Double-Stop Jingle Bells
Many of my Suzuki Book 4 students have been hard at work on learning double stops. So I thought I would challenge them to a version of double-stop Jingle Bells. Jingle Bells is the first Christmas song I teach to my Book 1 students.
Jingle Bell Progression
So by Book 4 my students have been playing Jingle Bells for a long time. Every Christmas for as long as they have been playing. In Book 2 we are transposing it to D Major and then Giant Jingle Bells comes in G Major on the G string. Then they learn a harmony part to play with the beginners and so by Book 4 they’ve played it a lot.
Why Double-Stops?
In preparation for the double-stops in the Seitz concertos, I’ve been using Melodious Double Stops by Josephine Trott with several students and they are actually enjoying it. To continue working on double-stops and sneak in a little creativity work, I thought I would see if they could come up with a harmony note for each note, and Wallah! Double-Stop Jingle Bells! While they all know their A major scale. The learning doesn’t always transfer over into other areas. So to help them out, I put a fingerboard chart with all the possible notes in A Major. I wrote the melody of Jingle Bells on the staff and removed the stems. This way they can add their harmony note and then draw the stem going the correct way.
Results?
I’m curious to see how they do and what they come up with. Will they only do 3rds? Probably not. Will they only use open strings? Maybe. I’m also interested to see if they need more structure in this activity. Sometimes if there are too many layers of creativity, they get overwhelmed and it’s too hard. I’m hoping they have the skills, know their options, and are willing to branch out and try to create the harmony for Jingle Bells.
Student Work Example
Student Work Example
