Transcribing piano to guitar

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Filip

Posts: 403
Joined: Apr. 23 2006
From: Paris

Transcribing piano to guitar

Hi all,

I was wondering if anyone has ever done some transcriptions of piano pieces to guitar?
I understand that by having some good skills one could just listen piano piece and then work it out on a guitar at least to some accuracy and richness; but what about going from written piano notes to guitar notes, would there be any rules and patterns to follow in order to go from piano to guitar (by looking at some piano transcriptions I think my conclusion is that playing piano transcription, as it is written, on a guitar is not a way to go).

Cheers

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date May 16 2019 14:25:39

Paul Magnussen

Posts: 1805
Joined: Nov. 8 2010
From: London (living in the Bay Area)

RE: Transcribing piano to guitar (in reply to Filip)

It’s a non-trivial job. To play a lot of piano music on one guitar as it stands, you need to be able to stretch about 15 frets. So you have to take the melody-line down an octave; but then it tend to collide with the bass line. So maybe you have to transpose it to another key. And this is just the start.

I seem to remember John Williams’s saying at some point that Miguel Llobet’s were some of the best piano transcriptions, and I certainly agree; so it might be worth taking a look at how those were done.

Two guitars are much easier, of course. For the past few years, Bèrben have publishing Alexandre Lagoya’s transcriptions. Those would be worth a look, too.

Hope this helps.

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date May 16 2019 15:54:02

SephardRick

Posts: 358
Joined: Apr. 11 2014

RE: Transcribing piano to guitar (in reply to Filip)

Like Paul said it is very time consuming and most of the piano music that's on the internet by individuals, I find are inaccurate.

In the classical vein I've tried converting Philip Glass music from piano music to guitar. But, minors, sevenths, sharps, etc. don't always convert over musically for the guitar because of errors by what the individual thinks he/she is hearing.

IMHO it best to buy published arrangement for the piano and convert them to guitar yourself. Just be ready to dedicate yourself to the task for weeks on end.

_____________________________

Rick

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date May 16 2019 16:19:47

szvarga

Posts: 58
Joined: Mar. 11 2019

RE: Transcribing piano to guitar (in reply to Filip)

Hello Filip, interesting question.

Once I tried to arrange Chopin piano music to guitar. The main problem I faced, in guitar there are four fingers on one hand to sound notes, on piano, there are ten fingers (six is easily available) and two independent hands. On piano one can get four-five octaves easily, on guitar even more than two octaves are problematic.
Therefore on piano one can play even four independent melodies at once, or six-eight note harmonies. It's nearly impossible to achieve on guitar.

This is the maximum I can get: a fair implementation of the main melody line, with a correct but mostly simplified bass line, and one or two harmony notes from the original chords which I can play on the fretboard between the two main lines.

The result was a recognizable but very poor sounding implementation of the original. It was a very interesting challenge, but I found too much difference in the two instrument to make a valuable result. And I still feel the same, listening to other arrangements from piano to guitar.

Sz

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date May 16 2019 16:24:03

szvarga

Posts: 58
Joined: Mar. 11 2019

RE: Transcribing piano to guitar (in reply to Paul Magnussen)

quote:

Two guitars are much easier, of course. For the past few years, Bèrben have publishing Alexandre Lagoya’s transcriptions. Those would be worth a look, too.

Yes, arrange for two guitars makes much more sense.

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date May 16 2019 16:33:36

Ricardo

Posts: 14806
Joined: Dec. 14 2004
From: Washington DC

RE: Transcribing piano to guitar (in reply to Filip)

I did a well tempered clavier thing in high school... two guitars with the guy playing left hand part tuned low E string down to Eb

Paco said about chick corea... the guy has two guitars, one in each hand!

_____________________________

CD's and transcriptions available here:
www.ricardomarlow.com

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date May 17 2019 11:43:13

Filip

Posts: 403
Joined: Apr. 23 2006
From: Paris

RE: Transcribing piano to guitar (in reply to Filip)

That are some great tips and thoughts, thanks guys.

I could imagine, and also after trying it for myself a bit I can see that (at least if we're not talking about some very simple pieces) the task is very difficult, quite time consuming, and even unsure to be finished (I mean, even if I invest hours and days and get the first part well, I see I might get into dead end with the following parts). Tricky business :D

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date May 17 2019 22:19:13