Have you ever wished you had a Christmas piano resource that went beyond the typical arrangements—something flexible, creative, and inviting for players of different ages and skill levels?
Whether you’re a teacher looking for something fresh for your studio or a pianist who wants to play Christmas music more freely and confidently, Christmas By Ear was created with you in mind.
Christmas is the time of year when everyone knows the tunes, hums along, and feels the nostalgia woven into every melody. It’s a perfect season to explore playing by ear, build harmonization skills, and discover new creative possibilities at the piano.
I first released Christmas By Ear in 2021, and this updated edition expands on everything that made the original so useful. You’ll find the same core approach, now supported by nearly twice as many songs, and an improved, more flexible format that can serve you and your students for years to come.
On Black Friday SALE from through 12/5/2025. Get 25% off with code BF2025.
IF YOU PURCHASED THE 2021 EDITION, CHECK YOUR EMAIL FOR A SPECIAL UPGRADE CODE OR CONTACT AMY
Introducing Christmas By Ear (Updated)
Christmas By Ear is a flexible Christmas piano book designed to help pianists play familiar tunes with confidence, creativity, and musical understanding. Each piece includes a guided listening page, a Chord Chart Builder, a full chord chart, and a lead sheet, giving players multiple ways to learn, explore, and personalize the music.
In this updated edition, the content has been expanded and refined to make the resource even more comprehensive and versatile. Here’s what’s included:
This edition includes:
- 15 songs instead of 8, offering a broader range of familiar favorites
- Chord chart builder, for discovering harmony and enabling transposing
- Full chord charts for every tune, with all verses included
- High-quality lead sheets with lyrics and optional chords
- An improved layout and design for a clean, modern look
- A refined variations checklist and a new song tracking sheet
- A library of accompaniment patterns, plus and example intros and outros.
- Updated and clarified teaching tips
The result is a resource that offers even more ways to learn, explore, and enjoy Christmas music at the piano.
Song Selection
The songs in Christmas By Ear were chosen with both musical value and practical playability in mind. While the collection includes a range of familiar favorites, each tune also meets a specific set of criteria that makes it ideal for learning by ear and harmonizing.
- Melodic simplicity
- Length
- Number of chords
- Frequency of harmonic changes
- Popularity with students
Because even “easy” Christmas songs can present challenges, I focused on pieces that offer the most accessible entry point for developing musicianship skills. Most tunes stay within primary chords with the occasional secondary chord or secondary dominant. I also included a few few shorter, lesser-known pieces that are especially simple to harmonize.
Here are the 15 tunes included in this edition:
- Away in a Manger
- Deck the Halls
- Gesù Bambino
- Go Tell It on the Mountain
- Hallelujah Chorus (abridged)
- I Saw Three Ships
- Jingle Bells
- Jolly Old St. Nicholas
- Joy to the World
- O Christmas Tree
- Pat-a-Pan
- Silent Night
- The First Noel
- Ukrainian Bell Carol (abridged)
- Up on the Housetop
Although the book is arranged alphabetically, a leveling overview is included to help you choose where to begin based on the needs and experience of each pianist.
Keys & Harmonization
Christmas By Ear is designed to support flexible music-making while keeping the learning process approachable. While the book encourages pianists to transpose via the chord chart creator, the book presents each piece in the most accessible keys—C, F, G, and their relative minors.
Two pieces (Deck the Halls and The First Noël) are set in D major because they naturally fit that tonal setting and provide a helpful opportunity to experience the “feel” of playing in D.
To allow for flexibility in leveling (and because harmonization can be subjective), optional chords appear in gray, giving pianists the freedom to choose the harmonization’s that best support their playing.
Although it is not a standard notational practice, you’ll occasionally see the same chord name written twice in a row. This can help players feel the larger pulse more clearly and confidently.
The inclusion of the I 6/4 chord offers a valuable opportunity to experience the cadential 6/4, which can be described as a slight “decoration” or “delay” of the V chord that follows.
Slash chords were used sparingly and only when they genuinely improved the musical flow, and they are always optional.
While this resource assumes familiarity with basic chord symbols, it remains fully accessible to those still developing their chord skills, since playing the melody and adding simple chord-root harmony provides a natural entry point. At the same time, pianists who already feel confident with chords will find plenty of opportunities to expand, experiment, and create.
Lead Sheet & Notation Choices
The lead sheets in Christmas By Ear were designed with musical flow, visual support of musical elements, and flexibility across difficulty levels in mind.
One of the most distinctive features is the use of phrase-based notation. Pickups are placed at the beginning of each new line rather than at the end of the previous one. This helps players see musical phrases more naturally and supports a clearer sense of melodic direction.
Care was taken to keep measures vertically aligned, making it easier to notice harmonic and rhythmic patterns.
Fingering was intentionally excluded to give room to explore what feels natural, and to provide flexibility for those who may take their melodic work further by adding right-hand chord inversions beneath the melody.
These design choices create a layout that feels musical, organized, and flexible.
Song Tracking Sheet & Variations Checklist
To support long-term musicianship growth, Christmas By Ear includes two helpful tools:
- A Song Tracking Sheet – a simple way to record progress, note what’s been explored, and keep track of favorites from year to year.
- A Variations Checklist – designed to encourage trying different ways of playing each tune and to build a library of creative skills over time.
These pages make it easy to revisit the book across many seasons and continue expanding creative skills with each new year of playing.
Appendix Resources
Beyond the four core pages included with every tune, Christmas By Ear comes with a set of appendix materials designed to extend musicianship, support creativity, and give you practical tools for applying harmony at the piano.
Chord Positions Overview
A visual guide showing multiple left-hand shapes—ascending or descending roots, chord shells, full chords, octaves, root+5+8, beyond the octave (root+5+8+9+10), and jump chords.
Accompaniment Pattern Library
Rhythm patterns that build on those chord-position shapes and can be mixed, matched, and adapted to any song.
Example Intros and Outros
Simple, ready-to-use ideas for starting and ending pieces naturally—perfect for sing-alongs.
Teaching Tips
Three pages of teaching tips – a clear walkthrough of how to guide players through the Guided Listening page and the broader by-ear process.
(A video series is coming that will go through the step-by-step process outlined on the teaching tips pages.)
I created a playlist of videos to walk you through the step-by-step process outlined on the Guided Listening pages of Christmas By Ear. You’ll learn how to guide students through singing the melody, determining meter and tonality, establishing key context, identifying tonic and dominants, finding the starting pitch, adding harmony, and exploring creative variations.
Here’s theh first video:
The Most Versatile Christmas Book You’ll Ever Own
Because it grows with the player, Christmas By Ear is the perfect anchor Christmas book for any pianist. Students can revisit these tunes year after year, adding new skills, new harmonization’s, and new creative variations as they go. In my studio, I assign one polished piece each season—and let this book open the door to as much Christmas music as they want. It’s simple, flexible, and honestly… all you’ll ever need.
License and Purchasing
This product is a studio-licensed digital product which means you can print it out and use for your studio and all your student for life.
View the product page here, find it in the Piano Pantry shop or add it directly to your cart directly here.
On Black Friday SALE from through 12/5/2025. Get 25% off with code BF2025.
IF YOU PURCHASED THE 2021 EDITION, CHECK YOUR EMAIL FOR A SPECIAL UPGRADE CODE OR CONTACT AMY
