Send in the Clowns

When I was very young, my Dad started learning piano when he was 36 and played for some years before losing interest. I barely remember him working on Send in the Clowns (but remember a little!) and thought it was pretty. Thankfully he kept his sheet music and when I was around 6, before I started taking piano lessons, I would sit at the piano and try to figure out how to play this song from memory and what I could decipher from the tiny knowledge I knew of reading sheet music. He gave me some tips, but the black keys really stumped me.
After some months of consistently dabbling with this and other pieces (like the opening bars of The Entertainer and Fur Elise), my parents offered to have me take lessons from a piano teacher who lived down the street. And so it began. Anyway, I’ve loved this song for as long as I can remember and is still one of my favorites.
Stephen Sondheim
Arr. (mostly) Christian Fuchs

[@leslielarsonandrus]

I played this song back when I took lessons around age 11. I have the music somewhere still but I know its quite old and faded and ripped up in places. I didn't know C Fuchs did this song! I'll have to go check it out now! You play it well!

[@rickrocketts183]

Thanks! I found his channel last summer and love his arrangements. I tweaked this version to closer match the melody of the lyrics and changed some octaves on the last page, but its 90% his arrangement.

[@leslielarsonandrus]

@@rickrocketts183 I found Fuchs 4 years ago while looking for the song "How Long Blues." I just love his songs and bluesy style. I don't always play them exactly how written but close.

[@rickrocketts183]

@@leslielarsonandrus I’d gotten bored of playing piano for a long time since i was classically trained I couldn’t figure out a good path to learn how to improvise until I found his channel. Thanks to his blues lessons and patreon page I’m well on my way. Plus he does all these great arrangements. Sometimes I’ll go looking for someone else’s arrangements and just can’t find a better version. Other folks tend to get “too fancy” and cram in too many notes and techniques and lose the soul of the piece. Christian is the man.