Carol of the Bells is a popular Christmas carol composed by Mykola Leontovych and lyrics by Peter J. Wilhousky. In this lesson, we cover the guitar chords for this song, sheet music for the melody including tabs and also a finger style guitar arrangement.

Grab your guitar and let’s get started!

How to read the guitar chord charts

To clarify how to read the chord charts in the next section, the top horizontal line represents the high E string and the bottom horizontal line represents the low E string. The vertical lines separate each fret. The numbers in the blue dots tell you which fingers to use on the fretting hand. 

For example, on the E minor chord, you use the:

• 1st finger on the 5th string, 2nd fret
• 2nd finger on the 4th string, 2nd fret
• Circles represent open strings
• On some other chords, X means to avoid the string

You can check this link for more on how to read guitar notation symbols.

Carol of the Bells chords

The basic chords for Carol of the Bells are E minor, D Major, C Major, B minor, A minor, and B 7. You can click on the chords with links to learn different ways of playing that chord.

Try the following chords one at a time until you feel comfortable switching between them. These chords will be written above the melody in the next section.

Here are some other resources on chords:

• What are the first chords you should learn on guitar?
• 6 tips to get better at switching between chords on guitar
• How to play the essential 7th chords on guitar
• How to play barre chords and 5 tips to get better at playing them!
  

Carol of the Bells guitar tabs and chords

For the sheet music below, keep in mind that the chords and melody are meant to be played as separate parts. We’ll look at how to connect these parts later in the arrangement section of this lesson.

The numbers next to some notes on the top staff indicate which fingers to use on the fretting hand. You can refer to this simple guide to understanding music symbols if needed.

When playing the chords part, continue playing the same chord when switching to a measure that doesn’t show one. For example, you would play E minor on measures 17 and 18.

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Carol of the Bells fingerstyle arrangement

In this section, we are essentially connecting the melody and chords together using a finger picking method of playing. If needed, check out this lesson to learn how to finger pick on guitar.

If you like this style of playing, you can check out this lesson to learn how to connect a melody and chords on guitar.

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Want to learn more songs? Check out the sheet music with guitar tabs resource on this site.

JG

Reference:
Carol of the Bells. wikipedia.org

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