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Looking for something to help get you in the holiday spirit? In today’s Quick Tip, Play White Christmas on Piano, Jonny May demonstrates how to play Irving Berlin’s timeless holiday favorite as a gorgeous solo jazz piano ballad.

• Introduction
  • White Christmas Song Facts
  • White Christmas Piano Chords
  • White Christmas Lead Sheet
• 3 Steps to Play White Christmas on Piano
  • #1. Learn Melody & Basic Chords
  • #2. Apply Jazz Chord Colors
  • #3. Final Touches to White Christmas Piano Score

This beautiful, jazzy piano arrangement of “White Christmas” has all the “merry and bright” that you’ve come to love about this classic holiday song.

Introduction

Whether you’re practicing for a holiday piano gig or for personal enjoyment, “White Christmas” is definitely a classic Christmas song that you’ll enjoy learning how to play. Today’s lesson contains all the basic piano chords that a beginner student needs to know to play “White Christmas” on piano. In addition, Jonny demonstrates how intermediate and advanced students can apply professional jazz arranging techniques to the lead sheet for “White Christmas.”

Due to publisher’s restrictions, the featured PDF with the melody for “White Christmas” that appears in Jonny’s tutorial is available through our partners at MusicNotes.com. However, we’ll cover the “White Christmas” chord changes in this lesson. In addition, PWJ members can download a lesson sheet PDF and backing track which includes those chord progressions. These resources appear at the bottom of this page after logging in with your membership. Moreover, PWJ members can also transpose the “White Christmas” chords to any key using our Smart Sheet Music.

Alright, let’s get started by learning a little background information about “White Christmas.”

White Christmas Song Facts

“White Christmas” was written by American composer Irving Berlin in 1942 for the film Holiday Inn, starring Bing Crosby and Fred Astaire. Crosby’s recording of “White Christmas” charted at #1 for three consecutive Decembers from 1942–1944 and also won an Academy Award for Best Original Song in 1943. Moreover, Crosby’s “White Christmas” holds the Guinness World Record for the best-selling physical single of all time with an estimated 50 million units sold worldwide. In 1954, Paramount Pictures released the film White Christmas, another film starring Bing Crosby, which of course, also included Crosby’s hit holiday song.

Song Key

Bing Crosby performed the original 1942 recording of “White Christmas” in the key of A major. Nevertheless, “White Christmas” piano sheet music is most often set in C major. However, with a song that is covered as often as “White Christmas,” just about any key is fair game. That’s why harmonic analysis (relating the chords to the overall key in terms of Roman numerals) is so important for piano students. If you understand these harmonic relationships, you’ll be able to more easily transpose songs at will. For today’s lesson, we’ll be in the key of G major. (Note: Jonny has also recorded “White Christmas” in C major in this lesson.)

Song Form

The musical structure for Irving Berlin’s “White Christmas” uses an ABAC song form. This is a fairly common compositional architecture, which gives the impression of two larger sections that end slightly differently. (Think: AB + AC).

In the next section, we’ll learn the piano chords for “White Christmas.”

White Christmas Piano Chords

The following piano chord diagrams illustrate the basic 7th chords that you’ll need to know to play “White Christmas” on piano in G major. (Note, not all of these chords are diatonic chords in G major. That’s because Irving Berlin also incorporates some chromaticism in both the melody and harmony.)

White Christmas Lead Sheet

The following lead sheet for “White Christmas” shows the chord changes for Irving Berlin’s classic holiday standard in G major. In addition, the red annotations beneath each staff provide a harmonic analysis for each chord. For a fun mental challenge, try transposing these chords for “White Christmas” to C major. Then, check your work here.

The clockwise arched arrows in the analysis above indicate the presence of a secondary chord function, such as a secondary dominant or a secondary diminished chord. In measure 5, the straight arrow followed by the clockwise arched arrow indicates a secondary 2-5-1 progression. Finally, the counterclockwise arched arrow in measure 9 indicates a backdoor dominant resolution, which commonly occurs in jazz repertoire.

In the next section, we’ll examine 3 different approaches for how you can play a song like “White Christmas” from a lead sheet, depending on your playing level.

3 Steps to Play White Christmas on Piano

In today’s featured Quick Tip piano tutorial, Jonny May demonstrates how to play a jazzy arrangement of “White Christmas” note-by-note and measure-by-measure. Here, we’ll review the basic jazz arranging principles that Jonny uses when performing this holiday song. In fact, we’ve broken down the arranging process down into 3 simple steps:

1. Learn Melody & Basic Chords
2. Apply Jazz Chord Colors
3. Add Finishing Touches to Piano Score

For each step, we’ll examine the same exact melodic and harmonic excerpt. That way, you can learn how to develop your own arranging instincts. Keep in mind, this 3-step process illustrates how to obtain a pro jazz ballad sound. However, if you’re more of a beginner, then it’s perfectly acceptable to play the whole song with just the step 1 techniques.

#1: Learn Melody & Basic Chords

The first step to play jazzy Christmas songs on piano from a lead sheet is to play the melody in the right and while playing 7th chords in the left hand. If you’re a beginner, it’s okay to keep all the chords in root position in the left hand. However, it’s important not to play the left-hand chords too low on the piano or they’ll start to sound muddy.

If you already know how to play 7th chords with inversions, then that’s another way to interpret the left hand for Step 1. In fact, mixing root position chords with chord inversions typically results in a more preferable sound. Therefore, be sure to check out our course on Play Piano Lead Sheets with 7th Chords (Int) to learn more about how to use 7th chord inversions.

#2: Apply Jazz Chord Colors

The second step to play jazzy Christmas songs on piano from a lead sheet is to enhance the chords with chord extensions and alterations that create more interesting colors. Keep in mind, these notes will not necessarily be indicated in the chord symbols on the lead sheet. In fact, usually they won’t be. However, professional pianists who understand jazz harmony already know which notes they can add to each chord type. You can learn these jazz arranging principles in our Mid Intermediate Piano Foundations – Level 5 Learning Tack.

The following example shows how to play the same excerpt from Step 1 with an intermediate-level approach to the left-hand accompaniment, including rootless voicings.

#3: Add Finishing Touches to Piano Score

Finally, Step 3 is where we add finishing touches to the piano score for an extra sophisticated sound. For example, here Jonny adds harmony notes in the right hand and even more advanced jazz harmony, such as inner voice movement.

If you were able to follow the logic of this 3-step arranging process, then you’re well on your way to playing professional jazz piano arrangements! On the other hand, if you found this process confusing, then we want you to know that you’re not alone. In fact, Piano With Jonny has tons of tools and resources to help you succeed in your piano journey. For example, Piano With Jonny members have access to our complete 9-Level sequential piano curriculum:

Learning Tracks

• Beginner Piano Foundations Learning Tracks (Levels 1–3)
• Intermediate Piano Foundations Learning Tracks (Levels 4–6)
• Advanced Piano Foundations Learning Tracks (Levels 7–9)

Many PWJ members and instructors also interact regularly in our Live Workshops, Member Circle, Office Hours, Student Assessments and our private Facebook Group. Learn more about all these PWJ membership benefits.

Conclusion

Congratulations, you’ve made it to the end of today’s lesson on Play White Christmas on Piano. Keep up the great work! Also, be sure to continue to make time for regular piano practice throughout the busy holiday season…even if it’s just a little bit. Remember, a little bit each day adds up to a lot!

If you enjoyed today’s lesson, then be sure to check out the following PWJ resources:

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