Essential Guitar for Songwriters

SW-116

This class introduces guitar technique, harmonic concepts, and rhythmic concepts supported by guitar performance specifically tailored to the working processes of songwriters. The class uses shape-based exploration of the guitar fingerboard to present concepts of theory and harmony and as a way to discover and generate surprising, novel musical material as sources of inspiration for songwriting. Each module advances specific guitar skills and techniques with attention to ease of movement, clean execution, efficient left-hand fingerings, and right-hand finger- and flat-picking patterns. This work is integrated with progressive introduction of harmonic concepts such as voice-led diatonic and modal progressions. Technical work is interweaved with the student's creative work, which is presented in short composition exercises for a song section, performed and evaluated in class, and culminates in several full songs utilizing voice-led progressions.

Credits
1
Prerequisites
None
Required Of
SONG majors not taking SW-115 or ILGT-115
Electable By
All
Semesters Offered
Fall, Spring, Summer
Location
Boston
Department
SONG
Course Chair
Rodney Alejandro
Courses may not be offered at the listed locations or taught by the listed faculty for every semester. Consult my.berklee.edu to find course information for a specific semester.