Five public domain guitar pieces
Five classical guitar pieces whose copyrights have lapsed, free to perform and arrange. All five are included as sample songs in Tab Sketcher. Press "Open this piece" on each card to load the original transcription directly in the editor. Composer information and historical context are sourced from Wikipedia and IMSLP.
Romance (Spanish Romance)
- ComposerAnonymous, 19th century Spain
- KeyE minor / E major
- Time signature4/4 (original transcription)
- Chords usedEm, B7, Am, D7, G, E, A
Known as "Spanish Romance" or "Romance Anónimo". The composer remains unconfirmed; Antonio Rubira and Daniel Fortea have been suggested as candidates, but no definitive evidence exists. The melody likely originated in late 19th century Spain. Its global popularity dates from the 1952 René Clément film Forbidden Games, where it served as the main theme.
The piece is built around a tremolo pattern in which each melody note is plucked three times in rapid succession. The melody sits on the thinnest first string while the bass moves independently on the lowest strings, so a single guitarist projects two distinct voices at once. The work begins in E minor and modulates to E major in the middle section, sharing the same tonic.
Open this pieceGreensleeves
- ComposerTraditional (16th century England)
- KeyA minor
- Time signature6/8 (original transcription)
- Chords usedAm, C, G, Em, E
One of the oldest surviving English melodies. It was registered in 1580 in the Stationers' Register as "A new Northern Dittye of ye Ladye Greene Sleves". The popular attribution to Henry VIII is a 19th century legend; the actual composer is unknown.
The melody rides a flowing 6/8 pulse and alternates between minor and major shades through modal mixture. The natural and harmonic minor scales appear in turn, with the raised seventh giving a momentary brightness at cadences. The same melody also serves as the carol What Child Is This? in English-speaking countries.
Open this pieceLágrima
- ComposerFrancisco Tárrega (1852-1909)
- KeyE major
- Time signature3/4
- Chords usedE, B7, A, Em, Am
A short solo by the Spanish composer and guitarist Francisco Tárrega. Lágrima means "teardrop" in Spanish. The piece lasts about ninety seconds and is believed to date from around 1881. Tárrega is reported to have played it frequently himself.
The opening E major section is followed by a central passage in E minor, sharing the same tonic to create a sudden change of colour. Within its short span the piece concentrates left-hand techniques such as slurs, glissandi, and vibrato, and it appears in many beginner classical guitar method books as a study in two-voice coordination.
Open this pieceGymnopédie No.1
- ComposerErik Satie (1866-1925)
- KeyD major
- Time signature3/4
- Chords usedGmaj7, Dmaj7, Bm, Em, A7
The first of three solo piano pieces titled Trois Gymnopédies by the French composer Erik Satie, written and published in 1888. The title refers to an ancient Spartan festival for young men, though Satie's own connection of that word to the music is not documented.
A slow 3/4 pulse carries repeated major seventh chords (Gmaj7, Dmaj7) that step outside the functional harmony of the period. This harmonic ambiguity is often cited as a precursor of the Impressionist style later developed by Debussy and Ravel.
Although the original work is for solo piano, guitar arrangements are common. The metadata in the transcription used by Tab Sketcher includes the performance note "On repeat, artificial harmonics can be used to bring out the melody in the upper voice".
Open this pieceCanon in D
- ComposerJohann Pachelbel (1653-1706)
- KeyD major
- Time signature4/4
- Chords usedD, A, Bm, Bm7, G
- TuningDropped D (6th string tuned to D)
The first of two movements in Johann Pachelbel's Kanon und Gigue in D-Dur (P 37), composed somewhere between 1680 and 1706. The work remained largely unknown until Gustav Beckmann first published it in 1919, and only became widely popular in the second half of the 20th century, after which it became a regular fixture of films, advertisements, and weddings.
The original scoring is for three violins and basso continuo. A two-measure bass progression (D - A - Bm - F#m - G - D - G - A) repeats twenty-eight times as an ostinato, while the three upper voices enter in canon, each imitating the previous one two measures later.
The transcription included in Tab Sketcher uses dropped D tuning, with the lowest sixth string lowered from E to D. When the piece is opened in the editor the tuning label reads "Guitar Dropped D Tuning".
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