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Blue Velvet

£1.00

GUITAR SOLO

 

“These Solo Guitar pieces are the first of what I hope will be a significant new addition to the Concert and Student repertoire.

 

The current Concert Solo pieces are transcriptions, and I will be adding to these as well as  offering some of my own compositions in the fullness of time.

 

The Student pieces are in two groups:  Pieces taken from the Baroque to Classical Periods and Compositions by me. As far as all these pieces are concerned, I would expect the student to choose them after consultation with their teacher to ensure that the piece is at the appropriate technical and musical level.  The Early pieces are Graded, approximately between Grades 3 and 5, whilst my pieces are graded approximately between Grades 4 and 7.

 

In the case of my pieces, each one focuses on a specific technique or musical structure. For instance, “HIGH FIVES” encourages players to perform in 5/8 time, with excursions into other compound time signatures. The piece “SWAN’S SONG” , should be played gracefully, but with a special focus on held, tied notes. “TWO FOR THE PRICE OF ONE” has the same piece written in A Minor and G Minor.  Guitar Students rarely play in G minor, so the knowledge of the piece in A Minor should help them negotiate the piece with 2 Flats in the Key Signature”

Download a sample here.

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NOTE ON THE TRANSCRIPTIONS, REALISATIONS AND ARRANGEMENTS

Guitar musical text  is often dominated by symbols that denote choice of string, left hand fingering, position, Barre chords  etc as well as the normal marks of expression.

This burdensome clutter often gets in the way of the actual musical text encouraging players to ‘play the fingerings’ rather than the notes. It can affect the player’s sight reading, which, of course, is the key to accessing a wider range of music.

I have purposely put all of this information to one side in each of the scores on offer for a variety of reasons:

  1. To make these scores similar to those of other instruments.
  2. To de-clutter the score and make the musical text more visible.
  3. To encourage the player to add, where necessary, their own fingerings that will ultimately help their performance  at those moments where the correct choice ofa fingering is critical.
  4. To encourage players to ‘read the notes’ and know the score more securely.
  5. To encourage players to add their own marks of expression, which will encourage a positive approach to interpretation.
  6. To encourage a more proactive approach with the written musical text.
  7. To encourage more collaborative work with singers and other instrumentalists.

The guitar is an instrument where one can play the same note in several different places. This in itself is challenging but is also useful because it allows the player to be imaginative with their fingering by creating appropriate sonorities from the different strings.  Often, the fingerings in printed music are those created by the editor or, in some cases a well known performer and may not necessarily be appropriate for the player at their stage of musical and technical development.

Ultimately, my aim is to encourage a more proactive approach to the music, which in turn will develop a deeper understanding of not only the musical text, but also the actual note positions on the guitar fingerboard.

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