Summertime comes from the opera, Porgy and Bess, with music composed by George Gershwin. This song has been covered by many artists including Billie Holiday, Sam Cooke, and even Ricky Nelson.
I’ve always loved Gershwin’s music and finally got around to arranging one of his songs. The first of many arrangements hopefully.
Scarborough Fair is an old traditional English Ballad and nobody knows who actually composed the piece. I’ve always loved the version by Simon and Garfunkel and their recording inspired me to make a solo guitar arrangement of the melody.
Are you going to Scarborough Faire?
Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme.
Remember me to one who lived there.
She once was a true love of mine….
Dee is a beautiful piece of music composed by one of my favorite guitarists, Randy Rhoads. He helped form the band Quiet Riot before joining Ozzy Osbourne. Dee appears on The Blizzard of Ozz album and shows Rhoads’ classical guitar chops. There is even a reference of the opening of the Bach Bouree in the middle of Dee.
A Time for Us is a beautiful piece of music composed by Nino Rota for the movie, Romeo and Juliet.
Brand new arrangement!! Can’t Help Falling in Love is a beautiful song recorded by Elvis “the Pelvis” Presley for the album, Blue Hawaii, that came out in 1961. Rolling Stone Magazine even ranked this as one of the greatest songs of all time. A guitar tutorial for this arrangement will be posted very soon.
Score/tab available at Musicnotes (Click on the picture)
Caro Mio Ben is a beautiful piece of music possible composed by Giuseppe Giordani but could have been composed by somebody else. Scholars are unsure. I have taught at several colleges and universities over the years and have heard this song performed many times by vocalists at student recitals.
The Man Who Sold the World was originally released by David Bowie back in the early 1970s. Nirvana (one of my favorite bands) did a cover of the song in their MTV Unplugged concert. This arrangement is based on that version of the song.
The Wayfaring Stranger is a beautiful American folk/gospel song from the the early 1980s. I love this piece so much that I have made a couple arrangements of it.
Many notable artists have covered this song including Johnny Cash, Jack White, and Emmylou Harris. It is also performed under the title, Poor Wayfaring Stranger.
In this video I talk about one way that I make arrangements. For hymns, popular songs, folk songs, I prefer to work from a lead sheet. A lead sheet contains the melody as well as the chords.
Minuet in G comes from the “Notebook for Anna Magdalena Bach,” a gift that Johann Sebastian Bach gave to his second wife. For many years this piece was believed to have been composed by Bach but now the piece is believed to have been composed by Christian Petzold.
I remember playing this piece, as well as the companion G minor minuet, back in college when I was a music major taking piano lessons.
