Originally Posted by
Mark Gunter
The singer/songwriter gigs can be pretty easy, or can be really tough, depending on how your partner plays and what he’s doing. It can be really tough to accompany a “troubadour” who prefers loose ballads and doesn’t establish a steady rhythm. If, on the other hand, he is laying down a rock-solid rhythm with his guitar it can be relatively easy. In the latter case, you can be free to play rhythm, play arpeggios, play the melody line, play fills between vocal phrases, noodle around in the pentatonics, etc.
If the guy is more of a lone troubadour who relies mostly on his vocals and plays loose with the rhythm, you have to be very careful not to step on him with your own rhythm playing in order to avoid awful clashes. In that case, the challenge is to be able to augment him with fills, melody, maybe some arpeggios and basically flavouring with lead work. The better you know his material the better you can add to it without being too bored or repetitive. It’s just tougher when you can’t very well fall back on your rhythm playing.
There are a lot of excellent resources available these days including zoom & Skype lessons from great teachers and pros. It’s always best to have a clear idea of your goals when engaging with a teacher. In your case, I’ll repeat that the better you know your partner’s material, the more you’ll gain from any tutoring in the long run. Learning or refreshing on the basics can always be good, and learning music theory and general exercises will be fruitful for pretty much anyone, but learning to complement original material … there are a lot of variables to consider.
Pete Martin is a member here who offers online lessons, as many do, but in addition he has numerous free courses via video and written material, including a course on practical music theory for mandolin and a course on learning to improvise. There are threads on these here in this section, he adds more to them occasionally, check them out and see if maybe they’re a help to you.
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