Borrowing Rootsy Ideas to Generate “Americana,” a New Solo Guitar Piece

As a classical guitarist and composer, I normally play a traditional nylon-string guitar. But about four or five years ago, I received a beautiful steel-string—a Collings 01 12-Fret—and immediately felt so taken with its sound. It was like getting a totally different instrument. I have since spent a lot of time playing the guitar and getting to know its tonal nuances, and a different kind of music has been pouring out of me, including my solo guitar composition “Americana.”

I wrote this piece from my own classical perspective, rather than in an authentic Americana style, and set out to paint a picture of a landscape with a natural sort of pulse to it. I used simpler harmonies than I normally do—chords with a combination of fretted notes and open strings like you find in a lot of Americana songs. In this lesson, I’ll share how I put together the piece, with the hope that you will be inspired to use these ideas in your own tunes and accompaniment work. 

Variations on a Chord ShapeI composed “Americana” in dropped-D tuning (in which the sixth string is tuned down a step, to D from E) and started with an open shape in which the F# on string 4, fret 4, and the D on string 2, fret 3, are flanked by the open G and high E strings. This creates a pretty-sounding Dadd4 with the third, F#, as the lowest note, as shown in Example 1.

Next, I decided to add some sort of melody that would provide forward momentum. I fooled around a bit and the notes in Example 2 came to me. While keeping the chord shape held down with my second and third fingers, I added the melody notes on string 1 with my first and fourth fingers. 

The piece sounded pretty good so far, but I knew I needed to add some variety, and to do this, I came up with a subtle fingering adjustment that resulted in a colorful chord progression. As depicted in Example 3, I kept the Dadd4/F# held down, while I added different bass notes (E, C, and B) with my first finger. This resulted in some harmonies with fancy names—Em9, Cadd9(#4) and Gmaj13/B—even though the fingerings were simple. I also added the low open D string on another voicing for a big-sounding Dadd4.

I then applied a melodic treatment similar to the one used in Ex. 2 to the other chords—Example 4 shows my approach for the Em9 chord. Note that the root (E) only sounds on the downbeat, rather than ringing throughout the two measures, as the first finger is needed to play the melody notes on the subsequent beats. 

Fresh Harmonies, Traditional PickingWith that portion of the composition figured out, I set out to create a developmental section and introduce some new harmonies. I decided to move briefly to the parallel minor key (D minor), with a basic chord progression of Bb–Dm, which adds a hint of darkness. Since I wanted to use ringing open strings throughout the piece, I decided to use the D string here, and some voicings that are a little trickier to finger than those in the previous section, as they require completely different shapes (Example 5). It might sound a bit unusual, but I like it. 

As for the right hand, here and in the rest of the piece I stick mostly to a classic Americana or Travis picking pattern, with my thumb picking the down-stemmed notes on the beats and my index, middle, and ring fingers adding syncopated notes above. But using somewhat unusual chord voicings gives the pattern an entirely different feel. 

Putting It All Together Now let’s take a look at how all of the pieces fit together in a slightly abridged version of “Americana.” (You can see me play the whole piece on both my Collings and a Saers Guitars AF70 flamenco model on my YouTube page). The main theme appears in bars 1–26. To play it, remember to hold that Dadd4/F# shape throughout with your second and third fingers while adding the other notes with your first and fourth. Note the occasional bar of 2/4; be sure to keep the rhythm smooth and flowing in that part. 

The developmental section, a portion of which was seen in Ex. 5, happens in bars 27–34. Be sure to get all of the chord shapes in your muscle memory, as some may be unfamiliar, and try to switch smoothly between the different shapes. Playing the open G string at the end of bar 28 buys you a little time to get prepared for the change to Bbadd9 in the following measure. Notice how the music transitions smoothly back to the main theme via the most standard voicing in the piece, the V chord (open A7) in bar 32. 

I hope that in learning how I composed “Americana” you will see some new possibilities for your own writing and playing, no matter what type of instrument you play.