🎄 Joy to the World / Freue Dich Welt

Learn how to play this beautiful Christmas classic on shamisen! “Joy To The World” is majestic and beautiful, and it is festive and glorious!! But it is also tricky to play in some parts. Make sure to take your time to figure out how to chop the piece into digestible bits if you’re still fresh to shamisen playing. To me the shifts in this song are the hardest thing. But you may find something different to me more challenging.

The notation comes in two versions – the first version is with English lyrics, the second is with German lyrics! The play along files come in 60 and 90 bpm and will help you learn how to play the song.

This song is suited for intermediate to advanced players, but it can also be a worthwhile challenge for advanced beginners.

You can download the files from your customer account page after the purchase – a link will be provided in the order confirmation e-mail.

Have a listen!

Curious about how Joy to the world sounds on shamisen? Have a short listen to see if you like the tune on your favorite instrument:

A General Note on Tuning:

In every tuning, the strings are tuned in a certain relation to each other. For folk songs, there’s no fixed rigid tuning to a definite pitch (in contrast, the A-string on the violin is always tuned to 440 or 442hz) but what’s most important is how the strings are tuned in relation to each other. Although this is not a Japanese Folk song, I think it’s a great idea to choose the tuning according to the singer’s comfort zone.

A good rule of thumb is to tune your instrument over the base of C. This means, the big string will be tuned to C and the other strings according to the tuning of the song:

Honchōshi: C-F-C

Niagari: C-G-C

Sansagari: C-F-Bb

Access to the pdf and mp3:

Please note that this item is downloadable once only – just as receiving a physical copy of the scores would be. Consider it a “direct delivery” 🙂

After the purchase, you can download the file from your account page under “downloads” or via the link in your order confirmation email.

Make sure you save your file in an easy to locate directory. Please don’t hesitate to contact us via email if you need further assistance.