“Fish Named Beanie (Solo Guitar)” is an unexpected guitar arrangement of a tune I originally composed specifically for a steel tongue drum - NewWave 15 by Kosmosky.
I know that many people enjoy this piece, and I wanted to make it accessible for guitar players as well. Buying a completely new instrument just to learn one song can be a bit too much, especially for those who mainly follow my guitar music.
On top of that, I do not even know how to properly notate this kind of music for steel drum, so creating a guitar version felt like the most natural solution!
This arrangement is designed for a completely normal guitar. There are no Schlagwerk drumming add-ons, no detuning systems, and no unusual mechanical requirements, just a sweet open tuning and a more traditional fingerstyle approach to percussion.
I even recorded this version on my Baton Rouge Alex Misko Signature Guitar rather than the Frankenstein Guitar, to show that the piece can sound beautiful and complete on a standard instrument.
At the same time, the arrangement still contains a lot of interesting detail. You will find various types of harmonics, kick and snare drum techniques, and many passages that require a precise and controlled touch. Even so, I believe this is one of the more accessible pieces on the album, which was exactly the goal behind this version.
Some sections had to be changed quite drastically compared to the original steel drum composition because of the different nature of the instrument, but overall the arrangement remains faithful to the spirit and character of the song.
I am very excited to hear your own guitar versions of “Fish Named Beanie”. All techniques, changes, and performance details are explained thoroughly throughout the tablature with precise text descriptions.
This is one of the most detailed and carefully notated tabs I’ve created. The tablature is provided in Guitar Pro 7 and PDF formats, and the package also includes the album version of the track in WAV format.