Non-guitar music on guitar

Clarky

have any of you guys ever tried pieces or solos written for other instruments on guitar?

sometimes I look at learning pieces / solos written for / played on other instruments for inspiration or simply for the challenge and fun of it..

in the past I've looked at:

- some parts of the JS Bach Cello suites

- the Lute suites, JS Bach

- Italian Concerto 1st mvt [harpsichord], JS Bach

- some parts of The Well Tempered Clavier  [harpsichord], JS Bach

- jazzy / rock hammond organ solos by Trace

- some Caprices for violin Paganini

- the 1st violin parts for The Four Seasons Vivaldi [yup… all of it]

- Tocata and Fugue in Dm for Organ JS Bach

- several sax solos [various bands and mostly jazz funk style]

Clarky

just remembered…

Beethoven, Moonlight Sonata 2nd [Piano]

some bluegrass banjo bits and pieces

I find this kind of thing a lot of fun in a lot of ways..

it also gives you lots of fingering and technique problems to solve because you just have to figure it all out and find a way to make it work, whilst trying to preserve the integrity of the piece..

it's like doing a musical puzzle I guess

bigjon

Ski Sunday Theme. These days, I usually slip a minorised version of it into my Another Brick delay pedal solo, see 39:05 here.

Also, I learnt 'Baker Street' with the sax solo done on guitar for a jam-night the week after Gerry Rafferty died, it's still part of the covers band's regular set. Here's that jam-night version

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10150362471800483&set=o.107759375935880&type=2&theater

DulcetJones

It's a great way to sharpen your sight reading skills, I read through quite a few of the ones listed above.  Because they're not scored for guitar they have no position markers or other clues so they really make you think.  I also got into some bagpipe sheet music and added a few pieces to my repertoire way back when I was gigging solo guitar music.  I ran into a problem with a few bagpipe songs though, apparently it was common to not use key signatures when writing out certain songs and I had a few "what the hell" moments.  An elderly gent that used to play the pipes helped me out with that. 

mellowsun

Definitely a lot of piano music is great to try to arrange for guitar. I've had a go at arranging the following some years back:

Blue Eyes - Elton John

The Heart Seeks Please First (theme from the film 'The Piano') - I got official approval from Michael Nyman on that one!

Theme from the Incredible Hulk TV series

There's some great arrangements of Bach and Debussy for guitar out there, there's an arrangement of Clair De Lune that sounds amazing.

hubobulous

I'm a sucker for tasteful usage of arpeggios - from the Sultans solo to Maiden's The Prisoner to Nuno's GTFO tapping. 

So when listening to The Stranglers 'Hangin Around' and others of theirs, my ears always navigated to the keyboard work. The way the arpeggios are played is really cool as a layer behind the vocals, so I decided to try to work a way out for playing them on guitar.

Here's a vid I posted showing what I worked out, though I suppose I should do one at some point that puts them into the context of the song.

...and the original song for some context. Arpeggios are behind the chorus, the first of which is at 1:02

Clarky

hubobulous said:

I'm a sucker for tasteful usage of arpeggios - from the Sultans solo to Maiden's The Prisoner to Nuno's GTFO tapping. 

So when listening to The Stranglers 'Hangin Around' and others of theirs, my ears always navigated to the keyboard work. The way the arpeggios are played is really cool as a layer behind the vocals, so I decided to try to work a way out for playing them on guitar.

Here's a vid I posted showing what I worked out, though I suppose I should do one at some point that puts them into the context of the song.

...and the original song for some context. Arpeggios are behind the chorus, the first of which is at 1:02

awesome…..

Clarky

mellowsun said:

Definitely a lot of piano music is great to try to arrange for guitar. I've had a go at arranging the following some years back:

Blue Eyes - Elton John

The Heart Seeks Please First (theme from the film 'The Piano') - I got official approval from Michael Nyman on that one!

Theme from the Incredible Hulk TV series

There's some great arrangements of Bach and Debussy for guitar out there, there's an arrangement of Clair De Lune that sounds amazing.

you got a link to Clair de Lune??? that sounds really interesting…

a couple of years ago I did some experiments regarding soprano opera singers..

their dynamic control is amazing.. and the vibrato over glissando too..

very difficult on guitar.. I was using Puccini: O Mio Babbino Caro for inspiration..

when I get some spare time I need to revisit that one..

viz

The bridget Mermikedes transcriptions are wonderful, she has one of Clair de Lune. It's in her book.

viz

In fact:

ToneControl

these guys are doing the opposite:

http://www.wimp.com/metalcello/

Clarky

viz said:

In fact:

that is just wonderful in every way....

viz

Yes! You know Bridget and Milton, do you not?

Clarky

viz said:

Yes! You know Bridget and Milton, do you not?

I don't actually... but based upon that clip I'm certainly interested to hear more...

Clarky

I have the complete orchestral and harpsichord score for...

JS Bach: all 6  harspichord concertos..

I was looking for something else and stumbled upon it by accident, so I reckon I'll have me a lil' sight read here and there over the crimbo hols...

mellowsun

@Clarky - here's the Clair de Lune arrangement, they also do a whole bunch of other classical pieces

I'll check out the Bridget Mermikedes version and compare!

Clarky

that so works on guitar… absolutely beautiful ain't it..

JonHarper

I'd probably say Moonlight Sonata is a pretty rewarding one once you've got the patterns down, like this

A load of Einaudi's piano would work, along with Philip Glass' Metamorphosis 1-5

Clarky

wow.. that is wonderful

Phil_aka_Pip

Fuer Elise works nicely on guitar.

I got a book of Bach for solo flute in an attempt to improve my guitar soloing and reading but have mislaid it and not got any benefit

Clarky

hmm… Bach for flute sounds interesting… I reckon I need to go look for some scores now..

my student that's learning the Cm prelude from Book I: the well tempered clavier nailed the right hand part for the first time tonight..

totally awesome.. next week we're going to start looking at the left hand part..

this is so much fun..