I have always loved this melody ever since I first heard it. I remember having a roommate in college who used to play the recording a lot and of course, Slash (huge man-crush) often plays it during is solo section in live concerts.
The score/tab is available at Sheet Music Plus (click on the picture)…
Last year (and the year before) I composed 12 laments for the classical guitar. The score/tabs for these can be found on my website for FREE.
I am excited about one thing. Ok, maybe a few things. It is super cold in Michigan (where I live) so that is nothing to be excited about. Anyways…I’ve always avoided making arrangements of copyrighted songs because I didn’t want to deal with the licensing issues involved. Long story short (thank you, Rob), I am going to start arranging copyrighted music. I made a list of pieces I would like to arrange. Here they are:
The Godfather (Love Theme), Nothing Else Matters, Hurt (Nine Inch Nails), Pirates of the Caribbean, Imagine, Stairway to Heaven, Hallelujah, Dust in the Wind, The Mission (Oboe Theme), Chariots of Fire, Schindler’s List, and so on and so on. There are like 200 on this list.
Anyways…that’s all I’ve got for now.
-Rob
I recorded three pieces in one shot with no edits. My original plan was to record six pieces but there was an EPIC FAIL on piece number four so…..you just got three:
Funky Soul Butter (0:00), Ezel (3:02) and Willow (4:45)
Funky Soul Butter is a piece I composed a few years ago and recorded it on my Funky Soul Butter album recorded about a year ago.
Ezel is a Turkish crime drama. A Turkish Instagram friend recommended that I make a guitar arrangement of the main theme. I couldn’t find sheet music for it so I ended up transcribing it. Here is the original if you don’t know it…
Willow comes from my Year of the Guitar Suite. I composed these pieces back in 2013-14 and recorded them in 2015.
The scores/tabs for each one of these is free at my website.
Side note…
Holiday fun is now over. My brother (and family) and sister (and family) were in town for the last week. My brother has 5 kids and my sister has 3. Lots of kids. It was very loud but a lot of fun. Sad to see them go. Here is a pic of my new nephew….
-Rob
P.S. I have listened to 57 of Buckethead’s 300 (and change) Pikes. Hopefully I can finish them this year.
I am currently working on a piano trio piece, commissioned by the Trio Nuovo to be performed in April. The plan is to have this performed in an all-Beethoven concert so I am incorporating some of Beethoven’s themes and motives into the piece. You can download and listen to the score here:
Anyways…so far I have included Für Elise and the opening motive of Beethoven’s 5th Symphony. The plan is to have this piece begin in C minor and end in C major. Why, do you ask? Because that is what Beethoven does in his 5th Symphony!!
This is my second piano trio. Here is my first one….
Side note…it is Christmas time and all of my family is in town. It is always great to see my brother, sister, nephews, nieces, etc but it can get exhausting. Yesterday I played a game of football with them and halfway through realized that my 45-year-old self needs to chill or a torn ACL is in my future. I was trying to make moves I haven’t made in 45 years. Here is a pic of a few family members:
Merry Christmas!! Well, it’s not Christmas yet. I decided to make a video of me playing a ton of Christmas arrangements. All of these arrangements come either from my Silent Night album or from my Easy Arrangements Vol. 3. Scores/tabs are available. Just click the link above.
O Come, All Ye Faithful
Silent Night (1:32)
We Three Kings (4:45)
Good King Wenceslas (6:10)
O Come, O Come Emmanuel (7:26)
The First Noel (8:55)
Coventry Carol (10:43)
Lo, How a Rose E’er Blooming (12:54)
Of the Father’s Love Begotten (13:44)
The Holly and the Ivy (15:15)
In the Bleak Midwinter (16:06)
I Saw Three Ships (17:35)
El Noi de la Mare (18:19)
We Wish You a Merry Christmas (20:04)
Messing around with effects courtesy of Guitar Rig…
Here is my arrangement of one of my most favorite Christmas Carols. I recorded it on my album, Silent Night. Score/tab is available at my website. You can also hear it on Spotify, Amazon, Apple Music and most other online platforms.
-Rob
Second of twelve laments that I composed in 2018-2019. Score/tab free at my website.
I am currently writing a set of 8 etudes for the guitar. Each of them includes some kind of an extended technique. This particular one uses a slide which isn’t used a lot in the classical guitar literature. I have always loved the sound. Check this video out…
And if haven’t already checked out the famous Messiahsez, by all means do…
There were a couple surprises that I found sounded interesting in my improv. The first was that when the slide is used with tremolo it produces a pretty cool sound. Also, artificial harmonics can slide around with a slide. Often before writing a piece I will improvise around on an idea or two. That is what I am doing in this video.
Here is my arrangement of the Irish tune, The Foggy Dew. I have always loved the version of this song by Sinead O’ Connor and the Chieftains. You can check it out here…
