Arranging Fingerstyle Songs Guitar Lesson

Building Blocks for Solo Fingerstyle Arrangements
Intro

We’re going to really roll up our sleeves and get to work in this series of lessons. I want to give you a set of tools and a logical thought process that you can use to either create or cover (steal) solo fingerstyle arrangements. We’ll look at the components of fingerstyle arrangements and learn how to use them.

Fingerstyle is a broad category, all the way from Travis or Atkins thumbpicking to folk/pop arpeggios and strums, to classical guitar pieces. Regardless which one, the foundational components are the same.

Prerequisites

To get the most value from this series, you should already be comfortable with the following terms and techniques:

- Chords and chord shapes. At the very least, you should know the first position (or open position) chord shapes such as, C, A, G, E, D, B7, Am, Dm, Em.

- Keys. You should be familiar with the basic I-IV-V and relative minor chords in simple keys such as C (C,F,G, Am), A (A,D,E, F#m), G (G,C,D,Em), E (E,A,B,C#m), D (D,G,A,Bm). See Exercise 1 in the tab for a review.

- Scales. You need to be familiar with the names of the notes in first position – especially able to identify the root note of the chords. See Exercise 2 in the tab for a review. Also knowing the names of the notes on the 1st and 6th string all the way up to the 12th fret is important.

 Basic Components
1. Melody
2. Chords
3. Rhythm (groove)

Melody First!

Here are a few notes on melody!

- The melody of a song must be firmly fixed in your mind. You should be able to hum or sing the melody line even before you can play it on the guitar.

- Recognize the “span” or “range” of the melody. Does it stay within a few notes of the root note? Does it span more than an octave? This will help you choose a key to play it in. The smaller the span, often times the more key choices you have. The larger the span, the more limited you will be.

- If the song has lyrics, the range of the vocalist is the biggest driving factor for choosing a key. If not, you can choose a key based on where the melody is most accessible.

- Experiment with playing just the melody in the easiest key first – C. This will give you a feel for the melody range we talked about.

- In order to finish selecting the best key, we need to discuss chords, and more importantly, what melody notes are available around each chord.

Melody Notes with Chords

Chords provide the mood and color behind the melody. One of the aspects of fingerstyle is providing the chord backdrop at the same time as the melody is played – on the same instrument. If you think about it, this means that the melody must go along with – and yet stand out from – the chords.

In order to do this, we have to discuss right hand technique at the same time as we look at the chords and melody notes.

To start with, let’s create a rule we’ll break later. Let’s say that the lowest strings, 6, 5, and 4, belong to the right hand thumb. The higher strings, 3, 2 and 1 will be played by the right hand fingers. So, when the melody notes are on the highest three strings, being played by the fingers, we’ll rely on the thumb to provide the chord backdrop on the lower three.

Use the tab in Exercise 3 for exploring ways of fingering single melody notes while filling in with chords around them. You will find that while there is a core “shape” to the chord, you will sometimes have to make modifications or leave out a string or two occasionally to make it work.

This is not a “musical” exercise. It’s not going to sound great. Keep in mind your goal, which is to explore and visualize chord shapes and where you can find nearby melody notes with the least amount of contortion to the basic shape.

Rhythm

After finding a key that will work for your melody and chord combinations, the final job is to figure out a right hand technique that will convey the “groove” of the song.

This is where fingerstyle branches into many different styles and techniques. Let’s look at two common ones.

1. Alternating thumb. Also known as Travis picking, Chet Atkins style, thumbpicking, or “boom-chuck”, this is where the thumb carries the bass and rhythm feel and the fingers play the melody.

2. Carter style. Also known as frailing or folk-style. The idea is that the thumb plays the melody notes, while one or more of the fingers strums the chords on certain beats.

There are other variations on these, depending on the groove of the song and whether the guitarist intends to carry a full sound of melody, chords and rhythm all together, or if a less complicated sound is sufficient.

A Look at a Sample Song

Let’s work on a simple song that demonstrates this idea of melody notes around chords. I chose Wildwood Flower because we can use two different right hand techniques for this one.

Notice that when playing the Verse, the thumb is carrying the melody. The fingers are used to provide the chord backing on some beats.

When we get to the Chorus, the thumb changes to a Chet Atkins-style alternating bass and the fingers carry the melody.

Putting it all Together

Using this process and these techniques, you can cover or arrange many tunes in fingerstyle. Let’s review the sequential process you would follow to do so:

1. Internalize/memorize the melody.

2. Play just the melody in a simple key such as C, to get the feel for the melody “map" or range.

3. Experiment with the melody combined with different chords until you find a key that will work.

4. Find the right hand “groove” that the song requires.

5. Put it all together and practice, practice, practice!

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