Silver Bells For C6

Silver Bells is here as a TAB arranged for C6 High lap steel guitar, a little Holiday cheer from Steel-Guitar-Mojo.

After offering up the Christmas Song, otherwise known as Chestnuts Roasting On An Open Fire--which definitely came from the more Advanced side of the difficulty level--we wanted to provide a little laid-back, easy arrangement as a contrast.

Not to say that this piece won't build your chops--it's not Mary Had A Little Lamb or anything! : )

C6 High

First of all a bit about the tuning: it's C6 High, meaning the highest note--or first string open--is a G. So Low to High you're looking at a 6 string tuning of EGACEG.

Like most of my arrangements, I've displayed the TAB for 6 string because I feel it provides more versatility--you'll be able to play this piece regardless of whether you have a 6- or an 8-string lap steel.

The tuning of C6 High for 8 strings simply adds the two lower notes of A and C to the aforementioned 6-string tuning for a full array of the following notes: ACEGACEG, one of my favorite tunings and non pedal favorite of many country pedal steel players since it closely matches the C6 tuning for pedal steel.

In fact, this tuning is sometimes referred to as the Texas C6 tuning, which in my book is another great reason to love this particular grouping of notes!

One of the advantages of the Texas C6 is that it avoids many adjacent-note bar slants that you'd otherwise be forced to execute when using the C6 Low tuning, which has a E on the top string.

For example, you'll note that the second chord in the excerpt below uses double open strings, going to the same bar shape on the second fret, no slants, all "boxes":

Not that there's anything wrong with slants ; ), but it does provide a contrasting sound. For more discussion on Slant Vs. Not To Slant, check out our Cold Cold Heart lesson here.

Download the TAB here

Download the FREE tab to this EZ arrangement of Silver Bells here.

Happy Holidays to all, I hope you can sink your teeth into this arrangement and enjoy a fine piece of music, spread some cheer, and improve your playing all at the same time!

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