Play "We Wish You a Merry Christmas" Your Way! (PIYW #4, December 2025)

rsl12 · 2025-10-18T11:00:26+00:00

Special Note: For this PIYW, submissions will be posted in Pianotell's Winter Holiday Recital. You can participate in the Holiday Recital either through PIYW...

Sophia

rsl12 Right, I think you hit the nail on the head. Up to now, just about every lesson featured the typical blues chords, and up to now, only in C. And usually just two notes, the "Humpty Dumpty" theme as we like to call it, you know bouncing between (C-G)2 and (C-F)2 etc.

Now suddenly Christian doesn't just introduce chords, but he introduces 16 15 all at once, never repeating twice. But of course it will get learned eventually 🙂

rsl12

Sophia And usually just two notes, the "Humpty Dumpty" theme as we like to call it, you know bouncing between (C-G)2 and (C-F)2 etc.

Who is "we"? The Beginner Blues Bloc? I'm impressed with your ability to create a brand new subculture!!

Sophia

rsl12 Haha ok perhaps that was almost a royal we then 🤭 I think I started calling that because it was the first LH pattern introduced, and then he stuck with it for several lessons.

I got bored with it quickly, because in my mind it just sounded like humpty dumpty humpty dumpty. So I moaned about it incessantly for weeks on end and I think in the end, the phrase caught on with my fellow learners 😊

WieWaldi

rsl12 Oh yes, Sophia is a very clever person. And a creative one, I can tell. No wonder, she loves to play her own licks over those of Christian. AFAIK, the first appearance of that humpty dumpty left hand was in this post of Sophia.

WieWaldi

Sophia rsl12 Haha ok perhaps that was almost a royal we then 🤭

Side note to @Nightowl – you can stop calling me blue blooded or something with king. Soph is the one with the royal attitudes. 👑

Sophia

WieWaldi Sophia is a very clever person

Pfft. Anyone can learn a few blues licks. Real chicks play opera areas instead!

hebele

Sophia that video is recorded 8 years ago so it's not generative AI. Maybe the keyboard has lights and the chicken likes to pick at them. It was amusing nonetheless. Now I have to worry about animals playing better piano than me, as if children were not enough 🙂

WieWaldi

Sophia Haha - actually my post was about your creativity for combining this to a left hand pattern.

Btw - where is the thread I can submit my recording?

rsl12

WieWaldi where is the thread I can submit my recording?

It doesn't exist yet! You will have to wait for Rogerch to create it, around the beginning of December.

WieWaldi

rsl12 It doesn't exist yet!

I know. Actually I just wanted to boast that I am done with all recitals for this year

rsl12 You will have to wait for Rogerch to create it, around the beginning of December.

Roger did it last year and I appreciate that he did it. It was a great idea to introduce a Christmas/holiday rectial. 👍

Honestly, I would prefer to have something that has a bit more of a recital structure with a simple ruleset like:

You can submit after Dec, 1_st.
All submissions are published on Dec, 15_th.
Still, you can submit after the 15_th.

I really enjoy having the event character. Especially for christmas - it feels like opening presents and before that, you have to wait like a child. Unfortunately only someone with mod-rights can set this up. Someone like you - and I know you know how to do it.

We talked about joining the December PIYW with rogerchs holiday recital, this is true. This could also mean, that you are hosting it with your mod rights as any PIYW, but name the thread something like Christmas song + especially "We wish you a merry Christmas")
or
PIYW #4: Play "We Wish you a Merry Christmas" and Christmas Songs (Dec 2025)

What do you think, @rogerch and @rsl12 ?

rsl12

WieWaldi Actually I just wanted to boast that I am done with all recitals for this year

Yes, I was appropriately jealous when I saw you are done with BOTH the November recital and WWXYZ. I'm still far behind on the quarterly recital piece!

WieWaldi We talked about joining the December PIYW with rogerchs holiday recital, this is true. This could also mean, that you are hosting it with your mod rights as any PIYW, but name the thread something like Christmas song + especially "We wish you a merry Christmas")

I prefer leaving it as it is. By December 15th, many people are too busy with other things to socialize and comment on performances here, so just having everyone post whenever they can is better. Also, it's nice to have at least one truly casual recital a year!

Sophia

rsl12 I was appropriately jealous

Oh my goodness yes. While we are all

He seems to learn like

rsl12

Sophia He seems to learn like

He seems to learn like it's nothing. Exactly.

twocats

You all have a little less than a month to get your submissions in!

rsl12

twocats Actually, for the holiday recital, there's no publication date. It will open at the beginning of December and anyone can post in it like a normal thread until the holidays are over I suppose. But I appreciate you remembering to put in a reminder!!!

twocats

rsl12 oh oops! I got my calendar reminder to post here so I did 🙂

rsl12

All done! Not my best recording, but I'm happy to check off one item from the Christmas "To Do List".

ShiroKuro

I played through a version I have, a lower intermediate version in a Hal Leonard collection. It’s fine, do-able, and also dead boring.

rsl12
Easy
Easy/Intermediate
Advanced

Is anyone playing one of the links that rsl12 originally shared?

I just listened and the intermediate version is actually really cool! Although I think it should be played slower than the tempo setting in musescore, it would actually bring out all the fun bits more.

I don’t know if I have time to get that one in my fingers, but maybe I’ll try it.

Rsl12, did you record a different version? (Apologies if I missed it if you mentioned it in one of the posts above)

rsl12

ShiroKuro Is anyone playing one of the links that rsl12 originally shared?

I played my own improvised version. No one has said they are doing any of the versions linked in the top post.

I understand why you would hesitate to play sheet music that someone else is also playing, but just to be clear, everyone is welcome to do so! After all, that's what everyone is doing with the Haydn PIYW.

Simonb

Hi ShiroKuro

No I'm not. Like you I looked at that intermediate version, and thought that looks nice, but I don't have time to learn it.

I found a very very simple version that I might improvise something from, but it's not a tune that suits me in that regard as it's in 3/4. I'll probably change it to 4/4, or just not bother.... 😢

Cheers

ShiroKuro

rsl12 I understand why you would hesitate to play sheet music that someone else is also playing

(Apologies, I lost track of this thread prepping for Thanksgiving)

I’m not necessarily hesitant to play something that’s the same score/version as someone else. I was asking more because I want to hear someone else play this arrangement (the intermediate one you linked). I think it’s such a cool arrangement but the MuseScore recording is imo too fast.

Anyway, I decided not to work on that arrangement (at least not this year). It’s got too much going on inside it and if I work on that, I won’t really have time to work on any other Christmas music. I guess I’d rather have several easy piece rather than one impressive one. We’ll see how that goes in practice !

rsl12

Simonb I'll probably change it to 4/4, or just not bother

My fingers naturally went to 4/4 all the time while I was practicing! It required effort to keep it in 3/4! But it was good practice.

(it also sounded fine as a 4/4 piece.)

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