Jingle Bells!

One tradition at my elementary winter band/orchestra/choir concerts is that the orchestras always end their portion of the concert with "Jingle Bells."  I've written an arrangement that works well for where my students are by this point in the year.  Beginners have an open-string arco harmony part, while the 2nd-year players have a more exciting harmony part, with lots of shuffle bowing patterns.  The beginners' harmony part is in unison; while the 2nd-year harmony part has separate parts for upper strings, cellos, and basses.  2nd-year basses are welcome to add slaps on the rests in their harmony part!  The piano interlude gives them time to set bows down and get ready to pluck.

Combined beginners and 2nd-year players play through this twice at the concert:

1st time:

• Beginners--open-string harmony part
• 2nd year players--melody

2nd time:

• Beginners--melody (or open-string harmony--their choice) 
• 2nd year players--harmony

In past years, at the school performance for students, one pre-chosen student from each class comes up and rings jingle bells while the orchestra plays.  I have students from the orchestra help with distributing and collecting the bells.  They're just little jingle bells from a craft store threaded through pipe cleaners with the ends tied together to form a bracelet.

For an introduction, I play the last two measures on the piano, and, as an interlude before the repeat, I play the last four measures again, showcasing the jingle bell players and giving the string players a moment to remember which part they're playing next. (In more recent years, I stopped having audience members come up to play the jingle bells to keep the focus on the orchestra students and have one less detail to organize for the concert.)  Before we play, students pull out the Santa hat or reindeer antlers--or whatever optional festive hat they've had hidden under their chair until this point--and put them on.  Bass players are invited to put a hat on their bass too :)

I'm sure "Jingle Bells" is one of those pieces that every orchestra teacher has their own arrangement of, but here are the parts for mine; feel free to use!  It's one that students love every year--and I enjoy hearing and playing too!

• *Beginning parts (PDF) (melody/open-string harmony) 
• *Advanced parts (PDF) (melody/harmony)
• Score (PDF)
• Piano part (PDF)

* = updated link to also include a version with limited alpha notes--can print double-sided and let students choose which side to read (Jan. 2026)

Audio files (with piano introduction and interlude)

• Slower practice tempo (60)
• Faster performance tempo (90)

Happy jingling!  I'd love to hear if you end up trying out this arrangement with your students!