Guitar Quartet

Quartet In A Major For Guitar And Strings-1 Free Sheet Music by Robert C. Fox for Various Instruments | Noteflight

Quartet In A Major For Guitar And Strings-2 Free Sheet Music by Robert C. Fox for Various Instruments | Noteflight

Quartet In A Major For Guitar And Strings-3 Free Sheet Music by Robert C. Fox for Various Instruments | Noteflight

Quartet In A Major For Guitar And Strings-4 Free Sheet Music by Robert C. Fox for Various Instruments | Noteflight

Oops, not orchestral or large ensemble...forgive me, I'm new!

The piece that got me back into writing music, this past December...

Movement 1 - 

Just commenting on the guitar. 

- must show fingering and hand positions with notation. There are several moments where I had to try and figure out things, and when I did, sometimes the chords worked but felt awkward. I write tablature with notation, it helps and I don't have to show positions and fingerings. Sometimes I'll write fingering if it's weird. 

- in general, the guitar strumming sounds very parallel 5th heavy, to me it clashes with the string writing. Parallel octaves and fifths don't sound bad on guitar, but they just jump out in the midi. Maybe it's just that, dunno. Some of the chords could have smoother voice leading, it seems like you were rooted with open chords. 

- bar 2, last chord doesn't work (mistake?)

- bar 8, why not have the pedal A? 

- bars 13-16, you do this a few times, but check the voices. You tend to drop or add voices freely between chords, and it gives a choppiness to me

- bar 18, why the different Bb shape?

- bar 49, first chord sounds out of place

- bars 75-77, voices again

- bars 85-87, because my hands are too big, I can't play that C barre chord on the A string (my finger mutes the high e), I have to play in on the E. When I got to bar 87, it took a minute to realize I couldn't play it there and had to be on the A string. I would've omitted the top note if I were the performer. Just an example of why positions in the notation are very helpful.

- bar 90, let any of these ring?

- bar 99, impossible chord

- bar 107, last chord sounds out of place, it's a jarring transition

That's all that popped out at me, hopefully this helps your writing!

2 hours ago, Thatguy v2.0 said:

Movement 1 - 

Just commenting on the guitar. 

- must show fingering and hand positions with notation. There are several moments where I had to try and figure out things, and when I did, sometimes the chords worked but felt awkward. I write tablature with notation, it helps and I don't have to show positions and fingerings. Sometimes I'll write fingering if it's weird. 

- in general, the guitar strumming sounds very parallel 5th heavy, to me it clashes with the string writing. Parallel octaves and fifths don't sound bad on guitar, but they just jump out in the midi. Maybe it's just that, dunno. Some of the chords could have smoother voice leading, it seems like you were rooted with open chords. 

 

- bar 2, last chord doesn't work (mistake?)

- bar 8, why not have the pedal A? 

- bars 13-16, you do this a few times, but check the voices. You tend to drop or add voices freely between chords, and it gives a choppiness to me

- bar 18, why the different Bb shape?

- bar 49, first chord sounds out of place

- bars 75-77, voices again

- bars 85-87, because my hands are too big, I can't play that C barre chord on the A string (my finger mutes the high e), I have to play in on the E. When I got to bar 87, it took a minute to realize I couldn't play it there and had to be on the A string. I would've omitted the top note if I were the performer. Just an example of why positions in the notation are very helpful.

- bar 90, let any of these ring?

- bar 99, impossible chord

- bar 107, last chord sounds out of place, it's a jarring transition

 

That's all that popped out at me, hopefully this helps your writing!

 

 

Cool!  I'll make the corrections eventually.  This thing was written pretty fast, and I actually like the folk-like first position chords!  I do less of that in the Symphony-Concerto because I really took my time writing that back in 1997-1998, four months or so.  Had a manual of all possible chord inversions until my sister's crazy boyfriend borrowed it and didn't give it back!  When I write lighter guitar music, I do those first position chords when the guitar is in a merely accompanying role.

Thatguy, some things I won't take your advice on:  of course I will correct impossible chords, but fingerings and hand positions essential?  Not standard in historical classical guitar music.  The dropping of the pedal A because I wanted to; just contrapuntal reasons.  I'll see when I feel like editing, which is not now! 😆  

By the way, here is an example of what classical guitar can be, if one wishes to be so complicated!  Villa-lobos was quite the virtuoso on the thing...I have no desire to be so complicated!

FWIW, here is one of my own comments I just found and remembered from another piece of mine:

Sin boldly is the ancient maxim. If you are going to break that "classical" rule of no parallel fifths, do it deliberately, and do not write them in pure counterpoint! I don't mind first position Rock or Folk chords in the guitar when it is merely accompanying, replete with parallel fifths on the bottom; people are used to that sonority, but when I write a fugue or real counterpoint, of course I avoid them. HOW does your music SOUND?

On 9/14/2025 at 9:07 AM, Churchcantor said:

FWIW, here is one of my own comments I just found and remembered from another piece of mine:

Sin boldly is the ancient maxim. If you are going to break that "classical" rule of no parallel fifths, do it deliberately, and do not write them in pure counterpoint! I don't mind first position Rock or Folk chords in the guitar when it is merely accompanying, replete with parallel fifths on the bottom; people are used to that sonority, but when I write a fugue or real counterpoint, of course I avoid them. HOW does your music SOUND?

 

Hey there!

Those were just some things that stood out to me, I'm just some rando on the internet haha. The beauty of being the composer is you get the choice of taking other's thoughts how you please, it's ultimately your music 🙂

Cheers buddy

Thank you!  I'm going to fix those unplayable chords, but this is like salon music; light!  I'm also going to enter anything I write, choral pieces found in boxes, but I think you guys want pretty clean threads, I might be used to more random forums.  I'll try to watch that!  This Ukrainian young man thing, that is my main focus this fall, not music, and thank you for making me feel welcome here!