Primary Christmas Nativity

It’s the day after Thanksgiving, which means it’s now time for Christmas music!  Even though December’s hymn is already “When Joseph Went to Bethlehem,” I had a few more songs in my back pocket that I figured I’d share the MP3’s and TABs with everyone as a huge THANK YOU for all of your wonderful support and feedback these last six months.  You guys have certainly made this such a rewarding experience for me and I really can’t thank you enough.

In 2009, our primary president saw a slideshow nativity that another ward had done somewhere and thought it would be fun for the primary kids to do the same thing.  Except when she does something, she tends to blow it out of the water.  I’m talking full-scale wardrobe, sets and live animals.  Yep, she got a horse.  (Apparently mules are harder to come by).  She and her presidency did an phenomenal job.  What’s more impressive is they did the whole thing during the 2-hour primary block on only one Sunday.

She asked me if I could come up with some background guitar music for it.  The hymns were “What Child is This,” “Silent Night,” “Away in a Manger,” and “Joy to the World.”  I did just quick and easy arrangements for them with a rhythm and lead track.  Just basic chords and melody.  It’s much easier than arranging a solo piece that covers the melody as well.  So most of these arrangements are for two guitars, except for Silent Night.  So if any of you are looking to play some Christmas music with another guitarist, these are some easy arrangements for most skill levels.

Since I didn’t record these just sitting in front of camera, the audio is a little better than normal, so I figured I post the mp3’s here so anyone can download them for free just in time for Christmas. Just click the links to listen. To download them, right click the links and select “Save Linked File” or “Download Link” or something similar depending on your browser.

Joy to the World mp3
Joy to the World BACKING TRACK mp3
Away in a Manger mp3
Away in a Manger BACKING TRACK mp3
What Child is This mp3
What Child is This BACKING TRACK mp3
Silent Night mp3

I also spent the last week transcribing the MoTAB (Mormon Guitar TAB) for each of them so you can play them yourselves. For the songs that have two guitars, you can either download the combined MoTABs or the individual MoTABs for each part.  I won’t be doing video tutorials for these, but they’re pretty simple.  You can also use the interactive MoTAB to slow down the music to help you learn how to play it. Be sure to learn all the cool things the interactive MoTAB can do. It makes learning to play so much easier. You can also comment or email me with any questions you have about how to play it.

Joy to the World – Lead MoTAB pdf
Joy to the World – Rhythm MoTAB pdf
Joy to the World – Combined MoTAB pdf
Joy to the World – Interactive MoTAB

Away in a Manger – Lead MoTAB pdf
Away in a Manger – Rhythm MoTAB pdf
Away in a Manger – Combined MoTAB pdf
Away in a Manger – Interactive MoTAB

What Child is This – Lead MoTAB pdf
What Child is This – Rhythm MoTAB pdf
What Child is This – Combined MoTAB pdf
What Child is This – Interactive MoTAB

Silent Night – MoTAB pdf
Silent Night – Interactive MoTAB

Thank you again for all of your wonderful support.  Merry Christmas!  And stay tuned, “When Joseph Went to Bethlehem” gets posted this Sunday, Dec. 1 and there might even be another surprise lined up in December :)