The Guitar Player's Resource
The theme from the 1978 horror flick Halloween was written by the movie's director John Carpenter, well, not written as much as played since he can't read or write a note. It was originally performed on piano and uses a 5/4 time signature which Carpenter learned from his Father Howard Ralph Carpenter, who was a music professor at Western Kentucky University. The song is credited to the Bowling Green Orchestra, an homage to the city his family moved to when he was 5 years old.
This arrangement is for fingerstyle guitar and is in the original key. I avoided using a key signature since the simple yet powerful melody modulates quite a bit to great effect. (ignore the tempo marking, I'm still learning how to use this blasted program.)
Happy Halloween!
Jeremy Rouse is a Toronto based guitarist who has played for Jesus Christ Superstar (with Ted Neeley) and the 30th anniversary tour of Cats.
Besides performing in the orchestra pit for musicals he has performed with The Big Smoke Big Band, The George Lake Big Band and Swing Shift in Toronto, and has also played with his own group Pre Season Draft, an instrumental Country/Spaghetti Western Swing group.
Rouse was featured on the cover of CMT magazine in January of 2001, and was the guest guitar columnist for Canadian Musician Magazine in February, 2001.
