Final Fantasy Guitar Sheet Music

I’ve recently bought some Final Fantasy guitar sheet music. There’s a lot of published music for the series, but most of them are for piano (the same is true for other games). I could use those since the entire OST is available, while other instruments only have a select number of pieces from the entire series. Why did I buy the guitar books then?

First and foremost, I wanted to play on a guitar or other stringed instruments. Second, I’m already familiar with the arrangements for most piano books. I’d have to arrange the pieces for the instruments I want to use. While this can be an interesting exercise, I just wanted something easy to play. And I’m already familiar with a particular guitar book. I really liked the arrangements, so guitar books it is...

The book I’m familiar with is the Final Fantasy Guitar Solo Collection by Doremi. Not to be confused with the Final Fantasy Solo Guitar Collections by Dream Music Factory, which I’ll talk more about in a bit. I bought this one by mistake before ordering the one I wanted. There are four different books for the Guitar Solo Collection. I bought all of them to see what’s different.

Final Fantasy Guitar Solo Collection

Cover of Final Fantasy Guitar Solo Collection (2002)
Guitar Solo Collection, 2002
Cover of Final Fantasy Guitar Solo Collection (2010)
Guitar Solo Collection, 2010
Cover of Final Fantasy Guitar Solo Collection (Feb 2012)
Guitar Solo Collection, Feb 2012
Cover of Final Fantasy Guitar Solo Collection (Jun 2012)
Guitar Solo Collection, Jun 2012

The first book was published in 2002 by Doremi, and has 52 pieces from Final Fantasy I to X. The second page has a nice message welcoming you to the "new world of Final Fantasy" and a short bio of the arranger. The next page is a list of contents, and then you’re thrown straight into some sheet music. The last few pages are a catalogue of published Final Fantasy sheet music and CDs, and a beginner’s guide for reading guitar sheet music.

Here are the contents for this book:

The second book was published in 2010 and they added 13 pieces from Final Fantasy XI to XIII, bringing the total to 65 pieces. The rest of the book is very similar to the first, with some typographic improvements. The welcome message and the arranger bio got updated, the catalogue got removed, and the guide got replaced. Instead of a guide to reading sheet music, it’s something called Beginner’s Note for Acoustic Guitarman, where the author talks about the guitar in general. Newly-added pieces are a bit bigger and easier to read. I guess you could call this a second edition, since it’s just an update.

Here’s what was added to this edition:

The third and fourth books were published in 2012, only a few months apart. The third book has pieces from Final Fantasy I to IX and the fourth pieces from X to XIII-2, including Type-0. They include a CD performed by the arranger.

For the third book specifically, not much has changed from the first. Like the second one, it has typographic improvements and an updated welcome message. They removed the English names for Final Fantasy VI pieces, leaving only the Japanese titles. It includes the Beginner’s Note for Acoustic Guitarman at the end. Instead of being a simple split, some pieces got removed. The first book has 48 pieces from Final Fantasy I to IX, while this one has 41.

Here’s what got removed:

For the fourth book, it’s very similar to the third. They updated the welcome message again, and removed the guide at the end. It has the bigger and easier to read notation from some pieces in the second book. They added some pieces to Final Fantasy X and XI, besides adding music for the newer games. It has 29 pieces, with the updated total now being 70 pieces.

Here’s what was added to this book (only new pieces for FFX and XI):

Other than the changes mentioned above, the pieces apparently didn’t change at all between editions (unless I missed something). I didn’t really bother reading the beginner’s notes, but they’re apparently the same.

All the editions were arranged by Nobuyuki Hirakura (平倉信行). Born in Shinjuku, Japan in 1958. He has a guitar duo called Douze Cordes, with a Brazilian choro and Piazzola tango repertoire. He’s still active to this day participating in concerts, appearing on TV, radio, etc. He also released several CDs, and is the author of several guitar-related publications. He has an active online presence, and is available for teaching as well.

Here’s a video of him performing some classical guitar repertoire:

Tarrega: Adelita, performed by Nobuyuki Hirakura

He did a very good job at arranging the pieces for the guitar. They feel like they were written for the instrument. While I disagree with some decisions he made with regards to key changes, he still kept the spirit of the originals while being accessible to everyone. They’re also compatible with other instruments I’m using.

Overall, I really like these books. On top of a very good selection of pieces, they were all arranged to be playable with standard tuning and no capo. And while they’re accessible for beginners, the arrangements don’t feel like they’re lacking anything. They tend to focus heavily on the melody at first and add more harmony later. And this book has very little fluff. It’s just score after score and anything else is left up to the performer.

However, there are two things I have to mention before moving on. The first is the binding of the book. It doesn’t lay flat... At all. Such a shame that sheet music publishers still get this wrong to this day. Another is the size of the notation. It’s tiny, bordering on uncomfortable to read. They improved it later, but still didn’t revise what was published before that.

Final Fantasy Solo Guitar Collections

Cover of Final Fantasy Solo Guitar Collections Vol.1
Solo Guitar Collections, Vol.1
Cover of Final Fantasy Solo Guitar Collections Vol.2
Solo Guitar Collections, Vol.2
Cover of Final Fantasy Solo Guitar Collections Vol.2
Solo Guitar Collections, Vol.3

Now it’s time to talk about the Solo Guitar Collections by Dream Music Factory, which I ended up buying by mistake. First published in 2010 with no mention of volumes, it got two additional releases in the following years. I guess they must’ve gotten popular and they decided to publish more. They are arranged by Daisuke Minamizawa (南澤大介), which may be responsible for its popularity.

Minamizawa was born in Osaka, Japan in 1966. He composes music for planetarium programs, animes, games, theater and movies. Besides composing, he is also a performer, mixer, author of several guitar-related publications, and an online guitar teacher. While his composer side and other activities are unknown in the west, his online presence is well known among gamers worldwide.

Here’s a recent video of Minamizawa playing Final Fantasy:

Uematsu: Aerith’s Theme, performed by Daisuke Minamizawa

Minamizawa is the polar opposite of Hirakura when it comes to the arrangements. Hirakura made all the pieces feel like they’re guitar pieces. He adapted everything to the instrument, keeping everything accessible while giving his personal touch. Minamizawa on the other hand tried to keep everything close to the source material. It feels like he’s trying to adapt the instrument to the music, which feels weird most of the time.

Those books follow a similar structure to the Guitar Solo Collection. There’s an introductory message on the second page, and the contents listed in the next page. Following that, there’s a brief guide to reading sheet music for the guitar, and finally some music. After each piece, there’s a chord chart for the entire piece and some playing advice. The last few pages are a biography and a catalogue of other books, with the last one being credits and technical information.

The first volume has 26 pieces: 19 have alternate tunings, and 15 require a capo. Aerith’s Theme uses two capos at the same time. Here are all the pieces included:

The second and third volume were published in 2011 and 2012. The second one has 28 pieces: 22 have alternate tunings, and 23 require a capo. Shadow’s Theme uses two capos at the same time. Here are all the pieces for the second volume:

The third volume has 25 pieces: 13 have alternate tunings, and 13 require a capo. Here are the pieces for this volume:

Overall, I have very mixed feelings about this whole series of books. It’s hard to understand any decision that was made... The selection of pieces feels somewhat random. There’s no underlying theme behind the selection, and the difficulty of pieces is all over the place. Every volume has a few great pieces, a bunch of average ones, and some filler pieces.

The constant use of alternate tunings and capos is confusing for anyone not used to them, and irritating for those who just want to go through the scores. It’s hard to justify their use when a lot of the pieces are perfectly playable without them. The frequent use of capos also mean that all those scores can’t be used for other instruments, and accompanying anything is impossible without transposing.

For example, take the Town music for Final Fantasy II. Its original key is F Major and it changes to its parallel minor in the second part. Hirakura arranged the piece to E Major to make use of the lower E string for the bass. Minamizawa transposed the piece to D Major, added a Drop D tuning and put a capo on the third fret... The music is notated as D Major, but you’re playing it as F Major. F is the note on the third fret when you tune your guitar to Drop D.

Despite having on average 120 pages, there’s only around 25 pieces on each volume. The first Guitar Solo Collection book has 52 pieces and it has less pages than this book. All the chord charts and playing advice take a lot of space that could've been used for more pieces. They just get in the way, and with the difficulty of the pieces it’s hard to understand why they were included. They’re completely useless if you’re anything other than a complete beginner. And if you’re a complete beginner, you shouldn’t be playing pieces from these books.

On top of everything, the book has the classic binding problem and it won’t lay flat... I could keep going, but the conclusion is that I’m not really a fan of this series. There are very few pieces that are worth playing and even those aren’t free from the alternate tuning + capo thing that Minamizawa loves to do. I’d rather just have the most recent editions of the Guitar Solo Collection, even with some pieces missing.

What else is there?

With the guitar being very popular in Japan, it’s no surprise that there are more books for the instrument. I don’t own any of the books I’m covering here (yet), but let’s take a look at what’s available. I’ll also cover some ukulele books since I also play the uke and they picked my interest.

Shinko Music Entertainment books

Cover of Guitar Solo Best of Final Fantasy (2010)
Guitar Solo Best of FF, 2010
Cover of Guitar Solo Best of Final Fantasy (2014)
Guitar Solo Best of FF, 2014

The Guitar Solo Best of Final Fantasy was published by Shinko Music Entertainment in 2010 and it’s arranged by Yuji Toriyama (鳥山雄司). It has 25 pieces from Final Fantasy I to XIII. Got updated in 2014, this time arranged by Makoto Hongo (北郷真). It has 27 pieces from Final Fantasy I to XIV. While most of the pieces remained the same between editions, some got removed and new ones were added.

KMP books

Cover of Guitar Solo Final Fantasy Official Best Collection
Official Best Collection, 2008
Cover of Final Fantasy Official Guitar Solo Selection (2010)
Official Guitar Solo Selection, 2010
Cover of Final Fantasy Official Guitar Solo Selection (2014)
Official Guitar Solo Selection, 2014

The Guitar Solo Final Fantasy Official Best Collection was published by KMP in 2008 and it’s arranged by Yuji Sekiguchi (関口祐二). It has 25 pieces from Final Fantasy I to XII. KMP updated this book in 2011 and changed its name to Final Fantasy Official Guitar Solo Selection. It has 51 pieces from Final Fantasy I to XIII, including Type-0. It’s still arranged by Sekiguchi, who worked on the Guitar solo Square Enix Official Best Collection book in the same year. It got another update in 2022, this time with 64 pieces from Final Fantasy I to XV, including the Final Fantasy VII Remake. It’s arranged by Hiroyuki Funae (船江寛幸) this time.

Ukulele books

Cover of Final Fantasy Ukulele Solo Collections (2009)
Ukulele Solo Collections, 2009
Cover of Final Fantasy Ukulele Solo Collections (2014)
Ukulele Solo Collections, 2014
Cover of Final Fantasy Ukulele Solo Album
Ukulele Solo Album, 2014

Dream Music Factory published the first ukulele book in 2008, the Final Fantasy Ukulele Solo Collections. It has 31 pieces from Final Fantasy I to XII. It got updated in 2014. This new edition has 37 pieces from Final Fantasy I to XIV. Both editions are arranged by Kiyoshi Kobayashi (キヨシ小林). Also in 2014, Doremi published the Final Fantasy Ukulele Solo Album arranged by Nobuyuki Hirakura (平倉信行). The same guy who arranged the Final Fantasy Guitar Solo Collection.

Closing thoughts

I’m a huge fan of the music from the earlier games of the series and from FFIX. There aren’t that many pieces I like from FFVII, FFVIII, or FFX and beyond. For me there’s not much to dislike about the Final Fantasy Guitar Solo Collection, but if I had to buy just one book it’d definitely be the second edition. I miss the pieces that got removed from the 3rd edition and I honestly don’t care about most pieces that got added to the 4th edition.

The Final Fantasy Solo Guitar Collections feels like a poorly planned product, and I honestly haven’t touched it that much after buying it. Unless you’re a huge fan of Minamizawa’s arrangements, it’s hard to recommend them to anyone. I can’t comment on all the other books, but I’m really curious about some of them. Perhaps this article will get an update if I end up buying anything.