Canyon de Chelly, Wedding Piece

[Sherry C]

Howdy MG,

Originally Posted by mgj32

The reasons I have fooled with it so much are two. First I added the violin I wished we had had. Second, though I believe I have the general tenor of the guitar accompaniment, I have had an awful time finding out for sure what the range of a guitar is, let alone that there are alternate tunings, the most frequent of which seems to have the lowest note tuned to the second E below middle C. The highest, as played, note seemed to be the B above middle C. This was several years ago, and I finally decided to use a harp. Recently, I thought I'd give the guitar another try and readily found many midi files using Composer's search feature. I went through them until I found one with E3 as the low note and F7 as the highest note, but since it was in the treble clef, the as played note would have been F6, which was not quite high enough. It was at about that point that I decided that I rather liked the harp/guitar combination, though I can't say I've ever heard them together in a situation where they function, in a way, as the same instrument.

Actually there is such an animal as a harp-guitar(!) (see John Doan's website http://www.johndoan.com/ - I've heard him play and he's the guy you want for your piece.) They can be beautiful instruments to hear, when played well, as no doubt yours is here For the range of guitars, you can use alternate tunings on a "standard" size guitar or play it on something like a requinto, which is generally tuned a fourth (or fifth - can't remember which) higher than "standard" tuning. But a harp guitar would probably meet your needs nicely

I still love this piece - thanks for sharing it's growth with us

ttfn,
Sherry

[adrianallan]

Hi

Nice piece

I just noticed one place where the guitar was too low - bar 38 the low C.

Of course the guitar sounds an octave below written pitch - the pitch you have shown. Given that the low C is just too low - below the bottom E string.

Sometimes we use the vocal tenor clef, with a little 8 on its tail to make clear that the notes will sound an octave lower.

Hope this helps

[mgj32]

Hi Adrian,

The C in bar 38 has been corrected. Many thanks for noticing it. After I decided to keep the harp, I found out about the drop-D and drop-C tunings, but decided to leave them alone, rather than working out what the implications might be for the rest of the piece. I've seen the 8 often on the treble clef in guitar music, but most often it must be assumed that the notes sound an octave lower as played. I've also seen pieces with both a treble and bass clef, where the bass clef seems to be written as played.
best,
mgj

[mgj32]

Hi Sherry,
Thanks for the URL. It is too bad that the bride's maid didn't have one of those in her trunk. Have you ever seen a sound font sampled from one?
best,
mgj

[Sherry C]

Howdy MG,

Originally Posted by mgj32

Thanks for the URL. It is too bad that the bride's maid didn't have one of those in her trunk. Have you ever seen a sound font sampled from one?

I've never seen (nor heard) a soundfont of one. I'd imagine one could create one from melding a guitar and harp font, but it probably wouldn't have the resonance effect of the real deal unless you worked very hard at creating that resonant harmonic ring. Kind of like a hammered dulcimer. I've only found one hammered dulcimer font that I thought really captured that resonant tone very well.

ttfn,
Sherry

[mgj32]

Hi Sherry,

I am going to leave Canyon de Chelly alone, but find myself wondering what the guitar and harp would sound like playing the same notes for the same durations, with probably a lot of volume adjustment, mostly but not entirely making the harp much less loud than the guitar. I'll let you know what happens.

best, mgj