lessons | building fingerstyle arrangements



Acoustic Guitar Solo Fingerstyle Basics

Former Acoustic Guitar music editor Andrew DuBrock is an author, transcriber, engraver, and musician. His video series Acoustic Rock Basics can be found at AcousticGuitar.com, and he is the author of the book Total Acoustic Guitar. More information on DuBrock’s books and videos can be found at www.andrewdubrock.com, and his self-produced CD can be found at www.dubrock.net. DuBrock lives in Portland, Oregon, with his wife and children

In this lesson DuBrock explores the development of a simple melody into a complete fingerstyle arrangement, using the traditional tune "Greensleeves" as an example. To hear the examples, you need the RealPlayer plug-in. For help on this or any of our lessons, visit the Lessons Forum at Guitar Talk.

Enjoy your lesson, and check out the instructional book/CD, Acoustic Guitar Solo Fingerstyle Basics.

Find out more about Acoustic Guitar Solo Fingerstyle Basics.

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Tune up
Intro

Unless you’re Mozart or Beethoven, you probably don’t find complete symphonies floating around in your brain. But you might experience nifty single-note melodies that come to you while you’re showering, doing the laundry, or perhaps eating a particularly tasty chocolate bar. Turning these melodies into complete fingerstyle guitar arrangements isn’t as hard as it may seem, especially if you break down the process into several steps. In this lesson we’ll look at how to build an arrangement of a melody from the ground up by working on the traditional tune "Greensleeves."

KNOW THE MELODY

Although you may be able to whistle the melody backward in your sleep, it’s always good to determine where a tune lies on the fretboard so you don’t plunge headfirst into a dead-end arrangement. Make sure you learn the piece with all the correct notes, because it is harder to unlearn a mistake than it is to learn the song correctly the first time. Example 1 shows the melody of "Greensleeves" in root position. Play it through several times before moving on to the next step.

Example 1


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© 2002 String Letter Publishing, Inc., David A. Lusterman, Publisher.