Great Piano Christmas Hits, the Books

Nineteen Christmas carols written in finger numbers, for a beginner who wants to play them this December and does not want to learn to read music first.

How a page works

Every carol opens with a drawing of the keyboard and a hand resting on it, with a number on each finger. You put your hand where the drawing shows. From there the carol is written as numbers: one number for each finger, one box for each beat, a dash where a note is held on. When the hand has to move somewhere else, the book draws it again in its new place.

That is the whole system. A person who has never read a note can sit down and play a carol from the first page, and a person who does read can still use the books, because the printed sheets for all nineteen carols are included as a fourth book.

What is in the set

• Level 1 · one hand at a time, five fingers, one position. Nineteen carols.
• Level 2 · the same carols with the left hand joining underneath.
• Level 3 · the fuller arrangements, with the hand moving to new positions.
• The Original Sheets · all the printed sheet music, for when you want it.
• The play along, yours to keep · all nineteen carols at two levels, in a player that runs in your own browser with no internet needed. The key lights up with the finger number on it, and the bracket above the keys shows where the hand sits and moves when it moves.

The play along on this site is free and always will be. What comes with the books is your own copy of it: no connection, no page to find again, and it keeps working years from now.

Who these are for

For a beginner who has a keyboard at home and wants to play something recognisable by Christmas. For a parent teaching a child. For an adult who started lessons once and stopped at the notes. And for anyone who has used the free carol pages here and wants all nineteen in one place, printed, without hunting page by page.

Try a carol first, free

Every one of the nineteen carols has a page here with the arrangement you can hear, a keyboard that lights up as it plays, and the sheet music free to print. Start with the beginner Christmas carols and come back when you want the set.