Ghost the Musical - Vocal Selections

[phantomcrazy14]

Posted: 4/3/13 at 10:14pm

I'm doing a song from this for my Senior solo and instead of paying $5.00 for one song on sheet music.com, I thought I'd just buy the book. However, this is the only one I found. It doesn't list the songs included, and also says that the melody is in the piano part and not the vocal part. Could someone explain to me what this means and if this book is legitimate? Thank you
http://www.amazon.com/Ghost-The-Musical-Vocal-Selections/dp/1458423271/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1365041651&sr=8-2&keywords=Ghost+the+Musical

[DooWahDiddy]

Posted: 4/4/13 at 12:50am

It's legitimate in the sense that it's a real book, and I'm sure it will be all you need as long as you have a decent pianist.

A lot of times when they release sheet music books (say, for example, for pop artists), the editors will weave the singer's melody into the piano part. This allows people to play what's on the page without singing, and the song is still recognizable because the pianist is playing the melody. Oh, that guy is playing New York State of Mind, hear that? Yes, I can hear how he's playing what the singer would normally be singing.

Well, sometimes you want to sing along. And when someone is singing along, the pianist needs to play something different. So they usually publish show books withOUT the melody in the accompaniment (i.e. the accompaniment more closely reflects what actually accompanies the singers in the show). For whatever reason, they decided against that here. Probably because of the Unchained Melody thing. By their line of thinking, I assume, they want people from the older generation to be able to sit around a piano, play what's on the page, and reminisce about the old days while they hear a song they remember.

All this is to say that a decent pianist should be able to work around all that. The chords will be above the melody, and if your pianist knows the song and can read letters, he/she can fake an arrangement to make it sound more like the recording. Because you don't want him playing the melody with you as you sing.

Hope this helps!

[dramamama611]

Posted: 4/4/13 at 5:04am

It will be exactly what you want.

[phantomcrazy14]

Posted: 4/4/13 at 5:51am

Thank you all for the help!

[tazber]

Posted: 4/4/13 at 8:00am

Many vocal selection reductions include the melody in the piano part. And it seems to be a new trend to publish both that version as well as just the piano accompaniment arrangement (Wicked, Addams Family, etc.).

Ghost only has the one book though. But when you rehearse with your accompanist I'm sure he/she will be able to help you tailor the arrangement to your liking using the chord notations.