Writing a guitar tutor has been at the back of my mind for quite a while now. Based on a long teaching career, which began in the late 70s, and the 50 years of observation which goes with that, I felt there had to be an approach which could combine the best elements of classical guitar technique with what most pupils really want to do – play a song. So this is the result – a tutor based on the right hand techniques of classical guitar but with a left hand founded in chord shapes and structures. If what you would most like to do is play a song well with guitar and either sing yourself or support someone else singing this is the book for you. I began that way learning some folk songs from my father but also studying classical guitar at the Centro De La Guitarra Española. If you look on page 41 of the book that commemorates the history of that marvellous place in the Calle Montenegro 10, Palma De Mallorca you will see a young man holding a guitar in classical position but clearly singing at the same time. That was me at fourteen, underneath it says espontaneo meaning I was part of the ‘open mic’ section of that evening and on the next page you will see a collage of programs from 1969. In the middle is Dine At The Captain’s Table with Cap’n John James Salty (handwritten) English Ballads. That was my father and because he was a resident folk singer at the Centre I got free guitar lessons there. So I have always combined singing and guitar playing though I ended up in music college studying classical guitar. These days I only sing at my students – ask them!
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The Art Of Accompaniment is about singing and playing the guitar so it seemed appropriate to make some of the more than 300 arrangements I have done of popular songs available as scores. I have attempted to choose songs that will work well with just one guitar, some are easy some are not. Along with some of my own songs you can find and download them here at Hal Leonard’s Sheet Music Plus site – https://www.sheetmusicplus.com/publishers/dml/16085
I am happy to announce the publication of Six Simple Songs To Sing And Play On The Guitar. This is a companion volume to The Art Of Accompaniment On The Guitar using chords and right hand techniques you would have learnt from that book. The songs are, of necessity, out of copyright but you might be surprised to discover that House Of The Rising Sun and Sloop John B were both traditional in origin and are in this book. The book is available, along with my other publications on Amazon.
DML scores & publications
I have for some time now been publishing scores of all my arrangements and original compositions, mostly online for download. I began this while writing The Art Of Accompaniment On The Guitar during the first lockdown when I realised I needed very accurate scores to illustrate what I was talking about. The scores are very precise they show you exactly how to play the accompaniment on the guitar to get the results that I have had with singers such as Maria Ewing, Nicky Spence and Sir Willard White. They also include many purely instrumental arrangements but the same rules apply, if you want it to sound as it did in the early days of Acoustic Alchemy and then later with Kymaera you have to follow the part exactly. For this reason I don’t use TAB, it’s just not accurate enough from the guitarist’s point of view – if you disagree feel free to email or message me! If you get everything right it will sound the way it does on my recordings, then you can change it, if you wish, to your own version because you will have understood both the strengths and weaknesses of the guitar and how to play to one and avoid the other. Some of the scores are difficult to play, some are not, but they must be played as written, don’t cut corners to make it easier because you will miss the point of the arrangement. I have annotated all the scores very carefully to explain why I used a certain technique, if that is relevant to the piece, or how to use your left hand to get the right effect. Once you have mastered my arrangements please do develop your own. Nothing about music is set in stone it must flow freely and develop and change where necessary but don’t compromise; there are only two kinds of music – good or bad.
This is my publishing company which handles all my publications –
Designer Music Ltd (designer-music.co.uk)
My personal web site –
Designer Music, which trades as DML, our pages on Sheet Music Plus –
DML Sheet Music And Music Books At Sheet Music Plus
The same for Sheet Music Direct –
View DML Sheet Music | Sheet Music Direct
Finally original scores and out of copyright material can be found here on Score Exchange as well as the other sites –
The YouTube channel can be found using the link below. There is quite a lot of technical guidance available in the relevant sections.
The Art Of Accompaniment On Guitar – YouTube
There are over fifty scores you can download which include copyright arrangements, public domain arrangements and original compositions. There’ll be half a dozen more by the end of September, worth exploring.
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