5 Piano Accompaniment Styles for Christmas Songs and Carols

To accompany most Christmas songs on piano, learn five chord-pattern styles: a 4/4 ballad pattern with an eighth-note ghost in the left hand, 3/4 waltz patterns, a swaying 6/8 feel, oom-pah and tresillo grooves, and a swung blues and rock 'n' roll style with blues-scale licks.

Video lesson by Jason Zac · Intermediate · 29 min

Can't see the video? Watch it on YouTube.

This lesson from Jason Zac of Nathaniel School of Music is for pianists who already know the chords of a carol and want to accompany singing, whether that is their own voice, friends, a choir or an ensemble. There is no melody here, only chord patterns: ways of playing the chords so they fit the feel of the song. The patterns are grouped into five styles.

Style 1: Christmas ballads in 4/4

Use this for mellow, uplifting songs in 4/4 such as Hark the Herald Angels Sing and O Come All Ye Faithful.

1. Right hand: play a chord, for example F major (F A C), as quarter notes on every beat: 1, 2, 3, 4.
2. Left hand: start with a single root note on beat 1.
3. Grow it: add an extra hit, such as an octave on beat 4. Beats 1 and 3 usually work well.
4. Add the eighth-note ghost: slip an octave onto an offbeat eighth note. This gives the song momentum. If the octave jump is hard, use the fifth of the chord instead.

Keep your chords close together on the keyboard as they change. If the steady quarter-note chords sound too forceful, soften them by arpeggiating, breaking the chord up instead of striking it.

Blocks with arpeggios

For O Come, O Come, Emmanuel (played in E minor), strike the whole chord on beat 1, with either a triad or just the root in the left hand, then arpeggiate the rest of the bar. You can also flam a block chord, rolling the notes quickly like a guitar strum instead of hitting them all at once.

Style 2: Waltz patterns in 3/4

A waltz is counted 1 2 3, and the strong beats are the three main pulses. Anything extra is a subdivision: you can divide each beat by two, three or four. Do not confuse 3/4 with 6/8, which has more of a triplet feel.

• Basic waltz (Silent Night): split the pattern between the hands as left, right, right. That is the bass on beat 1 and chords on beats 2 and 3.
• Country-style waltz: decorate the same idea for a more country flavour.
• Groovy or flamenco feel (We Three Kings): share a busier pattern between the hands, almost like playing tabla, for example left, right, right, left, right, left, right, right. You can flam the first chord.
• 3/4 arpeggio (The First Noel, Silent Night): count 1 and 2 and 3 and, playing low, middle, high, middle, high, then the octave.
• Simple arpeggio: if that is too fancy, play just three notes, one per beat.

Style 3: The 6/8 feel (O Holy Night)

Take a C major chord and count 1 to 6. Use your wrist and let it sway with the music. The same pattern suits other 6/8 songs.

Style 4: Groovy rhythm patterns

• Oom-pah: alternate the left-hand bass with the right-hand chord (left, right, left, right). Try it on an E minor chord or on Jingle Bells.
• Modified oom-pah: swing it, add an extra ghost note in either hand, or give it a reggae feel by squeezing chords into the offbeats. You can also leave out the fifth to keep it simple.
• Tresillo: this Caribbean groove can be split between the hands as left, right, right, left, right, right.
• Caribbean and salsa groove: play a 5, 1, 5 bass on the beat in the left hand while the right hand plays a syncopated chord rhythm.

At the very least, a beginner can play root, chord, fifth, chord. This works for almost anything.

Style 5: Blues and rock 'n' roll

For Santa Claus Is Coming to Town or Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, keep a blues pattern in the left hand and comp chords in the right. At the end of each line, add a lick from a blues scale:

• Major blues: 1, 2, b3, 3, 5, 6, octave.
• Minor blues: 1, b3, 4, b5, 5, b7, octave.

Blues and rock 'n' roll are usually swung. Aim some right-hand chords at the offbeats, such as the 'and' after beat 2.

How to practise

Pick one carol for each style. Loop a single chord until the pattern feels automatic, then change chords while keeping the pattern the same. Once that works, try each pattern on other songs, or on songs you arrange or compose yourself.

Questions about this lesson

What is the easiest piano accompaniment pattern for Christmas songs?

The oom-pah is the simplest: alternate a left-hand bass note with a right-hand chord. Beginners can play root, chord, fifth, chord for almost any song.

What is the difference between 3/4 and 6/8 for accompaniment?

3/4 is counted as three strong beats (1 2 3), as in Silent Night, and each beat can be subdivided. 6/8 is counted 1 to 6 with a swaying, triplet-like feel, as in O Holy Night.

How do I make a ballad accompaniment less heavy?

Break the chords up into arpeggios instead of hitting quarter-note block chords. You can also mix a block chord on beat 1 with an arpeggio for the rest of the bar.

Which notes are in the major and minor blues scales?

The major blues scale is 1, 2, b3, 3, 5, 6 and the octave. The minor blues scale is 1, b3, 4, b5, 5, b7 and the octave.

Practise it

• Swing GardenWork with straight and swung rhythm in an interactive teaching workspace.
• Rhythm TeacherBuild accent patterns, divide beats and explore odd metres and polyrhythms.
• Piano classes at Nathaniel School of MusicLive online or in Bangalore, with a teacher.
• All free music apps40 practice tools for harmony, rhythm, ear training and more.

Related lessons

• Essential Waltz Piano Accompaniment Tools (3/4 Rhythm Patterns)To accompany a waltz on piano, play a left-hand root, fifth and octave on beats one, two and three, then upgrade to full chords, broken low-middle-high arpeggios and eighth-note rhythm patterns while embellishing the melody with stacked notes and grace notes.
• 12 Bar Blues Piano for Beginners (Sing and Play Along)The 12 bar blues uses only the I, IV and V major chords (C, F and G in the key of C), arranged in three four-bar lines: I-I-I-I, IV-IV-I-I and V-IV-I-I, with optional IV in bar 2 and a V turnaround in the final bar.
• 15 of the Most Popular Chord Progressions on Piano (Major, Minor and Modal)Popular piano chord progressions in the key of F include I–vi–IV–V (F Dm Bb C), I–V–vi–IV and its rotations, ii–V–I, the minor i–bVII–v–bVI, the Andalusian i–bVII–bVI–V, the Dorian i–bIII–bVII–IV, the Mixolydian bVII–IV–I, the 12-bar blues, the Canon progression and the line cliché.
• 3 Old-School Country Piano Rhythms for Easy AccompanimentOld-school country piano accompaniment uses I, IV and V chords, with the left hand alternating root and fifth while the right hand plays the chords in a waltz, two-beat or swung Western swing pattern.