Castlevania 2 - Simon's Quest Medley - Guitar Tab

About Simon's Quest Medley

Pulling together several themes from the 1988 Famicom game into a single arrangement, Simon's Quest Medley is a rewarding challenge for guitarists who enjoy adapting chiptune music to fretted instrument. The source material sits in D minor, which lends itself naturally to a mix of brooding minor chord progressions and fast single-note runs. Because the medley jumps between distinct themes with different feels and tempos, the biggest difficulty is nailing each transition cleanly. Tracking down a good guitar arrangement of Castlevania 2 puts you in the world of Progressive Rock, where odd phrase lengths and abrupt key shifts are par for the course. The melodic lines often move quickly across strings, so isolating any passage that trips you up and looping it slowed down with the Practice Toolbar is the most efficient way to build the muscle memory before running the full medley up to speed.

• The arrangement spans multiple distinct themes, so clean transitions between sections are the core technical challenge to focus on in practice.
• D minor as the home key means most of the melodic runs and chord shapes sit in the natural minor and Dorian scales, which are worth reviewing before learning.
• Many guitarists use a touch of reverb and moderate gain to capture the haunting, organ-like tone of the original synthesized soundtrack.