Song 12 - I Saw Three Ships on Christmas Day

Course: Christmas Songs Vol 1

In this video

Here's the final song in this series, 'I Saw Three Ships' which is a fun two chord song.

Check out a full play through of the basic strumming version further down this page (yes, I did all 12 verses!). Also see tab for the melody for each variation of the melody as the song progresses.

Key learning Points

  • Learn to play just a two chord song!

  • Practice playing at tempo with faster chord changes

I Saw three Ships - Full play through

This song is great fun as the pace is fairly quick. We need to be ready for the quick changes!

  • Warm up the fingers first by playing the D major and the A major chord (your preferred way of playing it)

  • Try going between both chords a few times to get a feel of the type of chord change we are going for

The first chord change has two strums on the A and this gives us a little more time to change chord.

The one to watch out for is the single strum on the A chord, where we need to return to the D chord quite quickly.

See below for how the chords sit on the words in the song.

"D A D"

"On Christmas day in the mor - ning"

Of course, as shown in the lesson video, we should practice as slow as needed to make sure the chords are sounding as clear as possible as we change.

Course Completed!

Well done, you have completed the course.