Santa Claus Sing-a-long
Welcome to this Christmas Sing-a-long Tutorial for “Santa Claus is coming to town”.
Now if you are familiar with PianoGroove’s solo piano tutorial for this very song – based on Bill Evans voicings – you will know this simple little tune can be dressed up to the 9’s.
If you are looking for that elegant beautiful jazz arrangement, you’ll find one here on PianoGroove. Check out the related lessons below. But that’s not the direction we are going in this video.
Instead we want to pear down the voicings to its roots – it was created in 1934 by John Frederick Coots and Haven Gillespie. Back then harmonic arrangements were not as sophisticated as today.
Great For Kids & Adults Alike!
The accessibility of “Santa Claus Is Comin To Town” makes it a great number for a sing-a-long with friends and family. Both adults and kids love this song!
As the pianist you must make it as easy as possible for everyone to join in the festive cheer. Once everyone is singing along with you, you will be holding everything together through your harmony and rhythm.
When leading a group of singers, it’s important that you stay agile so that you can both lead and follow at the same time. Particularly as the merry-men of the group could go in any direction.
A Simplified Arrangement
We are going to stay in the same key as the solo piano version inspired by Bill Evans. However, for the purpose of this singalong, we are going to simplify the chords and changes.
We will start by playing through the form with simple triads and we will then revisit the tune with 7th chords and discuss the harmonic movement.
Just 1 Verse To Work With
Something to keep in mind is that this song only has 1 verse, but if you got the crowd going, then you don’t want to stop at just one time through, so something I’ve done with this tune is sing 2 x’s through straight, usually by the 2nd time everyone is comfortable and having fun with it more than the first time, even though the words are the same!
Then I’ve soloed through 1 time, you could also bring in elements from the other arrangement or play that arrangement through before returning to the sing-a-long.
Related Lessons
This jazzy Christmas song tutorial is based on the chords and changes from the Bill Evans arrangement… check that out if you haven’t already!
A seventh chord is a triad which has been extended to include the 7th degree of the scale. This creates a fuller sound than simple 3-note triads.
The triad is the basic building block for many different types of chords. The 4 types of triads are major, minor, diminished and augmented.
Practice Tips
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Giving a solid intro is important when leading a sing-a-long. So you want to give a steady, but not to hasty pace, as well as play through at least 8 measures of the melody.
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Make sure that you can play the melody faultlessly.
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Playing the melody along with your singers will help them stay in tune which is particularly important for anyone who has visited the eggnog!
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Keeping the tempo is important. You will be holding everyone together so make sure that you are not speeding up or slowing down.
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Learn to talk over the turnaround vamp. You can use this to keep the music flowing and boost the engagement by encouraging your singers.
Hi Lyndol, this is exactly what I needed as a new pianist! I like the turnaround late in the video, but I did have trouble following exactly what you were doing. Would you elaborate on that? So many thanks for making a very accessible lesson for a beginner. Best wishes for a lovely holiday season.
Hi Ron,
I’m glad you enjoyed the lesson, check out the following lessons for more information on turnarounds:
Basic 1625 Turnarounds: https://www.pianogroove.com/jazz-piano-lessons/1625-turnaround-drills-exercises/
1625 & 36251 Progressions: https://www.pianogroove.com/jazz-piano-lessons/1625-436251-progressions/
Happy holidays to you too!
Cheers, Hayden