Most Americans are familiar with the 16th Century Dutch melody "We Gather Together," if not by the title alone, then almost certainly by the time someone hums a few bars. Written in 1597 by Adrianus Valerius, the tune began as a song celebrating a Dutch victory in a cavalry battle with Spanish forces, then went through lyric translations to Latin, German, and English before becoming the well-loved traditional Thanksgiving hymn here in the States.

We guitarists can appreciate the melody being available to us as shown here in the key of G. By keeping the melody on top, or making the melody the highest note of each chord, we can create a chord- melody solo arrangement that simply states the beauty of the piece. Add embellishments to taste. I like a little brown sugar and cinnamon with my sweet potatoes. Click on the solo guitar version to hear an example of the piece played simply, followed by a second time around with embellishments.

I've presented another take on the piece in the form of the guitar quartet arrangement shown here. One of my top ten favorite days as a Berklee faculty member occurred when I brought this arrangement to my office, which was next to Berklee Professor Jon Damian's office at the time. A student of his was just leaving as one of mine was arriving. There we were- four guitarists! Parts in hand, I asked if they all might have a minute or two. Seconds later, we were all crowded into Jon's office sight reading the parts. So much for having trouble getting an arrangement played.

The first section is four-part close harmony of the piece as written. You can refer to the chords on the lead sheet to see how I arrived at the voicings. The second section presents variations on the theme. I wrote a new melody over the existing chord changes and let the other voices dance around it rhythmically while staying within the harmony.

I suggest trying the parts out with three friends; pass them around until you've each had a turn at all four parts. Another great way to practice, of course, is to record yourself playing part 1, making sure you use a metronome or click track, and then adding the other three parts yourself. You can hear my recording done this way by clicking on the 4-part version.

I hope you enjoy this new take on a Thanksgiving tradition, and have a wonderful holiday filled with joy and gratitude.

Bookmark this article with:

          

Stumble It!     Share on Facebook      Delicious

With roots in both jazz and folk worlds, Jane Miller is an active guitarist, composer and arranger. In addition to leading her own jazz quartet, she is in a working chamber jazz trio with saxophonist Cercie Miller and bassist David Clark, for which she contributes many compositions.

Jane became a frequent guitarist with the internationally acclaimed singer-songwriter SONiA, of the group Disappear Fear and has performed with the versatile bassist Tony Markellis of Trey Annastassio's band.

An associate professor in the Guitar Department at Boston's Berklee College of Music, Jane completed five original tunes and five arrangements of standard pop and jazz tunes for solo guitar and performed them in recital at Berklee in September, 2005. The repertoire she created for this recital is now on file in the Berklee Guitar Department Library. Jane lives in central Massachusetts with Betty, her yellow Labrador retriever.

To learn more about Jane Miller, please see her website at: www.janemillergroup.com