CHRISTMAS TIME!
One of the best-loved Christmas hymns receives an anthemic rock makeover. Jamie Humphries reimagines this Christmas classic with a nod to a guitar hero or two.
B Major as chord I. But this can also be viewed as chord IV of F# Major allowing the introduction of the C# chord, bringing a nice Mixolydian flavour to the melody. Plus, it was also treated as chord V of E Major, allowing modulations to E for the last verse. You can also notice other similarities between the keys with other chords being used for further harmonic colour.
If you look at all three keys mentioned and list the seven diatonic chords, you can see how certain chords appear in different keys, but at a different scale position, which in turn implies different harmony:
It’s that time of year again! To give you some fun during the holidays I have taken one of the best-loved Christmas hymns and reimagined it with a new rock arrangement, adapting the chords as well as the melody. This hymn has been around a very long time, but interestingly enough it was never intended as a Christmas song, with the lyrics referring to the second coming of Christ.
The song started life as a poem written by renowned composer Issac Watts, later adopting the musical arrangement by American composer, Lowell Mason. Joy To The World is one of the most popular hymns, and has been covered by many artists and in many different styles. It’s even been recorded by some of our favourite guitar players. Steve Morse produced a wonderful version on the 1997 Merry Axemas: A Guitar Compilation, while Steve Lukather and Eddie Van Halen traded licks on the fusion-style arrangement from Luke’s 2003 release, Santamental. So, as you can see, our hymn presents a platform for interpretation.
For my arrangement I imagined what the song would sound like if it were performed by Joe Satriani and Brian May, so you get an idea of what I was thinking when putting this together. I opted for a 6/8 time signature, to give the track a different feel from other versions I h
