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Frequent visitors to the Dream Guitars website will be familiar with the excellent playing on the classical guitar demos of David Stevenson. In addition to being a skilled guitarist, David is also a superb classical guitar instructor, and an adjunct faculty member of the University of North Carolina at Asheville since 1987 and at Clemson University since 1994.
Just in time for the holidays, David has graciously provided this lovely arrangement of traditional music for the enjoyment of us all.
David explains:
Renaissance Christmas Medley
This lighthearted Christmas medley was inspired by the well known Tanz (dance) by Georg Fuhrmann. I first encountered the piece in the 1970’s from the series of period books by Frederick Noad, this one from the Renaissance collection. The melody is also now part of the Suzuki Guitar repertoire.
Tune the 6th string to “D” and for the majority of the piece you simply play the open 6,5 and 4th strings as the bass. In “I Saw 3 Ships,” an “A” chord appears at the end of the 3rd and 4th lines and I accomplish this with a partial bar on the 2nd, 3rd and 4th strings. You have to be careful to leave the 1st string open here.
On the final line of the piece this repeated bass pattern is replaced by dotted 1/2 notes. Beat 2 on the final line has the stem pointed downwards, but the note is played with the “i” finger. You may want to repeat the final line.
Enjoy! and Merry Christmas!
David Stevenson
Click here for the transcription and tablature.