Here is my arrangement of Star of the County Down. It’s available in my first volume of easy arrangements. I’ve always loved this song since I heard Van Morrison sing this with the Chieftains. Here is a video of it:
Category Archives: Arrangements
Black is the Color of My True Love’s Hair
This is one of my favorite melodies of all-time, ever, in the history of all of the music I have heard in my 44 years, soon to be 45 years. I first heard this when I came across Nina Simone playing this. What a powerful performance!!
I have made two arrangements of this melody. The one posted above I consider to be a more advanced arrangement. You can find the score/tab here. The other arrangement is an “easy arrangement.” That can be found in my first volume of easy arrangements.
-Rob
Improv and Für Elise Theme
Here is a little improvisation I did before playing the opening theme to Für Elise by Ludwig van Beethoven. The arrangement of Für Elise comes from my second volume of easy arrangements.
Improv and Funeral March Theme
I start this video off with an improvisation before playing my arrangement of a theme from Chopin’s second piano sonata. This particular arrangement comes from my second volume of easy arrangements available at my website.
So what do I think about while I improvise? Short answer is…not much. That’s the ideal–just let the music flow. The arrangement is in A minor so I figured I would improvise in A minor before going into the theme. Every now and then I’ll hit an unexpected note and the challenge is to make it fit. For example, around the 2:24ish mark I hit a C-sharp which I wasn’t planning on. The C-sharp would give the feeling of A major which is something I wasn’t looking to do. After I hit the C-sharp I decided to hit it again and then move down chromatically to the E. That’s the decision I made in the second or two after I hit that C-sharp. Little things like this are what I think about while I am improvising.
In the Hall of the Mountain King
In the Hall of the Mountain King is a great piece by Edvard Grieg that comes from the play, Peer Gynt. It’s always tough to make arrangements of orchestral pieces so for this one I follow the main melody in the piece. I included this arrangement in my second volume of easy arrangements. Here is an orchestral version of the piece…
What Wondrous Love
Beautiful hymn especially when it is sung with really good singers. For this I read from a lead sheet and added chords in here and there.
Enjoy and happy Easter!
-Rob
House of the Rising Sun
Possibly my most favorite song, ever, of all-time. I love the version by The Animals. Who doesn’t?? Recently I have been listening to Bob Dylan’s version of the song which, I must say, is amazing. I have made a couple arrangements for solo guitar. It can be found in my Easy Arrangements, Vol. 1. You can listen to that arrangement here:
I have also made longer version that is a touch more difficult. It begins by playing the theme slowly…
The theme then moves to the bass…
Then to the upper voice…
Then I speed it up. First in triplets…
Tremolo….
and for the finale I switch it to strumming…
Here is me performing the full arrangement in concert a few weeks ago…
The full arrangement…
The arrangement is available here.
-Rob
