The Free Christmas Carol Songbook for Guitar is complete and ready to download.

Weeks ago I had surveyed the landscape about which Christmas Carols were people's favorites.  After the polling had closed, I had taken the results--both the most popular carols, and those carols that exceeded my expectations, and crafted an episode of Prayer Meeting Podcast that contained these songs in a prayerful format.

After the recording I immediately went to work in crafting a songbook resource, so that if you wish to play along, you could.  Furthermore, I crafted these songbooks with notes about my use of partial capos and dynamic medleys.  You've rarely heard these carols like this, and you can use the same arrangements for your own caroling troupe.

Some of the carols performed include:

• O Holy Night
• Joy To the World
• Away In A Manger
• Adeste Fideles (O Come All Ye Faithful)
• Silent Night

as well as some lesser-known but equally powerful carols:

• The Huron Carol
• All My Heart This Night Rejoices
• Break Forth O Beauteous Heavn'ly Light
• Ring Out Ye Wild And Merry Bells
• While By My Sheep (How Great Our Joy)

Also included is Dominus Dixit, the Chant (and translation) used for the recording.

The best part of this is that you can help assist me in deciding what songs are worth including in future projects.

As you can tell, one of my passions is the discovery and use of worship songs from all generations, from the early church to contemporary praise songs.  I am tired of the so-called "worship wars" and it's high time that we delve both forward and backward, understanding our musical and liturgical heritage while also embracing musical forms that speak for today.  And I wish to do this with the acoustic guitar, the most versatile and personal instrument there is.

You do not have to partake in any further surveys, but I do want to let you know when a new songbook is crafted.  And as before, this Christmas Carol songbook is free, not only free for your own use, but you're also free to make as many copies of this as you want.

Sound interesting?  Click through.