8notes christmas

if you click the gif you get to see the score.