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Adapting "another" instrument's music to guitar?

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dobro
Posted 2009-01-08 3:30 PM (#434433)
Subject: Adapting "another" instrument's music to guitar?



Joined:
January 2006
Posts: 2120

Location: Chicago
My mother is along in years, quite frail. I've long dreamed of doing a tribute to her by arranging and performing her favorite piano piece on guitar. The item in question is classical ( Rachmaninoff prelude : she used to be a virtuoso and DOMINATED this tune but some years ago lost the use of her right hand.) I think she'll get a kick out of even a feeble guitar version. For me, it is one of the most sublime things written....

QUESTION: I'm realizing what a b*tch this project is!!! First of all: I have to figure the thing out as a DUET: one guitar for each piano hand. Second, I only have four octaves on my Adamas, not forty five like the piano.

Has anyone ever done something like this? Fiddle music? Piano music? New territory for sure!!!
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2ifbyC
Posted 2009-01-08 3:57 PM (#434434 - in reply to #434433)
Subject: Re: Adapting "another" instrument's music to guitar?
Joined:
December 2006
Posts: 6268

Location: Florida Central Gulf Coast
dobro,

Wow, you didn't pick an easy one!

If it helps you any, HERE is a .pdf for the piano.

Best of luck on your challenge!
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dobro
Posted 2009-01-08 4:13 PM (#434435 - in reply to #434433)
Subject: Re: Adapting "another" instrument's music to guitar?



Joined:
January 2006
Posts: 2120

Location: Chicago
Wow, that's great. I am transposing down a 1/2 step so that G sharp minor (5 sharps) becomes G minor - B flat major (much easier). I now have open strings and I drop D for a little "boom".
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CanterburyStrings
Posted 2009-01-08 4:34 PM (#434436 - in reply to #434433)
Subject: Re: Adapting "another" instrument's music to guitar?


Joined:
March 2008
Posts: 2683

Location: Hot Springs, S.D.
Go to classtab.org. There are a lot of sites that have classical tabs for guitar pieces, but this one has tabs for this piano piece to be played on guitar. Hope this helps.
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dobro
Posted 2009-01-08 5:18 PM (#434437 - in reply to #434433)
Subject: Re: Adapting "another" instrument's music to guitar?



Joined:
January 2006
Posts: 2120

Location: Chicago
Thanks SO much, Alison.
Have you ever ventured into this territory?

I am going to try to "capture" as much as I can of the actual notes by setting up a duet. Still very challenging!
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CanterburyStrings
Posted 2009-01-08 6:26 PM (#434438 - in reply to #434433)
Subject: Re: Adapting "another" instrument's music to guitar?


Joined:
March 2008
Posts: 2683

Location: Hot Springs, S.D.
To be honest, although I love classical music, I REALLY dislike Rachmaninoff. (Sorry) But I do love arranging orchestral pieces for guitar. The most difficult one I have ever done is "Stars and Stripes Forever". I think I mentioned it in another thread. It's hard to play but fun at the same time. People like it when I get that piccolo part at the end while all the other stuff is going on. What you have to remember is you can't get every note, but if you get the important ones, the mind of the listener fills in the blanks.
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dobro
Posted 2009-01-08 7:18 PM (#434439 - in reply to #434433)
Subject: Re: Adapting "another" instrument's music to guitar?



Joined:
January 2006
Posts: 2120

Location: Chicago
Well, it's like food and flavor. I personally (coming from the jazz perspective) love Rach's harmonic concept: it's part of the romance.

My mother specialized in Rachmaninoff and Bach. Bach is next!

By the way, Canterbury, have you posted some music? I'd love to hear "Stars and Stripes" vel sim.
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CanterburyStrings
Posted 2009-01-08 7:49 PM (#434440 - in reply to #434433)
Subject: Re: Adapting "another" instrument's music to guitar?


Joined:
March 2008
Posts: 2683

Location: Hot Springs, S.D.
I haven't posted anything yet. I'm a dinosaur. But some friends of mine just got a new digital recorder that also burns CD's. I will be borrowing it soon. Then all I need to do is learn how to post them on a computer.
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dobro
Posted 2009-01-08 8:22 PM (#434441 - in reply to #434433)
Subject: Re: Adapting "another" instrument's music to guitar?



Joined:
January 2006
Posts: 2120

Location: Chicago
I've long marveled at the way some things are easy on the piano and a BEAR on guitar. It also works the other way 'round. For example: the way we slide parallel chords around is quite tough on keys!

Sometimes I wish I were "gifted" like the six-fingered pianist in GATTACA.
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schroeder
Posted 2009-01-09 1:10 PM (#434442 - in reply to #434433)
Subject: Re: Adapting "another" instrument's music to guitar?


Joined:
November 2004
Posts: 4413

A quite amazing arranger is the great classical guitarist David Russell. He has done most of the Bach continuo and flute pieces for classical guitar and they are (seriously) way more beautiful than the originals. My son is currently doing battle with one of them.
The secret/crux of the matter it seems to me is to have selective hearing - to be able to listen to a chord and pick out the two most important notes, to listen to a mile-long arpeggio and pick out the essential 200 yards that convey the tune and the development.
My admiration for people who can do it is endless.
Good Luck.
(Isn't there a way to MIDI a piano recording into Jeff Burns' Roland and have it come out sounding like a guitar? ;) )
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dobro
Posted 2009-01-09 1:21 PM (#434443 - in reply to #434433)
Subject: Re: Adapting "another" instrument's music to guitar?



Joined:
January 2006
Posts: 2120

Location: Chicago
Hey, never thought of the midi!! Well, I'm having some success with the two-guitar, drop-D approach. What you say, Clive, about selective hearing is ESSENTIAL! Hey at a few points I even ADD a note. Go figure.

You might have guessed that the flailing right hand in the first measures in the guitarists nemesis. I refuse to tap it because it sounds so cheesy. In general I have had enough of whapping and tapping on guitar in any style to last a lifetime:)
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schroeder
Posted 2009-01-09 3:19 PM (#434444 - in reply to #434433)
Subject: Re: Adapting "another" instrument's music to guitar?


Joined:
November 2004
Posts: 4413

:eek: Surely Paco is allowed the odd whap????????????
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dobro
Posted 2009-01-09 3:32 PM (#434445 - in reply to #434433)
Subject: Re: Adapting "another" instrument's music to guitar?



Joined:
January 2006
Posts: 2120

Location: Chicago
Of course. I don't mean the odd percussive accent, but rather tapping as THE basic means of producing notes. Unfortunately, a tapped note is much softer than picked/plucked, much thinner, and tends to "meow" or buzz in an unattractive way. Ever wonder why even Stanley Jordan has been using much more pick technique and piano in one hand lately? Also the sort of YouTube guitar-banger mania tends to feature "non-songs": just sequences of stuff that work in the narrow parameters of bang-on-the-guitar mechanics.
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an4340
Posted 2009-01-09 4:17 PM (#434446 - in reply to #434433)
Subject: Re: Adapting "another" instrument's music to guitar?


Joined:
May 2003
Posts: 4389

Location: Capital District, NY, USA Minor Outlying Islands
I always like adapting keyboard songs to the guitar. Two obvious ones spring to mind to help you conceptualize: Louie Louie and Shout. I ignore the melody or right hand, which I will sing, and then convert the rhythym or left hand to a strum. That's it, though I guess this wouldn't work for Rachmaniov.
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dobro
Posted 2009-01-09 11:36 PM (#434447 - in reply to #434433)
Subject: Re: Adapting "another" instrument's music to guitar?



Joined:
January 2006
Posts: 2120

Location: Chicago
Actually I am sure that Louie Louie is based on Rachmaninoff Prelude 33 in F flat minor. You simply transpose the right hand to the left and stomp the pedal a whole lot. Let's get serious: if you have three chords, you have the whole musical universe!!!
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cliff
Posted 2009-01-09 11:50 PM (#434448 - in reply to #434433)
Subject: Re: Adapting "another" instrument's music to guitar?


Joined:
March 2002
Posts: 14842

Location: NJ
". . and stomp the pedal a whole lot . ."

Somewhere along the lines, I remember an old "FarSide" cartoon where an elephant is sitting at a grand piano showing another elephant how t'play "Louie,Louie" using words similar t'that effect . . .
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Tim in Yucaipa
Posted 2009-01-13 2:18 PM (#434449 - in reply to #434433)
Subject: Re: Adapting "another" instrument's music to guitar?


Joined:
August 2003
Posts: 2246

Location: Yucaipa, California

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an4340
Posted 2009-01-13 3:39 PM (#434450 - in reply to #434433)
Subject: Re: Adapting "another" instrument's music to guitar?


Joined:
May 2003
Posts: 4389

Location: Capital District, NY, USA Minor Outlying Islands
That's me playing the piano! (and the guitar!)
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