“The Star Spangled Banner” – American Traditional

Below is the lesson for “The Star Spangled Banner”.

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This fingerstyle arrangement pays homage to America’s national anthem. What I love most about this arrangement, is that it makes use of a large span of the neck (frets 0-10), which creates “movement”. Movement makes the piece sound like it’s flowing and developing; similar to if we were telling a story (i.e. there is a beginning, middle, and end). Movement also helps to build emotion, which is critical, especially in highly passionate parts such as the last lyric of the tune, “O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave!”.

One interesting technique used in this piece is an up strum, which is used to highlight a melody note on string 4 (G). Most of the time, when playing chord melodies, the melody note is found at the bottom of the chord. For example, if we have a C Major chord (0003), the melody note would be the third fret of the first string. But a few times in this arrangement, it will be the opposite (fourth string open, in this example).

Part 1 – Performance & Free Lesson


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