Storytellers Pack

Lessons

• Lesson 1: I Miss You

  Randy Newman is an American singer-songwriter, arranger, composer, and pianist known for his non-rhotic Southern-accented singing style, early Americana-influenced songs, often with mordant or satirical lyrics, and various film scores. 

  His career earned him 22 Academy Award nominations (2 wins), three Emmys and seven Grammy Awards. He was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2002 and to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2013.

  I Miss You, taken from his 9th studio album ‘Bad Love’ (1999), is probably his most personal song ever, written about/for his ex-wife. 

  He performs it on a piano, as he usually does, and this lesson shows a way how to play it on guitar. The fingerpicking arrangement is a mixture of his playing, as well as some of his vocal melody lines. 

  The original recording is in the key of D, but we break down the many chords and fingerings for each part of the song in the key of C, where the guitar is capoed on the 2nd fret. We also take a close look at the right hand as in how you could fingerpick your way through it, as well as how I personally might do it. 

  We break down the progression, which has a few twists and turns, with for example a couple of time signature changes, in particular in the intro.

  Please take note that it isn’t a beginners song, and one must be generally comfortable fingerpicking.

• Lesson 2: Hold On For Your Love

  Hold On For Your Love is from John Hiatt’s recent album Dirty Jeans And Mudslide Hymns. It is a great example of a simple strumming song that uses a basic chord progression, powerful lyrics and vocals, and shows why he is such a respected songwriter and musician. This lesson is done in our ‘Work It Out’ style that has the student working on ear training so do not print the attached chart until you have listened to the first few segments.

• Lesson 3: Taxi - Guitar Lesson

  Harry Chapin burst on the scene with his storytelling songs in 1972 with his album Heads And Tales. Taxi was the lead single (at almost 7:00 long!) and is a big part of his legendary status among songwriters. This only set the stage for dozens of other great songs in has all too short career. This lesson goes over everything you need to play a solo version, accompanying your singing of course. There are a lot of chords and a lot of different right hand techniques, including arpeggio picking, finger strumming, the invisible pick, and country strumming to name just a few. There is even an instrumental transcription of the cello modulation that happens early in the song.

• Lesson 4: Cat’s In The Cradle - Guitar Lesson

  *Cat’s In The Cradle*by Harry Chapin, is the only song of his that became a #1 hit, partly because most of his stories were to long to be radio-friendly. The song started as a poem by his wife Sandy, about her prior husband’s relationship with his father and when Harry and Sandy’s son Josh was born, Harry turned it into one of the most wrenching songs of all time. The guitar is played with a capo at the 7^th fret in the lesson (although the original was at the 8^th ), using very basic chords and fingerpicking. The lesson addresses a couple of different accompaniment techniques that the student should already be familiar with.

• Lesson 5: Nexus - Dan Fogelberg - Guitar Lesson

  In 1981 Dan Fogelberg’s album The Innocent Age was released, and included two of his big hits, Leader Of The Band and Same Old Lang Syne.
  
  Nexus was the lead track from the album and a popular request for a lesson here at TG. It is played in Dropped D Tuning and starts with a slow, free-time intro, followed by some very fast fingerpicking. The lesson is mostly taken from live versions around 1997, the way Dan played it on a 12-string.
  
  Part 4 goes over the verse to Nexus. The tab just shows the bass notes that need to be played while keeping the rapid fingerpicking going.
  
  After each pair of verses Dan goes into a little interlude that is pretty much the same as the introduction except that it stays in time with the verse. Getting the timing right in the opening measure can be challenging as the best way to get the effect Dan gets with the 12-string is to strum down hard, six times in the measure, getting the feel for the quarter note triplets.

• Lesson 6: Leader Of The Band - Dan Fogelberg - Guitar Lesson

  This emotional song from Dan Fogelberg’s 1981 album The Innocent Age has been a fingerpicker’s favorite since it was released. It also has been near the top of our Recommend A Lesson list for a very long time. This lesson goes over the progression and the picking details for all the parts, as well as the arrangement and thoughts on changing it up a bit.

• Lesson 7: Longer - Dan Fogelberg - Guitar Lesson

  This beautiful ballad by Dan Fogelberg is from his 1979 album Phoenix. It is played in Open G Tuning using easy chord shapes. The lesson covers Dan’s arpeggio picking, playing the chord progression in standard tuning, some chord analysis related to open strings in open tunings, and a segment on the arrangement and how to follow repeat signs and text repeats such as D.S.S. al Double Coda.

• Lesson 8: Highwayman - Jimmy Webb - Guitar Lesson

  Like most songs by Jimmy Webb, Highwayman became better known by other artists. In this lesson we go over Glen Campbell’s 1979 version and the version that named the group The Highwaymen, an occasional gathering of Johnny Cash, Kris Kristofferson, Willie Nelson and Waylon Jennings. There is a segment to listen and try to figure out yourself, as well as segments on strumming it like The Highwaymen and fingerpicking it like Glen Campbell. The fingerpicking arrangement is not covered very specifically other than the intro, so a bit of proficiency in Travis Picking is necessary.

• Lesson 9: I Still Can't Say Goodbye - Chet & Tommy Emannuel

  I Still Can't Say Goodbye was a song that became one of Chet Atkin's signature songs shortly after he recorded it in 1988 on his C.G.P. (Certified Guitar Player) album. Shortly before he passed away, in 2001 he asked Tommy Emmanuel to continue playing the song as it was very important for people to keep hearing it. This lesson looks at both arrangements; Chet's is a little more basic and Tommy's more ornamented and a little more complex.

• Lesson 10: Streets of London - AcousticGuitar Lesson

  Streets Of London, written by English folksinger Ralph McTell in the late 1960s is a great example of a fingerpicking accompaniment to a somewhat simple chord progression. This lesson focuses on altering your picking patterns and creating your own, continually through the song.