I'm back on one of my favourite topics: the art of solo-style guitar.
I guess there are a myriad of start points when it comes to arranging something for solo-style guitar. Yes, I am assuming that it is an arranging exercise rather than a compositional exercise: that the essence of the piece already exists, whether it is well-known or not. So the first question is this: what information do we have as our start point from which to create an arrangement?
Of course, we are blessed with the internet in providing the answers to everything...to the extent that we don't have to work anything out for ourselves. But I do think it is useful to have the skills and knowledge to do so!
We may start out with very little information about the piece to be arranged. At the very least, surely that would be the melody - we must have some awareness of the melody of the piece. Such a quaint term but still relevant in the 21st century. In fact, I would go so far as to say that if the piece about to be arranged doesn't have a strong enough melody then forget it! That melody is surely the start point we need.
So...the melody may be presented to us in either the aural form or the visual form or both; which is even better. Let's suppose that is all we have. Now it might seem rare to hear a melody without anything accompanying it to provide vital theoretical clues but it could happen. In fact, it makes a good exercise - to piece together the theory from just the melody alone. If the aural presentation has more than the melody then fine - we still have to 'make sense' of all that information.
Regarding said melody, perhaps the first requirement is to impose a beat and a meter on it - a time signature/metrical pattern...assuming the melody is not free form or rubato. So...it has a beat - we must determine what that is; and what the metrical pattern is...assuming that it doesn't keep changing. To be honest, this kind of exercise is reminiscient of ear training exercises where one hears a musical line and then sense has to be made of it.
Beat and time signature is one thing: the scale/key that the melody alludes to is another but just as important - as this will influence our choice of harmony. Now here is a problem: if all we have is the melody then potentially we have no idea what the original harmony is. When it comes to harmonising melodies there are lots of possibilities but to one who has heard the piece before, arguably there is a definitive version. The more well known the piece, the more contentious it could become, adding one's own harmony that doesn't chime with the original.
Yes, it is certainly possible to discern the scale/key of a melody from hearing it alone. Again, this is ear training. Naturally it helps if there is visual information to back it up. In fact, having the visual information makes the whole exercise a lot easier. Presumably we are talking about notated music but it doesn't have to be. Notated music may reveal a key signature and any accidentals...all helping to build up a profile of the melody.
So I'll say it again: choose pieces that have strong melodies and indeed, start with the melody: make sense of it because you need that information in determing the right kind of harmony. Going about it in a trial and error way is not the answer and could be a bit tedious.
