You’re Allowed to Change the Notes

How Classical Guitarists Can Become Arrangers

Here's something classical musicians sometimes need permission to hear:

You're allowed to change the notes.

This is especially true when you're playing an arrangement.

Recently, a student of mine was learning an arrangement of Londonderry Air. Some passages felt awkward under the fingers.

There was a good reason.

The arrangement had originated from music conceived for piano.

So rather than continually fighting the guitar, we asked a different question:

What if we changed the arrangement?

The Score Isn't Always the Music

When adapting music from another instrument to guitar, choices have already been made.

A pianist might comfortably play a melody, bass line and several inner voices simultaneously.

The guitarist has six strings and four left-hand fingers.

Something has to give.

An arranger therefore decides:

What should stay?

What can disappear?

Which octave should this note occupy?

Can this chord be revoiced?

Can this bass note move?

Those decisions are already part of the arrangement you're reading.

So why can't you make some decisions too?

Start With What Matters Most

If a passage is awkward, ask:

What is essential here?

Usually, you'll find some combination of:

Melody.
Bass.
Harmony.
Rhythm.

Not every inner note necessarily has equal importance.

Try removing one.

Does the music still communicate?

Try a different inversion.

Can you keep the melody while using a simpler chord underneath it?

Could you move the passage to another position?

Could three notes communicate the harmony just as effectively as five?

This isn't necessarily "making the music easier."

It's arranging.

But You Need to Understand the Harmony

This is where theory suddenly becomes wonderfully practical.

During our lesson, we started identifying the chords underneath the melody:

C major.

A minor.

D minor.

G7.

Then we found more interesting things: inversions, seventh chords, diminished sevenths and secondary dominants.

Once you understand the harmonic function, you're no longer imprisoned by one particular voicing.

If the score contains a difficult G7, you don't necessarily need that G7.

You need a voicing that fulfils the musical purpose of the G7 while preserving whatever other elements are important.

That might give you several possibilities across the fretboard.

Then We Deleted the Accompaniment

This is where the lesson became particularly interesting.

Instead of continuing to modify the existing arrangement, we removed the harmony and kept essentially the melody.

Then I asked my student to harmonise it himself.

Guitar in hand.

No elaborate composition process.

Just:

Here's the melody. What chord could go here?

He started experimenting.

C major.

A minor 7.

D minor 7.

G major.

Different inversions.

Different melody notes on top.

Some choices worked.

Some didn't.

Some produced sounds neither of us had initially expected.

And within minutes, he'd begun creating his own arrangement.

This Is Where Theory Becomes Creativity

This is the part of music theory I'm most interested in.

Not simply:

"Can you identify a secondary dominant on an exam?"

But:

Can you use one?

Can you hear what happens if you substitute a chord?

Can you find three different ways to harmonise the same melody note?

Can you choose a voicing because you prefer its colour?

Can you improvise an accompaniment while looking at a melody?

That's the bridge between theory and creativity.

And classical guitarists should cross that bridge much more often.

Try This Yourself

Take a simple melody you know.

It could be a folk song, hymn, Christmas carol or even a melody from a classical piece.

Write or print only the melody.

Then harmonise it.

Start simply.

If you're newer to harmony, restrict yourself to I, IV and V.

If you're more experienced, add:

• inversions

• seventh chords

• secondary dominants

• diminished chords

• suspensions

• chromatic bass lines

• chord substitutions

You can use Harmony Explorer to experiment with possible chords and voicings, but ultimately bring those ideas back to the guitar.

Then ask the most important question:

Do I like how it sounds?

The Londonderry Air Challenge

I'd love to turn this into a Creative Classical Guitarist community challenge.

Everyone receives the same melody-only version of Londonderry Air.

Your task:

Create your own guitar arrangement.

It can be extremely simple.

It can be virtuosic.

You can stay close to traditional harmony or take it somewhere completely unexpected.

The point isn't to discover the "correct" accompaniment.

The point is to discover how many musical possibilities can emerge from exactly the same melody.

Because that's one of the most exciting moments in becoming a creative musician:

You stop asking,

"What notes am I supposed to play?"

and start asking,

"What could I do with these notes?"