Classical guitar pieces played on keyboard

[montunoman]

I have some pretty good classical guitar sounds on my keyboard and I thought it may be fun to learn some classical guitar pieces. Any recommendations for guitar pieces that can be realized on keyboard? Id like something Spanish sounding.

 

Thanks!

 

[timwat]

Niccolo Paganini's Caprice #5.

 

 

[Cygnus64]

Niccolo Paganini's Caprice #5.

 

 

Ummm, technically that's a violin piece.

 

[timwat]

Yes, I know. But apart from the shred wankers inspired by the Karate Kid and Steve Vai, I was thinking of Marco Tamayo's version:

[video:youtube]

 

Or, alternately, Anabel Montesinos playing Rodrigo:

[video:youtube]

[bluzeyone]

Django Reinhardt's music is a fun challange. So is Les Paul and Chet Atkins. I would say any guitar piece can be realized on the keyboard. Just let your amagination go and you'll be amazed with what you come up with. Guitar's 6 strings can be reproduced effectively with ten fingers.

[moj]

"Romance" is a classical guitar piece that I've played as a piano arrangement. Christopher Parkening's recording is where I first heard it.

 

Christopher Parkening's "In the Spanish Style"

[David Loving]

Spain - at least the intro

[Griffinator]

I would say any guitar piece can be realized on the keyboard.

 

Good. I eagerly await your rendition of "Mediterranean Sundance", by Al DiMeola.

 

If you require multitracking to produce the second half of the duet, that's fine, but it would be more impressive if you found a friend to jam it with you on a second keyboard.

[Griffinator]

Come on, man, you're not up to the challenge?

[zukskywalker]

Taking this a step further if I may, from a synthesist's area: Could Classical guitar pieces ever be played "tastefully" and "convincingly" at all? And if you could, isn't it always almost pointless? I had a little acoustic guitar training as a kid but favored keyboards instead and found the two to be like different universes. Now, with synth techniques and samples of course there's all manner of emulation available, and I have a handful, but I still can't get it "right" and it's just not satisyfing for me, dare I say...yet.

So I just call a guitarist.

Do any keyboardists enjoy "emulating" classical guitar?

 

[Cygnus64]

Taking this a step further if I may, from a synthesist's area: Could Classical guitar pieces ever be played "tastefully" and "convincingly" at all?

 

"Classical Guitar" pieces span an era of 300+ years. The baroque ones (Vivaldi, Giuliani, Handel etc) were written for lute or mandolin, but it was acceptable even then to play them on guitar. The classical period pieces were written for guitar, Boccherini wrote lots of music for guitar. These pieces could work on any instrument.

 

What you're assumedly referring to is the late romantic period. Those pieces really have a specialized technique, since many of the composers were actually guitarists. Those won't translate to other instruments as well. Different strings have different timbres. If you play repeated notes while alternating strings, the same note will have a different timbre. A piano or sampler can't do that it.

 

I would suggest the opposite: piano pieces played with guitar samples. It's the best of both worlds, it's a technique you are familiar with and you get to use your spiffy samples. There are lots of spanish pieces that you could investigate, it's a rather neglected area of the repertoire. Check out composers like Turina, de Falla, Granados, etc.

 

Here's a recording that might interest you, it will give you ideas of spanish composers played on piano. Some of these may work with guitar samples (as melody, for example), some not:

 

http://www.classicsonline.com/catalogue/product.aspx?pid=618320

[timwat]

I've always loved trying. But like any acoustic instrument, the real deal has so many unique articulations, embellishments and noise techniques that I could never get KB to be 100% convincing.

 

I think the old Sweetwater "Ultimate Guitars" patches had some articulation mappings that were about the closest I remember getting, and then there was some other KB that had harmonics mapped in the upper octaves (my memory's fading which KB) for nylon string that was fun.

 

Me, I've found that sparser playing is more convincing to the ear than busy. That old pop track "You Gotta Be" by Des'ree ("you gotta be bold, you gotta be bad, you gotta be wiser...") was a perfect example of a KB nylon string guitar fail.

 

So with classical guitar pieces, I'm skeptical a KB ever fools anyone "convincingly", but like the OP says, it's still fun trying. I don't think it's pointless...the exercise will build better dynamic technique, it will force you to think as another instrument (ALWAYS a good skill to build as a KB player), etc.

 

[montunoman]

Thanks for the suggestions. I know emualting acoustic instruments can sound cheesy but it's fun to try and often times it's required on all sorts of gigs.