The Trap (London Marathon theme) - guitar sextet

It's been a long time coming (much like the runners in a marathon!).

I've arranged Ron Goodwin's "The Trap" (theme from the film of the same name, but much more famous as the theme to the London Marathon TV coverage).

It suits 6 guitars, but a large ensemble makes a massive and more impressive sound!

From a guitar teacher’s perspective, this is a fantastic piece to show the Circle of Fifths in action - the music starts in G (1#), moves ninety degrees in one stride (pardon the run-pun) to E (4#), then another right-angle to C# (7#). C# is enharmonically equivalent to Db (5b), and it’s another right-angle to Bb (2b) and then back to where we started on G (1#). And if that isn’t enough, there’s one more right-angle to E again!

But isn’t C# so scary a key to play in that we can all give up now? Not at all. If you play the 4# section in the centre of the neck with no open strings, then for many of the parts in the arrangement, the C# section is pretty much the same fingering 3 frets lower. For those playing the less complex parts, who might want to stay in the lower positions, the music isn’t covered in fingering that takes players out of their comfort zone.

Click see/hear/buy (on the right)Tap see/hear/buy below for sample score & audio