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 5 - Digital Download SKU: A0.987853 Composed by Robert M. Greenberg. 20th Century. Individual part. 21 pages. Robert M. Greenberg #115407. Published by Robert M. Greenberg (A0.987853). Preferred Contact Information: RMonteverdi@comcast.net Performing Rights Organization: BMI Website: robertgreenbergmusic.com Facebook Band Page: facebook.com/RobertGreenbergMusic Duration: ca. 21 minutes Year of composition: 1996 Program Note: I. Toccata/Hands of Steel II. Strum/Serenade III. O Tanenbaum (Toccata reprise) IV. Two-Part Contention V. John Doe VI. True Pluck A number of years ago, the great English guitarist Julian Bream told David Tanenbaum - the dedicatee of tonight's premiere - not to premiere a guitar work unless he knew for a fact it was the composer's second guitar work. Sage advice. The guitar is an instrument that gives up its secrets to a non-guitar playing composer only reluctantly. Indeed, the timbral, digital and chordal subtleties of this most subtle and intimate instrument are truly understood by the guitarist only. Pity the outlander who composes for the guitar for the first time! With this last thought in mind I had, until last fall, managed to avoid writing a guitar piece. However, even the most abject compositional coward will relent when a musician like David Tanenbaum asks for a piece and offers his assistance and critical judgement in its composition. So it was with PLUCK, composed between November of 1995 and January of 1996. Bream's advice notwithstanding, PLUCK is my first guitar piece. Tanenbaum is brave. The title, PLUCK, thus refers to both the action of plucking strings as well as pluck - bravery, grit, true grit. PLUCK is written in six interrelated movements. The first movement, Toccata/Hands of Steel introduces much of the essential pitch and harmonic material of the piece, as well as Flamenco-style rasgueado strumming which, try as I might, I could not resist using. Movement two, Strum/Serenade, explains itself in its title. Movement three, O Tanenbaum (a designation for which David has forgiven me) reprises the Toccata and describes, well, a sort of musical tree (David has forgiven me for this, too). Two-Part Contention is a combatative, argumentative movement that pits the treble strings of the guitar against the bass. Movement 5, John Doe is a lyric and mysterious moment of rest before the manic finale. Movement 6, True Pluck, is a fast, furious and virtuosic finale. PLUCK is dedicated, with greatest respect and affection, to my friend David Tanenbaum. May he only want to play my second guitar piece.

Solo Guitar - Level 4 - Digital Download SKU: A0.876582 Composed by Daniel Cueto. 20th Century,Contemporary,Latin,World. Individual part. 8 pages. Daniel Cueto #6119401. Published by Daniel Cueto (A0.876582). To write Tiento para un pensador, I found inspiration in an experience that I had many years ago, when I was a student in Dusseldorf, Germany. I was spending time one night with my friend Rafael Aguirre, a virtuoso classical guitarist, as he was casually playing through some of his repertoire. He asked me if I thought that it was possible to play a Baroque fugue - one of the most complex of musical genres - on the guitar. Before I had time to think about the question, he started playing his own arrangement of a fugue by J.S. Bach, talking me through it as the fugue theme appeared in different registers and the counterpoint got more and more intricate.The effectiveness and beauty of the contrapuntal sounds I experienced that night stayed with me. So in 2020, when I was invited to attend the Twisted Spruce Symposium and had a chance to compose my first piece for the guitar, I quickly decided that I would take up the challenge of writing my own fugue for the instrument. Looking to find a more specific context for the new work, I discovered the early Spanish genre of the tiento, essentially an early Hispanic form of the fugue. I came up with a melody which, I sensed, featured elements of that early style combined with a touch of Andean melancholy. As I composed, I strived to follow this basic affect throughout, letting the lines evolve organically as the piece seemed to engage in a long, continued search for its cultural and temporal identity.Para un pensador means for a thinker in Spanish. It is my homage to the intellectual guitarist, to the reflective and discerning performer of intricate contrapuntal music.I would like to extend special thanks to Nathan Fischer for producing this valuable edition of Tiento para un pensador.

By William Bay. For Guitar (Classical). Classic. 86 pages. Published by Mel Bay Publications - Digital Sheet Music

Solo Guitar - Level 4 - Digital Download SKU: A0.914745 Composed by Eric J Roth. 20th Century,Contemporary. Individual part. 6 pages. Eric J Roth #5733799. Published by Eric J Roth (A0.914745). Two pages of music.Neve (pronounced NEEV) is an ancestral name within my family, to whom this piece is dedicated. The word appears in multiple languages and has a variety of meanings. In British English, Neve has two definitions, both of which have long been out of common usage. The first definition refers to a younger male relative such as a nephew or grandson. The second refers to a spendthrift. Neve is also found in Irish as a girl’s name. In various Latin and Romance languages, it refers to snow or glaciers.   Neve is one of a set of four pieces composed in late 2019 and early 2020. The publication of the entire set is forthcoming, but I am also offering Neve here as a short standalone work.   Composed for guitar solo, Neve evokes a young boy’s leisurely daydream. The 3/2 time signature, marked andante, and opening G major tonality convey the sense of a lazy weekend day outside in the woods or by the water. Like many daydreams, Neve starts out simply before wandering off into different moods and ideas. A recurring transitional passage (set as a quasi hemiola) serves to modulate to new tonal areas, each of which has its own distinct character.   The brief section in A Dorian is marked con moto and evokes the thoughts of excitement and adventure. This is followed by a contrapuntal section in E minor with hints of Dorian. The mood here is more subdued and perhaps even melancholy. The penultimate section in C# minor (with hints of pentatonic and Phrygian) suggests a longing for faraway exotic places before returning to G major to end the piece.

Solo Guitar - Level 4 - Digital Download SKU: A0.1411011 Composed by Michael Reardon. Classical,Jazz. Individual part. 35 pages. Songburd Music #993382. Published by Songburd Music (A0.1411011). Reflections is a set of ten solo pieces for classical guitar that focuses on connecting compositional ideas and moments expressed in the framework of each piece of this collection.Vesta, Gaia and Lakshmi assume some connection to mythology as these titles take their names from three notable Roman, Greek and Hindu goddesses.  Vesta, Gaia and Lakshmi are classical pieces, but they are not without jazz influence, using the major scale modes to convey a sense of mood and atmosphere that is commonly found in impressionism.  Pulse No. 1 and No. 2 follow the idea of maintaining a steady beat over changing meter to influence the way the music is perceived.  The melody at the end of Pulse No. 1 creates the melodic material of Pulse No. 2, which can be thought of as an extension to No. 1.  Inspired by minimalist and popular music these pieces are not melodically and harmonically complex, and what makes them of interest is how the feeling of the beat is different in each piece.Chiasma Nos. 1, 2 and 3 are pieces that find common ground in “linking,� created by using similar compositional devices such as chord shapes and patterns, which gives the impression of crossing over or exchanging information from one piece to another.Sleeping Muse is a three-movement work inspired by the famous 1910 bronze sculpture of Constantin Brâncuși’s “Sleeping Muse,� with each movement expressing some reflection or meditation on Brâncuși’s work, illustrating the notion of drifting off to sleep, dreaming and waking, while characterizing the impact of our dreams on reality.Synesthesia is a highly chromatic piece with distantly related harmonic progressions that gives the listener the sense of seeing the different colors in the score and/or hearing the colors in the music.The abstract nature of these pieces encourages the performer to reflect and draw their own conclusions of imagery and story within the music.

Solo Guitar - Level 2 - Digital Download SKU: A0.1313486 Composed by Timothy Royal. 21st Century,Classical. Individual part. 18 pages. Guitaroffice #902246. Published by guitaroffice (A0.1313486).                      Fingerstyle Thoughts by Timothy RoyalThe titles are self explanatory.   I guess you could say these pieces arrive from moments that sing to a page.     That done, the guitar has to capture a performer to unfold the gift.Played on the classical guitar the involvement with tone, sensitivity and touch will bring resonance and meaning to the titles of each piece in performance.Dreamer 2 is dedicated to Ms Samantha Browning teaching at Redmaids’  Junior High School.  Sam has always been so generous with her wonderful words of encouragement and support.

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.

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 2 - Digital Download SKU: A0.1018767 Composed by Gilbert Piger. Contemporary,World. Individual part. 3 pages. GJP Productions #2081507. Published by GJP Productions (A0.1018767). Very expressive, was set aside for many years as a pencil in title of 'movie theme'. After some thought I finally settled on the title the enlightment of love.

Composed by Apostolos Paraskevas (1964-). Contemporary Classical, Modern, Etudes and Exercises, Repertoire, World. Score. 37 pages. Published by Silver Sickle Publications

Solo Guitar - Level 3 - Digital Download SKU: A0.924177 Composed by James R. Murray. Arranged by R.S. Carrier. Children,Christian,Christmas,Classical,Sacred. Individual part. 2 pages. Ralph scott carrier #3680995. Published by ralph scott carrier (A0.924177). The beloved Away in a Manger, known to children from two years of age and up. In the key of D (major,) a simple and well known melody. Note: Although I do consider this a simple little song, any thought that this is an unusually easy guitar arrangement would be a mistake. This is, in fact, a rather challenging arrangement, especially the way I have tabbed it. Measures 6 - 9 are particularly difficult. If you can find an easier way to finger it, more power to you. Some contradictory information has been found regarding the attribution of the opus. Some have suggested it was from Martin Luther (himself,) but others have said it was written for his 400th anniversary. But the hymn book I found it in (to copy the lyrics) attributes it to a James R. Murray, so I have also given him credit. It was first published in 1884, in any event.

Solo Guitar - Level 2 - Digital Download SKU: A0.999763 Composed by Tomas Ericsson. Contemporary,Standards. Individual part. 1 pages. Tomas Ericsson #6681269. Published by Tomas Ericsson (A0.999763). Since we've past the darkest time of the year I found the title to be suitable for this short piece.It should be played as described, thoughtfully, with somewhat rubato.Appropriate for schools, students or anyone with some experience of note reading.Duration: 1.50Performing Rights Organization: STIM (Sweden).

Solo Guitar - Level 3 - Digital Download SKU: A0.899132 Composed by Maurice Ravel. Arranged by Rod Whittle. Contemporary. Individual part. 2 pages. Maggie Creek Music #3868243. Published by Maggie Creek Music (A0.899132). For solo classical guitar; 2 pp; intermediate difficulty.Maurice Ravel (1875 -1937) Ravel was born in the Basque region of France and much of his work shows a Spanish influence (this, together with his interest in jazz has produced some exceptional guitar transcriptions). He was a pupil of Faure and at first fell, like many contemporary composers, under Debussy's spell. However, his ascetic and intellectual bents produced from the start a refinement of composition and orchestration, and development of melody, all his own. Later music, including the Concerto, shows his love of the rhythmic features of jazz, and thoughtful incorporation of the innovations of modern music – strong dissonance, atonality etc. Ravel wrote both music and lyrics for a number of songs including Trois Beaux Oiseaux du Paradis (Three Lovely Birds from Paradise - see below), composed in 1916 while he was posted in the French army during WW1, this at significant physical and mental cost (ref. Wikipedia). Thus the tragic lyrics arise from experience, and the music (Ravel was 40) is typically expressive and uncomplicated with the usual harmonic surprises.Three Lovely Birds from Paradise (English translation)Three lovely birds from Paradise(My beloved has to the fighting gone)Three lovely birds from ParadiseHave flown along this way.The first was bluer than Heaven's blue,(My beloved has to the fighting gone)The second white as the fallen snow,The third was wrapped in bright red glow.'Ye lovely birds from Paradise(My beloved has to the fighting gone)Ye lovely birds from ParadiseWhat bring ye then this way?''I bring to thee a glance of azure(Thy beloved has to the fighting gone)And I on fairest snow white browA fond kiss must leave, yet purer still.''Thou bright red bird from Paradise(My beloved has to the fighting gone)Thou bright red bird from Paradise,What brings thou to me?''A faithful heart all crimson red,(Thy beloved has to the fighting gone)''Ah! I feel my heart glowing cold…Take it also with thee.' Maurice Ravel (1914)