This page of the website contains compositions of popular music written specifically for the SOLO guitar or arranged for it. The collection is regularly updated.
Solo, as is well-known, means «alone» or «on one’s own.» Therefore, any composition of this subsection is adopted for producing a full sound by only one guitar without the involvement of voice or other musical instruments.
Guitar Solo is a kind of activity that allows a guitar player to produce the full sound of a composition without the involvement of voice or other musical instruments. The full sound here shall be considered as an ability to produce three basic components of music – melody, harmony, and rhythm. In this case, the famous cliché, «The guitar is a little orchestra», should be understood as the simultaneous extraction of sound in several flows, each of which has its own function (e.g. pop-rock bands where each guitar has its own playing part: the first guitar produces the melody; the second guitar produces bass, and the third guitar produces harmony). This can only be possible if you extract the sound by means of fingers – the classical way of extracting the sound. Therefore, sheet music for the classical guitar and sheet music for guitar solo are considered one and the same.
In this subsection, you may find a wide range of compositions of popular music specifically written and arranged for the guitar. All sheet music samples, except the ones for my own (Andrey Nosov’s) arrangements from the rubric «Sheet Music + Tabs», for which I request a small payment, are available for listening, viewing and downloading.
All guitar compositions of this subsection are time-tested, have excellent artistic properties, and deserve the greatest attention from guitar players. The level of difficulty of the compositions is medium or higher. So if you are a beginner, you should probably refer to the compositions that are studied and analyzed within the training program (see Section «Guitar Lessons»). For now, my sheet music library is at your disposal. I wish you a pleasant performance, my dear colleagues!
Popular masterpieces… What else can give us a feeling of happiness and love and put us in a good mood? Many musicians try to create new hits (that’s what a popular composition is called when it has successfully appealed to a vast majority of the audience), but not everyone succeeds. Those who do create a hit, instead of answering the question “How did you do it?”, usually point at the sky and say, “With God’s help.” They certainly do it with God’s help, but there are still some more substantial reasons like diligence and knowledge, multiplied by the talent and the ability to lay bare one’s heart to nature and people. Just try to listen to the sounds surrounding you, and who knows, maybe you, too, will make your own hit — concentrated emotion and passion, expressed in a few minutes of sound.
Popular music for the guitar is a style that now draws a lot more attention from concert guitarists. And rightly so, for today’s concert programs should include not only classical music but song arrangements and soundtracks, as well. Compositions of such light genres should be added because, first of all, they provide the audience with the emotional release necessary to fully appreciate any classical music that follows (e.g. «Blue Canary», which will inevitably make the audience smile). Secondly, some popular masterpieces are almost indistinguishable from classics and therefore do not change the general tone of a «serious» concert (e.g. the soundtrack from Schindler’s List). Moreover, they allow you to show off your skills (e.g. «Tico-Tico no Fubá»). I believe the advantages are rather obvious (by the way, you can find all the above-mentioned compositions in the section «Guitarist’s Library»»Sheet Music + Tabs»). The only problem is that not all guitar players agree with this belief. They think to themselves, “How can I, a performer of Bach, stoop down to the level of playing pop music?” I assure you, you are not sinking to any lower level, but rather, you will get a chance to play popular compositions in a way that no one has before. Music materials and guitar adaptations are sufficient (I am talking about my own adaptations for which I am personally responsible) for achieving this goal, and there is certainly an audience waiting to hear this.
Guitar sheet music in the category «Popular music» can be DOWNLOADED FOR FREE. They are also available for preview and listening.
Tablature is absent in the compositions presented on this page. But the problem can be solved. Write to me, the email address you can find in «Contacts».
Andrey Nosov