Arranging Melodies for Fingerstyle Guitar: Stand By Me (Ben E. King)

So when you're first starting to arrange, the first thing I like to do is just to add a whole note monotonic bass line.

What do I mean by that? You know, if you were playing with a band, the other guitarist or piano player might play the chords.

So the melody was V, D, E.

They might sing, they might play the chords.

G is the first chord.

When the night has come.

But we, while we're playing solo fingerstyle guitar, we can't just strum the chords while we're playing that melody.

So the easiest thing to do at the beginning is just to add the root of the harmonizing chord.

So, you can play it with a whole note rhythm, so you're gonna hold that root for the entire measure.

The first measure, the harmonizing chord is a G, so when we play that B, D, and we play the E in the melody, we're gonna play a G in the bass.

That's E,

F, F sharp, G there.

It's a G chord again, even though nothing's written.

Three, four, now it's E minor chord, so we're gonna play an E in the bass.

Chord again.

C chord.

Got a C on the 3rd fret of the 5th string.

A, Bb, B, C.

Now we're going to a D major chord, but we can put an F sharp in the bottom.

You could put a D in the bass.

But I like to put an F sharp here.

It's the 3rd of the chord.

We'll talk about that more later.

Back to a G chord.

So I'll play that without talking.