Its been a wonderful year at Classical Guitar Corner and this really is a great way to wrap it up. We have guitarists from all over the world who made an arrangement from the beautiful Silent Night melody. I hope you have fun listening to all of the creativity we have in our community.

Lastly I wanted to say a special thank you to Dave Belcher. Dave has become an integral part of CGC helping members with questions and staying on top of emails for the site.

Here’s to a great 2016 and looking forward to 2017! Happy holidays everyone.

Bruce Donehower, California, USA:
Dave Belcher, North Carolina, USA:
Mark Campbell, Virginia, USA:
Guy Amato, Nevada, USA:
Joan Cheung, Hong Kong, CHINA:

Etai Tintpulver, Toronto, CANADA:
Antonio Ivan Šangulin, CROATIA:
Changhee Lee, Nairobi, KENYA:
Jan Jakut, Washington, USA:
Clint Sand, Boston, USA:

Linda Tsardakas, Offenburg, GERMANY:
Myles Hewitt, London, UK:
Michael Clunn, Texas, USA:

Silent Night

The original challenge:

As the new year approaches we celebrate many holdays that bring us together. In an effort to bring our community together I would like to pose a little challenge! This is open to all subscribers of the newsletter and members of CGC.

At the bottom of this post I have written out the beautiful melody of Silent Night in three different keys (I have also added TAB and chords). Your challenge is to take this beloved melody and create your own version. It can be simple and short or complex and large, it is up to you. I provided three different keys so you can choose from them, but just pick one key for your arrangement. Whatever you decide to do, however, I would like you to be thoughful, creative, and make it your own.

When you are done with your arrangement film yourself and upload the video to youtube. The video can be either public or unlisted (but not private). Send through the link to your video to [email protected] with the subject “CGC Silent Night Submission”. Add your first name and where you are from in the body of the email and we will put it along with your video.

On December 24th I will publish all of the submissions on the site and we can all enjoy arrangements from around the world. This is not a competition, it is simply a nice way to explore the arranging process and share it with our peers. My one request is that you don’t settle for your first attempt. Work on the arrangement until it is complete. Then, through editing and experimentation see if you can improve on your first draft.

Here is a list of ideas to get you started, they go from simple to complex:

  • A single line melody with ornamentation, timbre variations, or repeats played in different positions
  • Add a bass line to accompany the melody
  • Add basic arpeggios to accompany the melody
  • Add some chromaticism to the chord progression or substiute the major chords for some more colorful chords such as a Major 7th.
  • Use thirds or sixths to fill out the melody
  • Add in some polyphony (other voices)
  • Write a theme and variations
  • Create a unique composition using the melody as a starting point for inspiration

Silent Night Melodies Download