Many singer/songwriters like to accompany their vocals with a great guitar part, but when I come into contact with these people one of the most often asked questions has been, “How can I make my guitar accompaniments sound more interesting when I am singing?” While most readily admit to being a songwriter first and a guitar player second, their guitar skills tend to be neglected.

There are millions of different ways to accompany your vocals on guitar, but most need some musical knowledge and a healthy dose of practice. A couple of tips to rid yourself of this problem would be to focus a certain amount of time each day to some serious guitar study instead of solely on the lyrics. Songs consist of melody (normally the vocal) and harmony (the guitar backing part) together, so one needs to be equally good at writing both. If you aren’t good at both then writing in collaboration with someone who has good guitar skills could work well. Secondly, study the music of others that play in your particular style and take ideas from them............You can download the full lesson (pdf file - for your own personal use) here.

The Sibelius music notation and sound files are here.

Special Note: If you haven't got the "Scorch" reading program for Sibelius you will need to download it (it only takes a few seconds and the link is at the bottom of the page).

There are many other great lessons you can view here.