Solo Guitar - Digital Download

SKU: A0.1025538

Composed by Alejandro Goldenberg. 20th Century,Contemporary,Standards. Individual part. 5 pages. Alejandro Goldenberg #4832485. Published by Alejandro Goldenberg (A0.1025538).

The main idea was to write a music material with a study structure that allowed it to be performed by two players, but also by only one. This characteristic inspired the name of the studies, as I imagined each part of the duet as a dimension, and the whole of it, the union of both, as the third dimension. This score include the two guitars version and the one guitar version.

Moreover with the Three-Dimensional, I searched for a diversity of composition styles, starting by the music of our American Continent and reflecting some of its traces.

Thus sometimes in an explicit way, others only suggesting, River Plate, Brazilian, Caribbean and North American atmospheres are present.

It is basically an integrating music, and because of its construction it asks the performer to improvise, compose and do whatever he likes with it.

Solo Guitar - Level 4 - Digital Download

SKU: A0.942064

Composed by Apostolos Paraskevas. 20th Century,Contemporary,Film/TV. Individual part. 6 pages. Silver Sickle Publications #4755271. Published by Silver Sickle Publications (A0.942064).

The last words of a dying soldier, his last 5 minutes. A lament full of love, of beautiful memories and the
eminent shadow of Death. His simple melody unfolds through variations of agony and ecstasy. The end
comes closer and closer as his heart beat ascends and descends until with its last beat says ...I love you...
Lamentations are a eulogy to love not to death and we lament because we love life. Death needs life to
exist but not vice versa.

Solo Guitar - Level 3 - Digital Download

SKU: A0.1032084

Composed by Edwin Culver. 20th Century,Contemporary. Individual part. 4 pages. Edwin Culver #4347575. Published by Edwin Culver (A0.1032084).

Classical Guitar Solo - Intermediate
Composed by Edwin Culver (1992-) 4 Pages.  Duration 7'30

Composer's note: 

Have you ever felt stuck? Trapped by something you can’t fully understand no matter how hard you try?  Perhaps it’s something from our past that we never invited...or something we’ve missed in our closest relationships, maybe it’s just the dread we’ve felt waking up early in the morning to repeat the daily grind.  We work hard to try and propel ourselves out of this nightmare, but we never seem to get totally free, in fact sometimes it feels like we’re just making ourselves feel worse by failing to overcome it yet again. This piece, ...a bridge a-way, exits within, represents that feedback loop, that stuckness.    

The piece came to me when I felt stuck in life by several things - old scars, old habits, crippling emotions.  I had been wanting to write something in a minimalist style for the guitar for quite some time and the repetition found in so much minimalist music seemed like the obvious way for expressing this stuckness.  There’s constant motion in the piece, just like when we try to take constant action in our lives to improve our circumstances. But all this motion never seems to get us anywhere new. We’re spinning our wheels…

But one of the interesting things about great minimalist music is that it’s not merely about repetition.  I don’t believe the greatest minimalists were concerned with having less stuff in their music for the sake of having less.  Instead, what I think they more often aimed for was producing the biggest emotional impact that they could through the tiniest of changes.  And if in your mind’s eye you zoom out from one of these minimalist masterworks and perceive it on a grand scale, you realize that despite all the seemingly redundant repetition in the moment the piece actually covers a huge distance because all those tiny changes add up.

Likewise, in ...a bridge a-way, exits within, it seems like the performer can’t free himself from the territory of the first position on the guitar for the longest time.  Even when he does venture higher up the instrument he’s always inextricably pulled back to the starting point. But small changes can have a profound impact.

It doesn’t feel like we’re making headway whenever we’re having to crawl out of our skin - until, suddenly, when it’s all over.  And you hear this towards the end of the piece, when there’s a sudden magnetic force that pulls the music from a low A to a high E-natural.  From A to E, a bridge to exits eternal.
The bridge has been found within, in the One I’ve put my trust in, because I can’t reach my eternal destiny on my own.   

This is ...a bridge a-way, exits within.

Guitar (fingerpicking) - Intermediate-Advanced - Digital Download

SKU: M0.22041EB

Seven Contemplative Guitar Solos Written in Free-Form Style. Composed by William Bay. Style. Contemporary. E-book and online audio. Mel Bay Publications - Digital Sheet Music #22041EB. Published by Mel Bay Publications - Digital Sheet Music (M0.22041EB).

ISBN 9781619111653. 8.75x11.75 inches.

Timeless Solos is a play on words. The solos in this volume contain no time signatures or bar lines. I did this because I wanted the solos to be very expressive in interpretation yet free-form in structure. The companion recording presents my interpretation of these works. You may interpret them differently and that is fine! All solos are in notation and tablature. When writing these solos I first envisioned the form as an extended cadenza. However, from my earlier trumpet playing days I recalled that, especially in the 19th century, a cadenza was a momentary break in a solo which gave the performer a chance to dazzle the audience with his or her virtuosity. These solos are not about that. Rather, they are a vehicle to give the guitarist an opportunity to move the listener with the performer's expressive ability. I also thought of these solos in the form of a chant. However, most chants are monophonic in form and these solos in various parts present a fairly lush harmonic structure. While the solos were written for a 7 string guitar, they may be played successfully on a 6 string guitar. Alternate notes for those found on the 7th string are shown in the tablature part. Also, the solo, Peace, is written in Dropped D tuning and makes little use of the 7th string pedal tones. The solos are contemplative in nature and provide ample opportunity for individual expression and interpretation. I hope you enjoy playing and performing these works.

Solo Guitar - Level 3 - Digital Download

SKU: A0.1453811

Composed by Jan Antonin de Logy (1650-1721). Arranged by Socrates Arvanitakis. Baroque. Individual part. 34 pages. Socrates Arvanitakis #1033060. Published by Socrates Arvanitakis (A0.1453811).

Jan Antonin de Logy, count of Rosinthal (1650-1721) was an aristocrat of Bohemia and official of the Austrian empire. As a musician he was a lute player of professional level and seems to have been a refined and prolific composer of single pieces and suites in the French style for his instrument. His compositions are becoming known to us today through important academic research but a lot more work has to be made in this field. The present suite in Em has the following eight movements:

1 Allemande
2 Courante
3 Sarabande La Favorita
4 Double
5 Gavotte I
6 Gavotte II & (Gavotte I da capo)
7 Menuett
8 Gigue

None of these dance movements is too difficult to play, but they are all musically rewarding and the compositional standard is kept high in all of them maintaining a two-part contrapuntal writing throughout the suite.

In these editions I prefer not to add any fingerings because I consider that they obscure the optical result rather than clarifying any particular way of playing the music. Especially if tablatures are provided as is the case with this volume the suggested left hand fingerings become quite clear, but  Instrumentalists can disregard these suggestions and provide their own fingering and choice of positions.
Interactive thematic index has been provided for easy navigation to individual movements either in decorated or in tablature pages and back to the index.
If a printed copy is desired, blank pages have been provided for insertion at will and for correct order of left and right side pages.
MP3 of the music has been created using the Note Performer playback engine.

Solo Guitar - Level 4 - Digital Download

SKU: A0.1433997

By Traditional Celtic Folk Song. By Scottish traditional folk. Arranged by Nick Mordal. Celtic,Classical,Folk,Irish,Patriotic,Traditional. Individual part. 2 pages. Nick Mordal #1014240. Published by Nick Mordal (A0.1433997).

This classic Scottish folk tune The Parting Glass was difficult to do because I wanted to keep the harmony minimalistic, yet keep everything moving along in interesting ways. In the end it worked out very nicely, be sure to listen to the recording and watch the video link.

Solo Guitar - Level 4 - Digital Download

SKU: A0.1187094

By Julian Bertino. By Julian Bertino. Classical,Contemporary. Individual part. 10 pages. Julian Bertino #786726. Published by Julian Bertino (A0.1187094).

Kriyā is a Sanskrit word meaning to do, make, perform, accomplish, cause, effect, prepare, undertake� toward something specific. We often live our lives hiding from ourselves, usually because of an artificial sense of fear, embarassment, shame or guilt that we may have acquired because of social pressures. This is why we many people have a mid-life crisis and suddenly change the way they have lived their lives into how they wished to live all along. 

This piece represents the unraveling of previously held ideals into one which is synchronous with the world around us, beginning with a vision reminding us of mortality, progressing through the difficulties and cognitive dissonances which occur when we must change our lives to find happiness. 

Kriya began originally as a tremolo etude on the 2nd and 3rd strings, but quickly evolved into a musical composition. Practicing Tremolo on strings other than the first develops control and discipline in the right hand, which was my original intention in writing it- but I felt as if the material that was generated required more and more variation and contrast- and quite quickly I realized that I had to complete it with the intention of performing it as a piece of music rather than simply a technical exercise.

**This version is for 10-string guitar. There is a 6-string guitar version available also.

Solo Guitar - Level 1 - Digital Download

SKU: A0.1171119

Composed by Scott Joplin. Arranged by Brian Streckfus. 20th Century,Barbershop,Blues,Folk,Ragtime. Individual part. 2 pages. Brian Streckfus #771449. Published by Brian Streckfus (A0.1171119).

1. 2 page arrangement for guitar. I'm sorry to say this is not the full version, but a 16 page version is long winded for my purposes.
2. Guitar Tab added.
3. Slurs and slides added.
4. Re-harmonized to be idiomatic for guitar, be less cliche,  and to emphasize the main melody more.
5. Some composers indications added when really necessary.  
6. Left hand fingerings added.
7. Chord nomenclature added.
8. Overly excessive ties removed.
9. Some octaves changes to better suit guitar.

Tips:
1. Be very careful of the difference between slurs and ties! Sometimes I don't show slurs on the tab, but this time I had to.
2. The rests are real and they are suggested because they lead to a jazzier rag time sound. I feel like it goes without saying that sustain is ultimately up to the performer, which is why I removed a lot of pedantic ties; they seem to add confusion half the time. 
3. The D7 is a slight key change because it has an F# in the chord. It's a secodary dominace chord, V7/V, and often a vii7b5 can replace it. In other words, the F# goes gravitates into the next chord, a G Major chord.
4. G6 is really just the 3 thinnest strings of the guitar open. It's a great transition chord.
5. The D# is part of the C major blues scale.
6. Adding more 7th chords than originally there is almost always an interesting pursuit. Going from G to G7 can certainly aid in helping things sound more goofy.

Solo Guitar - Level 4 - Digital Download

SKU: A0.1202804

Composed by Richard Hirsch. 20th Century,Contemporary,New Age. Individual part. 9 pages. Richard Hirsch #801568. Published by Richard Hirsch (A0.1202804).

I offer an original composition for solo acoustic guitar that I have carried with me over several decades and through several changes in living situation. I started working with the piece already back in the 1970s when I was living in Frankfurt/Main, Germany and kept developing it when I moved to Stockholm and from there to Gothenburg, Sweden. A first recording of the composition was made in a private studio just outside Gothenburg in 1987. I have only recently been able to transmit the piece to musical notation in preparation for publication.




The piece has a relaxed nature and contains many repetitions of simple themes that are meant to evoke a sense of monotonous spaciousness. One musician who listened to the first recording said he thought it sounded minimalistic, which I thought was a good description, although at the time I was unaware that minimalism was a term used to describe a whole style of music. The piece has a rather meditative character in the first part, turning more rhythmic in the second part. The third part is a swing version of the first part and the piece ends with a return to the meditative straight first part. The piece is meant to be primitive in the sense of primordial and goes in something resembling a pentatonic scale based on A. The rhythmic second part should be played so that the guitar starts to hum an A tone, the humming carrying over into and through the more melodic sections. The composition has an organic development with slight variations in the basic themes as the piece progresses.




Depending on the mood of the interpreting performer, the repetitions might be played in a different order or a different number of times. I seldom play the composition exactly the same every time myself. The piece has also worked as a basis for jam sessions with accompaniment of drums and a base, although the guitar had to have some sort of amplification. The piece can be played on either steel string or nylon string acoustic guitars, or electric guitars. 




I chose the title Big Drum because of the recurring base A that is a dominant feature of the piece, reminding me of the big drums played by people all over the world. The piece has a participatory character, especially in the more rhythmic and swing parts, inviting the listeners to clap, stamp their feet, or drum on whatever is available,




As the notation is accompanied by tablature, I refrain from giving left hand fingering. The right hand fingering consists basically of base notes played by the thumb and treble notes played by alternating index and middle fingers in combination with the ring finger.

Solo Guitar - Level 4 - Digital Download

SKU: A0.1042421

Composed by Frank Zappa. Arranged by Andrew Pattinson. Classical,Contemporary. Individual part. 1 pages. Andrew Pattinson #647206. Published by Andrew Pattinson (A0.1042421).

Zappa Quote: This is a 12-tone crab canon written when I was 18. There's actually another version for two guitars, so it's a double crab canon. I don't know where it is though. I'd been doing 12-tone music for quite some time before I did this, but it was the first time I'd tried to write something for the guitar. I couldn't play it, and I never got to hear it until I got the Synclavier. And because it's printed on the Synclavier, that also means I got to push the button and listen to it..

Solo Guitar - Level 4 - Digital Download

SKU: A0.1167528

Composed by Larry Williams. Contemporary,Folk,Jazz. Individual part. 80 pages. Larry Andrew Williams #767908. Published by Larry Andrew Williams (A0.1167528).

A WORD FROM THE COMPOSER 

Is anyone interested in new reading material anymore? 

I know that when I was a kid in nineteen hundred and something, the quest for new musical pieces was always one of the funnest aspects of the whole musical journey. Of course I did learn that it would take a long time to  nd those few that would resonate with me for a lifetime, but it was always fun trying them all out. 

It still is, in fact. 

Well, times change and people change, but I’d still like to believe that same factor carries on. You know, the one about trying out all that music to get to the few you keep. And what about the few we do keep? For guitar players, was it always a classic from the usual suspects, like Albeniz, Sor, Tarrega,, Granados, Rodrigo, Brouwer, Barrios, Villa-Lobos, or anything by Bach?
Was it something our band director or private instructor, one of our friends, or our parents wrote? Or – Heaven forbid- something that maybe we ourselves wrote? 

Or some “unknown guy.� 

Consider this.
Just how often did some unknown composer's piece greatly affect us as we waded through a daunting pile of the familiar from the known masters? And since some, if not most of these classics are required reading, how often did we even get around to giving this unknown guy's piece a try?
And furthermore, was this unknown guy - shudder...alive? 

Let’s face it. In the composer arena, we the living, stand no chance against the deceased (God rest their souls) But by saying “they don’t write ‘em like that anymore,� are we denying ourselves new ground to be broken, doors to be opened, frontiers to be discovered? 

And isn’t that pioneering spirit just plain ol’ curiosity when it comes right down to it? 

Well I believe the key lies within the carrying out of these notions that curiosity places in us. It’s climbing the mountain simply because it is there. 

So, for right now, I’m that unknown guy and I would only urge you to break new ground every day. Lots of trends, ideas, and interests will come and go in your life, but always hang on to that curiosity. 

It’s what makes the world a smaller neighborhood. 

Larry Williams.

Guitar - Level 2 - Digital Download

SKU: A0.1168489

Composed by Stephen Foster. Arranged by Brian Streckfus. Country,Folk,Instructional,Pop,Singer/Songwriter. Chords/Lyrics. 1 pages. Brian Streckfus #768792. Published by Brian Streckfus (A0.1168489).

If you are looking for a historically accurate version, I would just get Hal Leonard's publications of it. This version really sprinkles some razzle dazzle on an otherwise straightforward public domain song in G major, though it does not use the exact  original melody.

1. The original melody is NOT intact, this is ghostwritten. Notes were flatted to give a bluesier sound.  
2. The chords are very modern, despite this song being written in the mid 1850s.
3. Grace notes added
4. Background harmonies now have more thought put into part writing, originality, being idiomatic on guitar, and making the melody the forefront. 
5. Left hand fingerings added to aid in sight-reading.
6. Letter names added to note heads to aid in sight-reading.
7. I like versions like this because it could be used for a guitarist who doesn't sing, a guitarist who does sing, or a guitarist in a band. In otherwords, the more band members, the more you are just focusing on background chords, the more you are a one-person band, the more you have to take everything in. 

Tips:
1. I arranged this so that students could see how blues scales work as I drenched this song in more blues than it originally had (Bb - B...F - F#...E minor blues and G major blues respectively.) You'll notice I don't stay on these dissonant blues notes for very long, that's why there's so many grace notes in this song.
2. The D9 in measure 6 was originally a D7. Some extensions like this don't really change the scale in use.
3. The Ab7 in measure 7 was originally a D7, making the Ab7 a tritone substitution. If you know the key of G major well, that chord should stick out like a sore thumb. 
4. The Bb7 in measure 14 was originally a G7. I call these kind of substituitions mediant substitutions as they are similiar to jazz tritone substitions, but at a 3rd instead of a tritone.
5. The Cm(maj7) was originally a C major chord. This is a modal borrowing composition technique of borrowing from the parrallel minor, in this case, G minor.