God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen - Evan Handyside (Ambient, World guitar)

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God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen

God Rest You Merry, Gentlemen is an English traditional Christmas carol -- also known as Tidings of Comfort and Joy. It is one of the oldest carols, dating back to the 16th century.

I was inspired by Loreena McKennitt's ethereal take on this song. Rather than use bass notes or chords, I applied Gustavo Santaolalla's unceasing fingerstyle technique and droning Ab 5th notes. To me, this creates a Celtic and ghostly soundscape.

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Gear Used

For this piece, I used my Cordoba GK Studio.  You can find a current list of my gear here.

My music

You can find my personal music on Spotify, Apple, and all streaming services:

Evan on Spotify

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The Intellimusica Spotify Playlist: Ethereal & Cinematic Guitar
Deep cuts from artists like Gustavo Santaolalla, Hans Zimmer, Jeff Buckley, and Radiohead - combine to create a heady flow of music for focus, meditation, and self-reflection. This is a Guitar focused (but not exclusive) playlist that elicits the emotional, captivating quality of modern film scores.

How to play God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen by Evan Handyside

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The guitar tab is just two pages long, beautifully written, and very easy to read. Although the Santaolalla-esque fingerstyle is relentless, I would qualify this piece as relatively easy to play --as it's just single notes without any difficult chord shapes. Enjoy, the guitar tab is available below:

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Written by:

Matthew's dad, Jennifer's husband, bass player - New Invisible Joy, YouTuber, short-film composer, creator of modern content for guitar.