Originally written on December, 23, 2017.
I would be slow to admit that the fine duo Wham! was ever a particular favorite of mine. However, I must concede that the song “Last Christmas” has been an inseparable part of the run-up to Christmas since my wife and I started our household. It was released in 1984. Still, it’s arguably incorrect to classify it as a Christmas song, as the lyrics have very little to do with Christmas itself. “Last Christmas” became immensely popular but notably failed to reach number one on the charts; the song “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” prevented that. Such is its popularity, however, that no other song that failed to reach number one has sold better.
Our daughter started playing the song on the piano before Christmas 2015, so I thought it ideal to find a simple arrangement and try to play along with her. I found one in C major on goliathguitartutorials.com, and to play along with the piano, I raised the key to D major by placing a capo on the second fret. Here you can hear us attempting to play the song together.
Below, I play the arrangement as an accompaniment to a video intended to be an overview of what the family has been up to during the year 2017. I play the song with a capo on the second fret, putting it in the same key as the original version. The performance is far from flawless. I didn’t quite manage to practice the song to perfection but really wanted to get it onto the web before the year was out. The audio recording matches the playing—not quite good enough, as the bass is a bit too aggressive. Again, I ask for forgiveness and refer to it as a learning process.
I then noticed that at the end of the video, I spelled the Icelandic word svona (”so/like this”) with two ‘v’s. I dare not ask for forgiveness for that, because such an error is unforgivable. The fact that it remains uncorrected is down to sheer laziness; I simply can’t be bothered to fix it.
I have sometimes wondered if arranging songs for fingerstyle guitar is difficult. For a long time, I intended to see if I had what it takes. However, I never got around to it until this December, when I sat down and arranged “Last Christmas.” I actually had a portion of the song arranged from when my daughter and I played it together in 2015. I decided then to sit down and arrange the rest. Armed with stubbornness, I managed to complete the arrangement you can hear here. Since this is the first and only song I have ever arranged, it’s to be expected that some errors have crept in. That must be forgiven, as errors are an important part of the learning process. If anyone would like to make use of this arrangement, they are more than welcome to do so.
