How To Use Melody To Create An Unplugged Acoustic Arrangement Of An Electric Guitar Song

by Simon Candy

In this video, you learn a very cool approach for arranging songs for acoustic guitar, specifically unplugged versions of songs.

You are going to learn how to incorporate elements of the melody of a song into your arrangements.

I am not talking about Chord/Melody playing here where you literally integrate the melody of a song with the chords, although it is related.

In this lesson, you learn how to sketch out the melody of a song, without all the detail, and include it with the chords you play. You could think of it as suggesting the melody as opposed to playing it as a whole.

The result is an arrangement that has something more to it than simply playing chords alone and relates to the song specifically because the ideas you use are born from the melody and themes of the song itself.

What you have could then be used in several different ways within the broader context of the arrangement of the song itself. I’ll show some of these possibilities in the video.

Sketching out the melody is just one of the many cool approaches you can take when creating unplugged versions of electric guitar songs on your acoustic.

Watch the video below to learn more:

Electric Guitar Excerpt 1

The following is an excerpt from a song composed on the electric guitar:

Unplugged Acoustic Version

Here is one way you could arrange this electric guitar excerpt on the acoustic guitar:

Watch the video above for a detailed breakdown of this unplugged acoustic version of the electric song.

Electric Guitar Excerpt 2

The following is another excerpt from a song composed on the electric guitar:

Unplugged Acoustic Version

And here again is one way you could go about arranging this electric guitar excerpt on the acoustic guitar:

Watch the video above for a detailed breakdown of this unplugged acoustic version of the electric song.

Learn more awesome ways to create unplugged versions of songs on acoustic guitar