Whats the difference between sheet music for lead guitar and sheet music for piano?

Question

I was trying to get some free sheet music the other day and I found the same song written differently for paino and guitar, but yet I could play them both on the Guitar so am wondering what the difference is and whether I could by a book of piano music and play this on my guitar?

Answer 1

Most of my piano music translates perfectly to lead guitar. You play the treble clef (right hand)...which is usually where the melody line is on piano music.

The only time it's an issue, is if the melody is taken up in the bass clef line (left hand) and dropped or merely augmented in the treble clef line (right hand). That really doesn't happen all that often, and you'll hear it when it does. Just look into the bass clef line, at that point, and see what they've done. You should be able to figure it out.

So, other than that rare little bobble....you should be fine.

Simple answer is...yes, you should be able to buy a book of piano music and play it with your guitar. Most of my piano music books say "piano guitar vocal" on them, and have a distinct and separate lead guitar line.

Good luck!!

Answer 2

guitar notation is written an octave above the pitch that the guitar actually plays. It's written on 1 staff I believe, It's been a long time since I've used musical notation, I usually just learn by ear. A lot of guitar sheet music will be written in tablature, which is a lot easier to understand for the guitar because it's logical and functional, rather than musical notation that will cause confusion because most notes on the guitar can be played in more than one place. tablature also provides a means whereby you can represent things like bends, vibrato, upstrokes, downstrokes etc, which musical notation does not. the best way is to be able to play nearly anything by ear (the only thing I can't play by ear on the guitar/bass guitar is the really fast solos because my brain cant process where the notes are fast enough), that way you don't need to buy expensive sheet music. using headphones is a good way to do this because you can hear things in music that may get buried when you listen through speakers.

Answer 3

The piano is arranged to play both the melody (right hand/treble clef) and the chords or bass line (left hand/bass clef)

The lead guitar only has to play the right hand bit...the melody. The bass guitar and rhythm guitar play the left hand bit...or something similar to it..

This is a very simplified explanation of how it all works. A simple arrangement for the piano will translate to the guitar but very complex music will probably have the melody going between left and right hand ie. between treble and bass clef so this could be tricky.

Answer 4

Some arrangements sound better on one or the other? Also, there are definitively songs you can play on a piano that you can't play on a guitar, and vice versa.

Answer 5

The difference is in the c-cleff and base cleff or put it more simply, your right hand and left hand. So in following piano music you would be using the upper or c-cleff arrangement and not the lower base cleff arrangement.

Sincerely yours,
Fred M. Hunter
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