For the festive season, my piano students requested Irving Berlin’s “White Christmas” along with “Silent Night.” Unlike the famous Christmas carol, “White Christmas” is not a three-chord song. The beauty is in its complex harmony. How does one simplify it for easy piano without compromise?
Melody
The easiest piano arrangement is to split up the melody line for both hands. This gives a single line of melody. However, it can sound quite lonely and bleak.
The next easiest is to assign the entire melody to the right hand and have the left hand play the bass line. The left hand provides rhythm which does not necessarily conform with the melody. Nonetheless, it gives momentum and character to the otherwise lonely melodic line.
When I began my arrangement of “White Christmas” I heard a chromatic descending line in the accompaniment. It became such an ear worm that I had to write it down (to get rid of its occupation in my head space).
The result was the left hand accompanying the right hand melody using a combination of chromatic and major scales.
For beginners, it’s paramount that fingering is indicated. I ask my students to be critical and change the fingering if necessary. I consider this arrangement a good application of the scales I’ve required my students to practice. Hopefully this answers why practising scales is important.
Harmonization
The harmony of “White Christmas” is rich and complex. The entire feel and character of the song is lost if limited to only major and minor chords. Similarly, reducing the number of chords will also compromise the harmonic diversity.
There are various ways to harmonize “White Christmas” as exemplified in ukulele song sheets (Doctor Uke) (Ozbcoz) and (Ultimate Guitar).
I decided to demand more of the right hand by giving sixth and 5th intervals, thus giving up legato playing for beginning pianists. The left hand has a two-bar rhythmic pattern throughout. It provides cheerful, dance-like feel to the song.
I have seen easy piano arrangements with the left hand moving more slowly than the right hand, holding a single chord in root position for an entire bar or more. While long block chords are suitable for hymns, it’s the wrong accompaniment for “White Christmas.”
I custom-tailor music and develop bespoke instructional material for my students. As such, I arrange what they request to suit their skill levels. For ukulele, it has resulted in a book of 24-nursery rhymes arranged for high G ukulele. I plan to arrange these well-known childhood songs for easy piano next.
In my group piano class in Zoom which spans 12-time zones, I daresay there are as many skill levels as there are students in the class. How do I tailor the sheet music to suit all skill levels? (Subject of another blog post).
My piano arrangements made for my students on Maui when I lived there are freely available. The feedback is the discovery of recordings on YouTube. I look forward to welcoming more students to my online piano class in 2024, so that I will continue to get requests and get challenged to arrange for different levels and interests.