Feliz Navidad

I tweak, add, and play it different every year. Some of what I change I get back into the PDF file. With every one of my arrangements, I say, use it as a starting point and make it your own.

Performance Notes

Feliz Navidad is pretty much a full diatonic song with the chords coming right out of the major scale of the song. The first three chords are a II, V, I in D major.

This is one of the songs I like playing the most. Too bad it's a Christmas song and I can only play it a few months at the end of the year - and I stretch it out a few weeks on either side.

Introduction

For the introduction in the video I simple took the ending and used it as an intro. Totally forgot I did that until I viewed the video again. Checkout the series on Create Introductions and Endings .

I play the second ending several different ways depending on where my ear is taking me at the time. Here are the various ways I do it.

Don't think of my arrangement as set in stone. I take rhythmic and melodic liberties as well while staying close to the original melody. Make it your own.

Additional Resources

Checkout the Downloads and Assets section of the this page for additional links and resources for this song. I love working on and playing this song end of every year.

Ukulele Chords for Feliz Navidad

The following voicings can be used for playing a background accompaniment to the songs will someone if either singing or playing the melody.

Here are some chords for Feliz Navidad to get you started and links to lessons for those chords.

This example of Feliz Navidad is in the key is D Major . All the chords come right out of the key of D Major .

Em/Em7

Em/Em7 is the II chord in the D Major and the first chord in the song. As Feliz Navidad uses a richer 4-part harmony. The Em7 is the original chord used by José Feliciano . José is quite the accomplished guitarist and used these more contemporary 4-part chords.

• Em • Em was featured as the Chord a Day, January 6th - Em
• Em7 & Em7 is a 4-part chord and a m7 chord is one of the core chords from the The Big Six Core Chords - Level One .

A7

A7 is the V , the dominant chord in the D Major . As Feliz Navidad uses a richer 4-part harmony so Em7 is the original chord used by José Feliciano. José Feliciano is quite the accomplished guitarist and used these more contemporary chords.

• A7 was featured a couple of times . Once as the Chord a Day, January 14th - A7 and the Chord a Day, March 7th - A7 . In Feliz Navidad I use three different voicings of A7 in the melody and chord arrangement.
• A7 is a 4-part chords and a 7th chord is one of the core chords from the The Big Six Core Chords - Level One . In fact the 7th chord, the F7 is the foundation for building all the core 4-part chords. If all else fails and you can't remember a chord you can always go back to F7 create the chord and transpose it to the correct key.

Dmaj7

Dmaj7 is the I , the tonic chord in the D Major . As Feliz Navidad uses a richer 4-part harmony so Em7 is the original chord used by José Feliciano. José Feliciano is quite the accomplished guitarist and used these more contemporary chords.

• Dmaj7 is a 4-part chord, a maj7 chord and one of the core chords from the The Big Six Core Chords - Level One . In fact the 7th chord, the F7 is the foundation for building all the core 4-part chords on Ukulele. If all else fails and you can't remember a chord you can always go back to F7 to create the chord you need and transpose it to the correct key.

There are a few other chords that are used in this song and going through the lessons in the Related Series and Lessons below for the above chords will help in figuring out what chords and voicings are used in the arrangement.