- Brazilian Suite No 1 for 7 string guitar
table of contents:
Chôro Primavera
Chôro el Ninja
Bolero de Saudade
Chôro para Lorenzo
Chôro con FuegoComposed and arranged from 2005-2006. The five pieces in this suite started out as lead sheets. I liked practicing these lead sheets, playing the melody together with a simple bass line based on the chords. One day it dawned on me that some of these tunes might work as fully arranged classical guitar pieces. Thus the version for six string guitar came into being. Shortly thereafter I bought a seven string classical guitar which turned my guitar world upside-down. Thus the version for seven string guitar came about.
These five pieces are really challenging to play (at least for me).
48 pages. Standard notation and TAB.
- Three Waltzes for 7 string classical guitar
When I bought my first seven string guitar a few years ago, I was expecting it to be a smooth graduation from six to seven strings. It took a few weeks to become able to actually just ignore that extra string and play regular six string guitar music. Slowly I started incorporating some of the lower notes, but for a long time it felt more like 6+1 strings. Jazz shell voicings were the next big step. Walking bass lines. Reading cello music at least gave some workout for that extra low string. But somehow I couldn’t find much music specifically written for seven string guitar – music that requires that low B string.
The three waltzes were inspired by some of my favorite guitar pieces of paraguayan composer Agustín Barrios Mangoré.
For my wife and kids…
34 pages. Standard notation and TAB.
- Rhythmic and Harmonic Studies for Guitar
In 1981 I was practicing my scales: ionian, dorian, phrygian, lydian, mixolydian, aeolian, locrian, melodic and harmonic minor. Then I got a copy of the “Mahavishnu Songbook”. In it John McLaughlin showed a list of 13 (what he called) “Synthetic Scales”. I tried to practice these, but didn’t really know what to do with them – and a few really do sound very exotic. Eventually, in 1981, I wrote 13 short etudes, one for each scale. Ten years later I composed 14 more. None of these is hard to play, but written in their respective key signatures most of them are incredibly hard to read.
This book contains three versions of each piece:
The original version, notated in the applicable key signature(s).
The same, but without key signature, all accidentals are written out.
The original version with TAB notation.
Interesting is that some of these synthetic scales are modes (like lydian, mixolydian, etc are modes of the major ionian scale). For example Super Locrian and Overtone are related in that way, as are Neapolitan Major, Major Locrian, Lydian Minor, and Leading Whole Tone.
156 pages. Standard notation and TAB.
- Bach Three Sonatas And Partitas For 8 String Guitar
Better format. Easier to read (not easier to play, though). All in original keys plus Sonata 1 and all three Partitas in lower keys for extra workout.
162 pages. Standard notation only.
- Choros for Guitar and other Treble Clef Instruments
19 original choros. Good sight-reading exercises!
Includes standard and TAB notation.
- Trail Mix for 7 String Guitar
Composed from 2007 to 2009. This is my first piece specifically written on and for the seven string classical guitar. It started out with ‘5000 Miles of Dirt’ in the Fall of 2007 after returning from a short trip to Europe. I would describe this as a sound poem of sorts, a frozen improvisation. It started out with the two chords from the beginning and just kept developing – but not along the lines of functional harmony instead going for what sounded nice and interesting. Only this movement has been recorded so far.
For two years I was trying to gather material for additional movements to create a little suite. Nothing would surface. In the Summer of 2009 some small sketches finally set things in motion and within a few weeks I completed the five part suite.
The titles of the movements express the sequence of what happened on that walk through the woods in southern Germany in 2007 on which I got lost for a few hours and finally came back to grandma’s house with lots of dirt on my new boots.
Includes standard and TAB notation.
- F.Q.R.D. for guitar
Ten pieces for six string guitar. Inspired by John McLaughlin’s writing and playing on the early Shakti recordings. These can be played with a pick or finger style.
Compositionally this music developed out of a page of small musical “cells” (almost like LEGO blocks), and a lot of improvising. F.Q.R.D. stand for “Frozen Quasi Random Doodlings”.
Includes regular and TAB notation.
- Bach Well Tempered Clavier for 7 string guitar, volume 4 (94)
Re-release of volume four of Bach’s Well Tempered Clavier for 7 string guitar. Standard notation & TAB. Updated fingerings, better TAB, optimized page layout.
This is the final volume. Originally all of these were done in Finale. Everything has been moved over to Dorico, which is incredibly helpful in making good TAB notation (among many other things) – but it is still a lot of work.
As in the first three volumes there are many revised fingerings. A few of the pieces now come in two different keys. The original version also had very tight music spacing, making it often hard to read extremely low or high passages because ledger lines were so close. More generous spacing means more page turns but it is better for reading.
