Transcribing music from one instrument to another.

I'm working on transcribing Majora's Mask's Song of Healing into a classical guitar piece. I couldn't find any guitar sheet music for it so I'm working off of the piano sheet music. It's not horrible so far but I'm having trouble moving the bass stuff up to the treble. I'm not playing an octave higher like most classical, so I'm not sure if that will help or not. It's mainly the left hand fingerings I'm having problems with, bass specifically. The first F in the song to be even more specific. I've thought about just not using the first F in each measure just for that reason. Anyways, what I'm asking is if anyone here has ever moved one piece of music from one instrument to another. Not just piano to guitar, but any instrument.

Originally Posted by sage_of_fire

I'm working on transcribing Majora's Mask's Song of Healing into a classical guitar piece. I couldn't find any guitar sheet music for it so I'm working off of the piano sheet music. It's not horrible so far but I'm having trouble moving the bass stuff up to the treble. I'm not playing an octave higher like most classical, so I'm not sure if that will help or not. It's mainly the left hand fingerings I'm having problems with, bass specifically. The first F in the song to be even more specific. I've thought about just not using the first F in each measure just for that reason. Anyways, what I'm asking is if anyone here has ever moved one piece of music from one instrument to another. Not just piano to guitar, but any instrument.

If you're having difficulties getting the instrument to make sense on the guitar, one thing you way want to look into is changing the key into one that might be more accessible for a guitarist to play. Bear in mind that when you are arranging for another instrument that it is totally fine to change octaves if needed. It wouldn't make much sense to arrange a violin piece and have the some poor tubist play it in the same register.

The trick is to figure out what the chord progression is. Once you've done that all you really have to do is switch the entire piece into an easier key to play for your instrument and the rest of the pieces will fall into place.

Here is an example of what I mean using piano piece that I arranged for guitar quite a while ago:



The piece starts in F major, which is a very nice key for pianists to play, but for guitar it is a little more challenging. I simply moved the tonic down to G, such that my chord progressions would be far easier to outline in open position as opposed to trying to fiddle with barre chords. After that, I just added in all the passing tones as neccessary and I was done.

It was pretty easy, actually.

Wow, very nice. Thanks for that and the advice.

Changing the tonic is generally okay, but personally I'm a bit anal about it. I just find it's best to get well acquainted with barre chords. They certainly won't be going away anytime soon.

It takes a little practice at first. Which is why it might be to your benefit to learn both pieces, and to practice the barre chord arrangement, and to use the open position one to show off to people if the opportunity presents itself until you're comfortable with those barres.

I hold it as a general rule to practice whatever is the most difficult to you as a guitarist if you want to advance.

Originally Posted by Shmeh

Changing the tonic is generally okay, but personally I'm a bit anal about it. I just find it's best to get well acquainted with barre chords. They certainly won't be going away anytime soon.

It takes a little practice at first. Which is why it might be to your benefit to learn both pieces, and to practice the barre chord arrangement, and to use the open position one to show off to people if the opportunity presents itself until you're comfortable with those barres.

I hold it as a general rule to practice whatever is the most difficult to you as a guitarist if you want to advance.

I've recently changed a piano piece (Song of Healing from Zelda, it's sheet music is posted in the art section if you want to check it out.) to a classical guitar piece and the biggest problem that arose was the bass. Now, normally I would play an octave higher on the guitar than on the piano to combat this but this proved to be...well...difficult. Not so much the act of playing it or transcribing it but it seemed overly so. So, I ended up tuning in Drop D to take out most of that problem (besides one note, which I just twisted around a little to fit it in). Basically I just kept the same flow as the original song with a majority of the original notes, is that ok?

Well, whatever suits you is fine. If it meets your goals for the piece I'd say you've done more than satisfactory. I mean, if there's a note you need to obtain in a chord or sequence that simply isn't possible to fit in on your instrument in the context the rest of that sequence or chord forces you fit within, and it's possible to scrap it while maintaining the feel of the piece, I say go ahead. Of course it's preferable to not scrap anything in a transcription, but sometimes such is necessary.

Good thinking, by the way. It's a huge misconception that Drop tunings are best for metal. I use it for both metal and for transcribing classical pieces with some inconvenient bass notes. The way I see it, there's no specific right way to play the guitar, I was just giving you my insight, which admittedly I'm too lazy to follow on occasion.

Originally Posted by Shmeh

Well, whatever suits you is fine. If it meets your goals for the piece I'd say you've done more than satisfactory. I mean, if there's a note you need to obtain in a chord or sequence that simply isn't possible to fit in on your instrument in the context the rest of that sequence or chord forces you fit within, and it's possible to scrap it while maintaining the feel of the piece, I say go ahead. Of course it's preferable to not scrap anything in a transcription, but sometimes such is necessary.

Good thinking, by the way. It's a huge misconception that Drop tunings are best for metal. I use it for both metal and for transcribing classical pieces with some inconvenient bass notes. The way I see it, there's no specific right way to play the guitar, I was just giving you my insight, which admittedly I'm too lazy to follow on occasion.

I'll have to admit, I might not have thought of it if it wasn't for Pachelbel's Canon in D we're playing in my guitar ensamble class. It certainly works better than any alternative I could come up with.