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Tips/Advice on arranging music for guitar?


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Posted

Hey guys.

 

I've been very drawn into my acoustic these last months (barely played the electric) and I've been also really practicing my fingerpicking.

 

And I like a lot of songs that I'd like to arrange for guitar; the rythm, bass and melody.

 

Any tips on how to approach it??

 

(I'm a total newb in arrangements :D)

 

Thanks!

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Posted

Melody is the first essential. Make sure you can play the tune correctly. (Sounds a bit "duh", but many guitarists think chords are primary...)

What else you do depends on the style of the song, or the style you want to play it in.

 

Playing with pick alone, you can probably fill in parts of the chords in gaps between the melody notes, keeping some kind of strumming rhythm going. Most melodies fit pretty well inside the accompanying chords, and you should have enough fingers to hold the tune and at least part of the chord. Make sure you hold any long melody notes and don't cut them off by going for other chord tones.

Experiment with the melody in different keys and different registers (octaves). Choose a key with the easiest chord shapes (think about using a capo too - and maybe even an alternative tuning!) Remember you could play the melody as a bass line with partial chord strums on top.

 

Fingerstyle, of course, offers more flexibility. (Hybrid picking too, but I don't do that.)

Play melody with finger(s) and add the bass with the thumb: start with chord roots at the start of each chord. Again, how you move from there depends on the style or genre. See if you can add other bass notes (other chord tones) on the beats between the roots - 1 note per beat. You need to have an independent thumb for this! (to play a steady rhythm on the thumb while keeping the timing of the melody.) This is what I'd call a "folk/blues" style.

A more classical/jazz technique would be to work out a bass melody to move with the main tune. You still begin with chord roots, but work out melodic lines to get to the next chord root. You don't need to use arpeggios for this, just the scale of the key. You can think about how each bass note harmonises with the tune at that point, but it's not crucial - as long as the line moves well and hits the chord root when it needs to, that's fine. With some chords you can put the 3rd or 5th on the downbeat, if it helps the bass melody.

Fancier arrangements involve filling in more of the chords between melody and bass. Inner lines don't require as much thought as bass - just the odd extra chord tone you can fill in works well. Just make sure the melody still sings out nice and strong, and don't get your fingers in a knot going for fancy jazz chords. But - if you want a jazz sound - feel free to add chromatic movement between chord tones: passing half steps in the bass, etc.

 

The use of different registers I mentioned earlier can be useful for adding variety. If you're going to play the tune through 2 or 3 times, you need to vary how you play it - so you could combine all of the above techniques. Even have a section where you improvise on the sequence.

 

As you may know, the whole jazz "chord-melody" style is dedicated to this: but if you're good enough technically to handle that, you probably don't need my advice... ;)

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Posted

Jon's answer is, as always, inspired. If you need some preliminary ideas, go to my youtube page and check out the solo guitar concepts mini-series i did.. (it isn't finished by a long shot, but there is enough there to keep you going for a while...)

  • Members
Posted

Hey guys.


I've been very drawn into my acoustic these last months (barely played the electric) and I've been also really practicing my fingerpicking.


And I like a lot of songs that I'd like to arrange for guitar; the rythm, bass and melody.


Any tips on how to approach it??


(I'm a total newb in arrangements
:D
)


Thanks!

 

First: Pick a good key to play the song.

 

Second: learn the melody. Be able to play it smoothly and musically in the key you've chosen

 

Third: Learn the chords to the song. Wherever the melody is on the guitar, find the chord that goes with it in that range.

 

Fourth: work on putting the two together.

 

Fifth: Practice it an unreasonable amount.

 

Sixth: Write it down and record it.

 

Seventh: Send me all the money you make from it.

 

No. Not really. :-)

 

Good luck!

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