Speedy has recorded the following CDs:
For each song you may click on a row to display a short description about the song. Click the Listen to play the song in your browser, or to download, right-click the Listen link and select "Save Target As...".
This CD, recording in 2006, illustrates the many styles of music that Speedy both plays and teaches. All instruments in all parts you hear were played by Speedy Beers.
| 1. | Waltz in the Park This is an original Jazz piece I wrote in the key of C minor. The bridge is in Eb, the relative major key. The melody is played in unison with the violin and guitar. There are improvised solos on violin and guitar. There is a rhythm guitar and a simple written bass part.
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| 2. | Sonate, Adagio This is a Sonata by Arcangelo Corelli. I recorded only the preludio (Adagio) of this Sonata. The guitar part is more difficult than the violin part. I am working on recording an album of all classical guitar and violin. |
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| 3. | Denis Murphy's Slide This is an Irish Jig. The melody is played with violin and guitar in unison. There are several choruses of improvisation. The guitar part is a simple chord accompaniment. |
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| 4. | Teach Me to Walk in the Light The violin parts are all arranged. The guitar is a simple chord accompaniment. |
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| 5. | Blues on Strings This is an original blues composition. Violin and guitar solos are all improvised. The back up guitar and bass are improvised parts. |
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| 6. | Old Joe Clark This is an old time fiddle tune with a simple back up guitar part. There is lots of fiddle jammin. |
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| 7. | Till There Was You This is what jazz players call a standard. The introduction is guitar playing chord melody. The rest of the piece is a trade off between violin and guitar playing melody and improvisation. |
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| 8. | Dark Eyes This piece is a Russian Gypsy song. The introduction is solo violin played in a cadenza style. The introduction is not a written part. It is memorized ideas played randomly and deliberately. There is one small section that is robbed from a Mozart violin concerto cadenza. The melody is played on the violin with guitar chord backup. The middle section is improvised melodies in a violin gypsy style. |
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| 9. | Recuerdos The complete title is Recuerdos de la Alhambra. This is a solo classical guitar piece. Some people think it sounds like two guitars playing. It is only one guitar playing during the entire recording. |
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| 10. | Lament The complete title is "Lament on the death of Sor Blanca Maria". This is a piece from Scotland. The melody is played on the violin. The improvisation is played in a weeping gypsy style. The guitar is played in a classical chording style. |
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| 11. | Sanei-O-Darya This piece is a Persian piece. The title means "Ocean and Beach". It was described to me as the composer sitting on the beach watching the waves hit the shore. All parts are written parts. There is no improvising on this recording. The guitar is an arranged chord part. |
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| 12. | La Concheperla This is a Peruvian tune (a song from Peru). The title means "the shell pearl". The violin part is melody plus a chorus of improvisation. The guitar solo is a mix of melody and improvisation. There are two rhythm guitars, one is a classical chording style and the other is a flamenco strum with a tap on the guitar on the last two beats of the 6/8 time. The Bass is a written part. |
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| 13. | Misty This arrangement is a chord melody piece played on solo guitar. This is an original arrangement and recording of this piece. |
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This CD is currently being recorded. Below are samples of the tunes that will be on the final CD. Check back for additions to this section.
| 1. | Misty This jazz standard was originaly written by Erroll Garner in 1954, and bacame the signature song of Johnny Mathis, and covered by numerous artists such as Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan and Frank Sinatra. |
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| 2. | Girl From Ipanema This well-known bossa nova song was a worldwide hit in the mid-1960s and won a Grammy for Record of the Year in 1965. It was written in 1962 by Antonio Carlos Jobim with Portuguese lyrics by Vinicius de Moraes. English lyrics were written later by Norman Gimbel. |
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| 3. | Till There Was You This tune was written by Meredith Willson for his 1957 musical play The Music Man, and also appeared in the 1962 movie version. The Beatles' version was included on their early UK/US albums in 1963/64, and was the only Broadway tune that the Beatles ever recorded. |
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| 4. | Autumn Leaves This was originally a 1945 French song "Les Feuilles mortes" (literally "The Dead Leaves") with music by Joseph Kosma and lyrics by poet Jacques Prévert. Yves Montand (with Irène Joachim) introduced "Les feuilles mortes" in 1946 in the film Les Portes de la Nuit. The American songwriter Johnny Mercer wrote English lyrics in 1947 and Jo Stafford was among the first to perform this version. Autumn Leaves became a pop standard and a jazz standard in both languages and both as an instrumental and with a singer. |
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| 5. | A Foggy Day This song was composed by George Gershwin, with lyrics by Ira Gershwin, and introduced by Fred Astaire in the 1937 film A Damsel in Distress. It was originally titled "A Foggy Day (In London Town)", and is often still referred to as such. |
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| 6. | Over The Rainbow Over The Rainbow (often referred to as "Somewhere Over the Rainbow") is a classic Academy Award-winning ballad song with music by Harold Arlen and lyrics by E.Y. Harburg. It was written for the movie The Wizard of Oz and was sung by Judy Garland in the movie. Over time it would become Garland's signature song. |
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