Guitar - Level 3 - Digital Download SKU: A0.1177383 By Frederic Chopin. By Fre�de�ric Chopin. Arranged by Brian Streckfus. 19th Century,Classical,Contemporary,Instructional,Romantic Period. Guitar Tab. 6 pages. Brian Streckfus #776814. Published by Brian Streckfus (A0.1177383). Key: Changed from B minor to A minorCapo: 2 (If you want original key, but I wasn't a fan of capo 2; it felt like there was no bass notes.)1. Arranged for guitar. 2. Piano pedal markings removed 3. Phrase markings removed and opted for commas. 4. Re-harmonized 5. Key changed from B minor to A minor. 6. Slurs 7. Left hand fingers 8. Tablature9. Harmonics added when advantageous, but playing the regular note would work as well.10. Piano pedal markings removed and replaced with commas. It's a flaw of sheet music that slurs, ties, and phrase markings are all the same symbol, and having all three happening can clutter a score.Compromises This may sound obvious, but of course I had to make some alterations to make this flow properly on guitar. Many of the original chord inversions on the piano were not kept. However, many harmonies were kept intact as far as following the chord nomenclature name. Measure 50 was originally an A minor chord, the irony is that the F major suprise is an homage to Chopin anyways, suprised he didn't opt for it. To be honest, I don't like how there is a perfect authentic cadence in measure 50. I think modern audiences would want to clap too badly, so I believe that ending needs to be slightly messed up to propel the music forward, and give a sense that there is still a problem. The other chord that was changed was an E7b9 to a Ddim7 in measure 78. If you know your theory well, you'll realize these chords have the same exact function and nearly the same notes, it's just that Ddim7 flowed a bit better on guitar. I'd rather have guitarists play the rhythms correctly and with musicality, than have guitarist clunkily go though overly large chords in order to mantain historical accuracy.  Measure 15 was hard to keep the original chord intact. A Bb/D with a G in the melody as a suspension sounds more like a g minor chord. That is cliche Chopinesque neopolitan moment so the Bb is crucial to mantain. Having some rough sort of Bbmaj7 or G minor chord while mantaining the melody seemed to sound the best even though the name of the chord might have gotten a little off. I tried chord charts, but they seemed messier than what it was worth. I also could have the denser tablature in the sheet music, but that does make it look 10x more intimidating. So this version is unique in that the tablature is my denser arrangement, whereas the sheet music would allow someone to quickly make a new arrangement. I like this ethos because most guitarists are likely to be much better at playing chord quickly when they don't have to have an exact voicing. This makes this arrangement easier to further perfect since I am naming the harmonies, which often isn't done in classical music.BackstoryThis is one of my favorite pieces, and also my favorite composer. I feel classical guitar repertoire is lacking easily playable music in the romantic style. Often, if it is romantic guitar music, it is extemely difficult and therefore only a select few can enjoy performing it. Also, I sometimes get my hopes up to find a romantic guitar composer, but then after listening, there's nothing quite like Chopin. Obviously, you will have to have some chops to play this since it's one of the most ambitious undertakings a guitarist could take, but it's also not so hard that you have to be train for a decade because I changed the key.

Guitar - Level 1 - Digital Download SKU: A0.1162362 Composed by Traditional Scottish Folk. Arranged by Brian Streckfus. Celtic,Folk,Holiday,Instructional,Irish,Traditional. Guitar Tab. 2 pages. Brian Streckfus #762722. Published by Brian Streckfus (A0.1162362). 1. Arranged for guitar. 2. Guitar TAB added. 3. Re-harmonized to be idiomatic for guitar and have more adventerous harmony. 4. Grace notes added.5. The grace notes, uncommon harmony, and overly drenched G major pentatonic sound lead to a more Irish/Celtic/Scottish idiom, as if this was written for bag pipes. 6. Too many versions of public domain songs will just phone in the chords in my opinion with a I IV and V7. This version is a bit jazzed up, which may not be what you looking for. If you are looking for real basic accompianiment this isn't the version for you, though I do try to use as many open strings on the guitar as possible, and the chords are often small.7. The other problem I often see with public domain songs is that the famous cowboy guitar chords most versions use lead to a lot of clunky part writing in my opinion (no thought of tendency tones, no thought of smooth voice leading, parralel 8ves and 5ths, doubled 3rds, etc). Those voicings are easier to sight-read, but are also not super creative, and as a teacher, I don't exactly want a student to see the same G Major voicing forever. That gives this false impression that that G major vocing is somehow superior. 8. Another small issue I see with public domain songs is that the vocal melody is sometimes not in the famous cowboy guitar chord. There is nothing wrong with that, and sometimes you want that, but since I like to train my singing with the help of my guitar, I like when arrangements make the vocal melody easy to add or remove on guitar. I can easily play a sophisticated solo version of this in a coffee shop, or I can just look at the chord nomenclature and see the song only from a rhythm section point of view when in a full band, when usually you purposely want to contribute less.9. Notes with an upward stem represent those notes being the original melody. This give arrangement a lot of replay value because a skillfull performer can improvise the background harmonies.