When The Holidays Come

Feeling a bit perhaps like it's from some long ago time and far away place, this Celtic style song has a simplicity that is both comfortable, yet lively at the same time. Though it is understated, it has a wonderful festive quality that conjures the joy of holiday merriment. Part of that comes from the use of basic rhythmic claps and stomps which accompany the singing. These are indicated on the music, but once the patterns are learned through rehearsal and repetition, their logical form should be easily remembered.

The melody is also catchy and fun, and should present no problems, especially when taught using the Performance/Accompaniment recording of the song. There is even a musically teachable moment at measure 25 as the dynamic shifts from subito mezzo piano to forte. The one tricky part comes at the end, but even then, it's not really hard, it just breaks into two parts (optional) that sound pretty neat together, if you can do it. To help you teach the parts, we have isolated them as rehearsal tracks and put them on our web site, MusicK8.com

The recording is especially delightful with its focus on acoustic instruments such as fiddle, guitar, mandolin, bodhrán, and penny whistle. Adding your own live instrumentalists to the mix will make it even more so. We have suggested adding handbells, jingle bells, and hand drums, though all are optional, of course. Use them as they are, or feel free to alter them for more simplicity or complexity as you like. The parts are indicated on the piano/vocal score, but are also available individually as downloadable PDFs from our web site.