“While She Sleeps”

The printed music for “While She Sleeps” is sold as an individual transcription. According to Billy McLaughlin, “the technique involved in ‘While She Sleeps’ is a take-off on what a piano player does: for me, my left hand is playing melody and my right hand is playing the bass line. The effect is to create an independence of the parts. Once I put together the left-hand melody and its harmony, I began experimenting with the right-hand bass line: the melody was fun to play but the piece needed form and it became clear that the bass line could drive this structural issue. The same melody could be presented with different bass lines. And intensity could build as the bass line began to move more quickly.” This transcription contains was developed from the audio recording Fingerdance (Narada, 1996, ND 61058). Billy has also recorded “While She Sleeps” on his independent release, The Archery of Guitar (Proton Discs, 1993, WCM-102).