Guitar Lesson 28: Songwriting and arranging part two

In guitar lesson 28, Dan and I look at how to arrange and develop the song we began to look at last lesson.  We thought it would be useful to develop the guitar parts of this song and look further at how to arrange it.  With lots of suggestions to support songwriters, we particularly focus on lead-ins, harmonising vocals and guitar parts, palm muting and using intervals to create dynamics.

• 3:30 Guitar parts and arranging
• 7:05 The opening riff and building in dynamics by doubling parts
• 9:45 Remember to strip back for the verse to make the chorus big
• 10:25 Lead-in, harmonised vocals & palm muting – The Foo Fighters, Pretender
• 13:50 Breaking up the verse to allow the song to breathe
• 14:30 Some ideas for skinnying the riff out
• 15:30 Thicker notes on thicker strings or more strings
• 16:00 Using intervals to harmonise two guitar parts
• 20:00 Quick recap
• 25:10 Developing a spacious and pretty guitar part for the verse
• 30:20 Tremolo pedal effect to create shimmery tone
• 32:10 Developing the chorus part
• 33:30 Explanation on the tweaking of the rhythmic part
• 37:00 Coming up with some lyrics for the chorus
• 38:40 The result of Dan’s lyric and chorus
• 40:15 Alice in Chains type harmonies
• 41:30 Final thoughts on songwriting in general
• 47:45 Prince as a songwriter
• 50:30 Discussion about Tune in Tone up and a reminder to get in touch

Keep listening for more great lessons and ideas from Tune in, Tone up! Another lesson coming up on songwriting soon along with the start of some additional content in which we interview guitarists and musicians following a standard set of useful questions….

We really appreciate all your support and engagement,

Gary and Dan – Tune in, Tone up!