Chords + Lyrics | Rockin’ Around The Christmas Tree
Intro
| Ab6 | Fm | Bbm7 | Eb Eb9 Eb6 Eb7 |
Verse 1
| Ab | Ab | Eb7 | Eb7 |
Rockin’ around the Christmas tree at the Christmas party hop.
| Eb7 | Eb7 | Eb7 | Ab |
Mistletoe hung where you can see every couple tries to stop.
| Ab | Ab | Eb7 | Eb7 |
Rockin’ around the Christmas tree let the Christmas spirit ring.
| Eb7 | Eb7 | Eb7 | Ab |
Later we’ll have some pumpkin pie and we’ll do some caroling.
Bridge 1
| Db | Db | Cm | Cm |
You will get a sentimental feeling, when you hear.
| Fm Fm/Eb | Fm/D Fm/C | Bb7 N.C | Eb7 |
Voices singing, let’s be jolly, deck the halls with boughs of holly.
Verse 2 (half)
Rockin’ around the Christmas tree, have a happy holiday.
Everyone dancin’ merrily in the new old-fashioned way.
Solo
||: Ab | Ab | Eb7 | Eb7 |
| Eb7 | Eb7 | Eb7 | Ab :||
Bridge 2
You will get a sentimental feeling, when you hear.
Voices singing, let’s be jolly, deck the halls with boughs of holly.
Verse 3
| Ab | Ab | Eb7 | Eb7 |
Rockin’ around the Christmas tree, have a happy holiday.
| Eb7 | Eb7 | Eb7 Eb/F | Eb/G Eb7/Bb |
Everyone dancin’ merrily in the new old-fashioned way.
Outro
| Ab6 | Fm | Bbm7 | (Eb) Ab |
Rockin’ Around The Christmas Backing Tracks | Chord Analysis
Above, you’ll find backing tracks to use when learning Rockin’ Around The Christmas. I’ve used stem separation to extract the guitar while keeping the drums, bass, keys, and vocals intact.
After studying the chords and TAB, use my backing tracks to prepare for playing this tune with a band.
Should you want to play along with the original recording instead, you need to tune your guitar sharp to 442Hz. In the backing tracks, I’ve done this job for you by tuning it to 440Hz.
Chord Progressions – What’s Going On?
Brenda Lee’s Rockin’ Around The Christmas Tree offers a wealth of learning opportunities with its classic chord progressions. One of the most interesting aspects is playing in the key of Ab, which might feel unfamiliar and serve as a great test of your fretboard knowledge.
The intro and verse feature licks that you’ll likely end up memorising, but before diving into them, it’s important to first master the chords. The original recording has plenty of backing vocals in place of chords, but when you’re performing the song, you’ll need to play these as chords.
Once you’re comfortable with the basic chord progressions, adding the licks is the next step, turning Christmas classic into a true challenge. If you’re on a Christmas gig, this is a great way to stay focused.
To help you on this journey, I’ve prepared TAB for you further down this guitar lesson Now, let’s break down those chords!
Intro
The intro follows a classic I – VI – II – V progression:
| Ab6 (I) | Fm (VI) | Bbm7 (II) | Eb (V) Eb9 Eb6 Eb7 |
This progression reappears in the outro, where we play it without extensions, and the licks fit well here too. Notably, the Ab6, Fm, and Bbm7 chords share common notes, complementing the licks beautifully.
Verse
The verse simplifies to a back-and-forth between I and V, though the timing is odd as we go back to chord I for the last bar, resolving early. Here’s how it looks:
| Ab (I) | Ab | Eb7 (V) | Eb7 |
| Eb7 | Eb7 | Eb7 | Ab (I) |
Bridge
The bridge starts on the IV chord, followed by a move to the III. It includes a descending bass line and finishes on a dom7 version of the I chord, before resolving to V:
| Db | Db | Cm | Cm |
| Fm Fm/Eb | Fm/D Fm/C | Bb7 N.C | Eb7 |
Final Verse
The final verse adds some harmonic movement as the bass moves Eb – F – G – Bb.
Once you’ve mastered the TAB and can play comfortably in any position, improvising your own interpretation of the chord progressions will become second nature. Again, this skill is essential for making Christmas gigs fun for several weeks.
Here’s a chord chart.
Rockin’ Around The Christmas Tree Chord Chart | PDF + iReal Pro Download
Should you want to download my chord chart, here’s a PDF: Rockin’ Around The Christmas Tree chord chart PDF.
This chart was created using iRealPro. Here’s a link to the file: Rockin’ Around The Christmas TreeiReal Pro.
You can change the key using this and the iRealPro app, which would provide an extra challenge for your last-minute Christmas gig.
Rockin’ Around The Christmas Tree | TAB
Let’s go through how to play all the chords from Rockin’ Around The Christmas Tree using TAB, ignoring the original guitar licks at first.
We do this because, on the original recording, many of the backing vocals take on this role. At your gig, there’ll most likely only be one singer, and someone has to provide the chords.
Here’s the verse, or at least how I’d suggest you play it. Once you can play it as written in the TAB, it’ll be obvious that this part can be improvised.
Let’s move on to the bridge and do the same.
And finally, let’s look at the last part of verse 3 and the ending. I’ve taken inspiration from the original guitar part by adding and removing dominant 7 chords around the first Eb chord.
When you can comp like this for the entire tune, try moving everything up to the Ab being in a C shape and play all chords there instead.
When that feels comfortable, start learning the original parts, beginning with the intro. It looks like this:
Notice how the Ab is root and 6, making it an Ab6 chord. The Fm is root and minor 3rd, and the Bbm7 is 5th and b7. All these intervals are relative to the chords – you need to see this in order to remember it.
In the final bar, we hit the 9, 6, and b7 of an Eb7 chord. Make sure you can identify how this is happening, and try incorporating these extensions further down the neck too.
Here’s lick 1 – this one keeps coming back.
Once you can play it, work on integrating it with the comping we looked at earlier.
Here’s lick 2, again, practise blending this into your comping.
Lastly, here’s the outro. Notice how similar it is to the intro.
When you can playball this TAB, put it together using the backing tracks and chord chart.
Rockin’ Around The Christmas Tree Chords: Continue Learning
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Five similar tunes | Chords + Lyrics
- All I Want For Christmas Is You
- Baby Love
- I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus
- My Guy
- You Can’t Hurry Love
