I've been searching all over for acoustic fingerstyle stuff to learn and I'm struggling to find anything I like or is within my limited ability (preferably both).
I used to learn a lot of stuff from Eric Roche's column in Guitar Techniques, for instance, like this -
So because I can't find anything, I thought I'd try to write my own instead, on the "If you can't hear what you like, create it" principle.
Where would I start? I know with songs there's the "Which came first, the words or the tune?" problem, and that's different for everyone, and even with experienced writers like Macca it can be different from day to day, according to interviews he's given.
But when you're not going to put words on it at all, what would you recommend? Work out a chord sequence that I can then start to break down into arpeggios, for instance, then build a riff from that and join them all together, or which I can use to put a melody over the top? Or think of a tune and then add little bits and flourishes to it as I go along, building it into a chord sequence?
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I'm the exact opposite of @spark240 there ...
For fingerstyle (my electric nonsense is different again ... I'm weird, sorry) I think it's melody first. That may be because the people who have taught me seem to take this approach too ... but I think that's correct in this context. Taking the melody, adding a bassline and then fleshing out the chords afterwards tends to lead me to more interesting chord progressions.
Adding "riffs" as such and percussion (I'm rubbish at this bit) then come at the end if it's needed.
Learning a few classical tunes can be helpful, many of the shapes can be used and taken in new directions. I got quite a bit of mileage from about 5 tunes and came up with things like this. I didn't start with a melody (as you can probably tell ), just meandered around various shapes until it sounded pleasing.
Anyway, thanks to you and to @spark240 and @menamestom for your thoughts as well.
Finger picked, easy enough to start with but enough challenge to make it interesting.
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With acoustic instrumental type things they tend to be thematic or incorporate some sort of technique I'd seen and liked.
For example, I saw a guy doing a long run featuring hammer ons in a shop and when I got home I thought I'd try something like that :
Or like Michael Chapman I like coming up with stuff inspired by the antics of my dog, which seem to suit acoustic blues type stuff.
It'd take me six months to come up with something like that.
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Enjoy !!