The Guitar Classroom
  • Home
  • Beg Guitar (A)
  • Beg Guitar (B)
  • Classical
  • Rock & Piano
  • Guitar Ensemble
  • Chamber Music
  • Contact

Picture

Guitar Ensemble  


   "I am a music teacher in the Brazilian public school system. I have been rehearsing your ensemble pieces for about a month now with my advanced students in Rio de Janeiro, and we all love them! I wanted to express my profound gratitude for your work in arranging these pieces. Not only are they very  well arranged, but they are also extremely didactic. Thank you so much and I hope to honor these pieces with great performances!" – Regards, Alan Orlandi, Brazil



    "I want to thank you and congratulate you on your wonderful compositions, arrangements, and guitar curriculum. My high school guitar ensemble have performed Tango, Moon Rising, and Long Road Home and your arrangement of In the Hall of the Mountain King. The pieces are appropriate for high school students, challenging, and musically fulfilling." – Steven Sabet, Music Teacher, Thomas Jefferson Arts Academy

        "Your ensemble arrangements are fantastic and accessible - a tough combination!" – Tim Locke, Oakwood Collegiate Institute, Toronto, Canada


    "My dream was to teach my students to play as a group. I tried it once, but the pieces that I used were either too hard or too easy and uninteresting...that is, until I found your work on the internet. I am so enthusiastic with your work! Your website is so organized with extremely nice music, arrangements, and of course,  your compositions.   Soooooo, I tried to use some of them to see how it would work for my students  My students were suddenly inspired by the new music!  Thank you so much for the flame that you put in my heart. – Manos Miriagos, Thessaloniki, Greece

Ensemble Library

You are free to download/print and perform these pieces, with some *restrictions. (Bottom of this page.)


I hope you find the works below both interesting and useful to your guitar ensemble. If so, ​please consider subscribing to The Guitar Classroom YouTube Channel and 👍 the videos you view. Doing this simple gesture significantly increases the visibility of this website, allowing  others to be aware of and benefit from the free materials here. Your support in this way is much appreciated ! ​🙂

🎄 While being appropriate for any concert setting, these pieces also work well in a Christmas/Winter concert.

BEGINNING QUARTETS​ 

Ode To Joy (beethoven)
arr. Lou Warde
Score & Parts
Finale (Saint-Saens)
Score & Parts
Finlandia (Sibelius)
Score & Parts
Be thou my vision (Trad. Irish)
Score & Parts
Here is love (TRAD. welsh)
Score & Parts
yosemite (WardE)
Score & Parts

​INTERMEDIATE - ADVANCED DUETS & TRIOS

GYMNOPÉDIE NO. 1 (SATIE)
PDF
TWO-PART INVENTION NO. 1 (J.S. BACH)
PDF
Cibel (Jean Baptiste Loeillet)
PDF
ORIENTAL (ENRIQUE GRANADOS)
PDF
A LITTLE FUGUE –Trio (WARDE)
PDF
Suite for two (Warde) 2019
​The three pieces that make up this suite were intended to be performed together, as a set.  Below is a pdf of  the set. However, for those who wish to perform individual pieces from the set, I've made separate the scores and parts for your convenience, which will be in the corresponding cells.
Suite For Two
          1. Suave
1. Suave
          2. You are me
2. You Are Me
          3. cirCUS PARADE
Circus Parade
ave maria (F. schubert)
Below are two versions of this arrangement. The "1st Position" version, is perhaps slightly easier since it incorporates open strings, but as a result, it is less warm and expressive than the other version. 
Ave Maria
1st Postion Version
South American Duets & Trios
I discovered these duets hand-written and without any fingerings. I transcribed and edited them only.  Below, I've placed them generally in order of difficulty, starting at a beginner level to beginning/intermediate level.

1. Chanson Indienne

2a. Cholita (Duet)

2b. Cholita (Trio)

3. A Que Has Venido

4. Carneirunho

5. Cururu

6. La Llorona

7. Caminito de la Sierra

8. Quisiera Que Se Muera

ARRANGEMENTS FOR QUARTET

three Songs from Great Britain

The three pieces that make up this collection,  Dacw 'Ngharia, The Water is Wide and Scarborough Fair, were intended to be performed together, as a set.  For your convenience, I've made a singe pdf of the three scores with  parts. For those who wish to perform individual pieces from the set, you can download (and listen to) these pieces below.

Score & Parts
        1. Dacw 'Nghariad (Wales)​
Score & Parts
         2. The Water is Wide (Scotland)​
Score & Parts
        3. Scarborough Fair​ (England)
Score & Parts
CAROL OF THE BELLS (M. LEONTOVYCH)🎄

Trad. Carol by Mykola Leontovych, arr. Lou Warde

Score & Parts
CHORALE (J.S. BACH)🎄

from St. Matthew Passion, BWV 244, arr. Lou Warde

PDF
AIR (J.S. BACH)

from Orchestral Suite No. 3 in D Major, BWV 1068

Score & Parts
IL EST BEL ET BON (PIERRE PASSEREAU)🎄
Score & Parts
HABANERA (GEORGES BIZET)

​from Carmen, Act I, arr. Lou Warde

Score & Parts
IN THE HALL OF THE MOUNTAIN KING (GRIEG)
Score & Parts
GYMONOPÉDIE (SATIE)

​from Peer Gynt, Suite I, Op. 46, No. 4, arr. Lou Warde

Score & Parts

GUITAR QUARTET & STRINGS (Warde)

Mama's Lullaby (2017)
GUITAR QUARTET & VIOLIN or cell0
Score & Parts
MUSIC FOR A LOONIE (2018)
GUITAR ENSEMBLE AND STRING SYMPHONY
Commissioned by the
Vancouver Symphony Orchestra School of Music
for its Orpheum Showcase Concert, June 24, 2018

This commission was written specifically for a beginning to intermediate string and guitar ensemble. From a technical perspective, this piece should be manageable for a 2nd – 3rd year high school or college string and guitar ensemble.

The performance in the above video was taken at a much slower tempo than I intended. Below is a recording with guitar quartet and sampled strings at the appropriate tempo.
Score
Guitar Parts
String Parts

​NEW INTERMEDIATE – ADVANCED QUARTETS  (Warde)

bella (2016)🎄
Score & Parts
Parts w-Tabs
first snow (2016)🎄
"I love how subtle First Snow begins and then increases in complexity like wind throwing the snow around."   – J. Petri
Score & Parts
tango for four (2016)
Score & Parts
Étude (2016)
This piece works well towards the beginning of the second year as a study focusing on two areas:
1.) Playing a melody note (with a rest stroke) and bass note  at the same time. 
2.) An introduction to playing out of first position.
Score & Parts
long road home (2016)
Score & Parts
"We performed Long Road Home in a competition earlier in the year and our performance was described as ‘hypnotic beauty’. Thank you so much for the inspiration." – ​Richard Monks, U.K.
spanish garden (2016)
Score & Parts
november (2016)🎄
Score & Parts
Moon rising (2016)
Score & Parts
GESTURES suite (2018)
Gestures is a collection of four miniatures for guitar quartet, each less than two minutes long. The imagery and feelings that  each piece evokes in me are very poignant, and I was going to title each piece accordingly. In the end however, I didn't want to influence the listener's own visual and emotional reaction, so, I kept the titles neutral.

Obviously, being a suite, these four pieces are intended to be performed together. Of course, you have the option to perform them separately. To accommodate that, I provided the score and parts for each piece, rather than one file containing all four pieces.​
      1. march
Score & Parts
      2. Passacaglia (2016)🎄
Score & Parts
      3. Waltz
Score & Parts
      4. Rhapsody
Score and Parts
Sunset paradise (2019)
Score & Parts
Six Bells (2019)🎄
Score & Parts
Wind & Willows (2020)
Score and Parts
Dance de montebello (2021)

In Memory of Bob Croghan

Score & Parts
Shades of Green (2021)
Shades of Green
she dreams of argentina (2021)
Score & Parts
A thanksgiving (2021)
Score & Parts
Blue Mango (2022)
Score & Parts
volo (2022)
Score & Parts
galya's dance (2022)
Score & Parts
Teta (2022)
score & Parts
balips (2022)
Score & Parts
the rocks cry out (2023)
Score & Parts
Green Pastures, Still Waters (2023)
Score & Parts
The last trumpet (2023)
Score & Parts
THEme & Variations (2023)
Score & Parts
spicy guacamole (2024)
Score & Parts
Swan Song (2024)
Score & Parts
Prelude to Act 6 (2024)
Score & Parts
Rollers (2024)
Score & Parts
Ebb and flow (2024)
Score & Parts
A Hummingbird in my garden (2024)
Score & Parts
As far as i can see (2025)
Score & Parts
 Pirouetté (2025) 
Score & Parts
 PIng pong (2025) ​
Score & Parts
*You are free to download and/or print these scores and parts and are encouraged to perform these works.  However, like any of the material on this website, you are strictly forbidden to repost, publish (distribute) or sell this music in any form or context.  If you video record your performance of any of the compositions or arrangements on this or the Chamber Music page, you are free to share that recorded performance on social media platforms, such as YouTube, and free to receive monetization.  However, if you intend to video or audio record any of this music with the intention to distribute and receive royalties from it (sell it)  in any format, including CD, digital platforms and streaming media services, such as Spotify or iTunes, or, if you plan to sync it, or any portion of it, with film, gaming or other interactive media, you must first contact me to obtain a license.  Thank you. ​
Picture
Proudly powered by Weebly
  • Home
  • Beg Guitar (A)
  • Beg Guitar (B)
  • Classical
  • Rock & Piano
  • Guitar Ensemble
  • Chamber Music
  • Contact