Fingerstyle Guitar Accompaniment

This book is for the guitarist who wants to explore accompanying a singer, instrumentalist, singer-songwriter, or themselves on the steel-string or classical guitar. The chapters are short, concise, and understandable for anyone who plays the guitar and wants to work with another musician.

In chapters 1 through 13, the theoretical aspects of accompaniment are discussed: harmony, rhythm, transposing, meters, key signatures, melody, hooks, and basic arranging. Included are manuscripts and charts of songs that build riffs and hooks, intros - outros, moving bass voices, practical to alternative right-hand finger patterns, breaks, and the basic understanding of using and transposing with a capo.

Chapters 14 through 19 explore important arranging and performing concepts that may often be overlooked by the accompanist when it comes to working with a soloist. Detailed examples of guitar accompaniment are provided along with a discussion and manuscripts of complete duets.

All the examples are in standard tuning with a brief discussion about Drop-D and how to accommodate and adjust for the dropped 6th string when creating an arrangement.

In addition, the pieces appear in standard notation and tablature, so they are easily accessible to the guitarist. To facilitate performance, this book includes access to online audio of the accompaniment examples recorded by the author.

Preface

PART ONE

Ear & Theory

Note Names

Know Your Keys

Roots

Rhythm

Transposing

Pivot Chord and Simple Key Changes

The Capo

Basic Chord Substitutions and Altered Chords

Drop-D, Open and Altered Tunings

Charts

Finding the Melody

Moving Bass Lines & Right-Hand Patterns

PART TWO

Working with Singers and Songwriters

Staying Out of the Way of a Singer

Working with Instrumentalists

Duets

Accompaniment Examples

Accompanying Yourself