Posted a new video lesson today! Now that the basic website is up and running, I plan to post at least one new lesson every week.

This is part of my series of lessons on strategies for playing piano riffs on guitar. Previously, we’ve looked at various ways (capo, alternate tunings, loop pedal) to copy piano parts note-for-note. Here, we’ll take a different perspective. Sometimes, a keyboard part may sound a bit sparse on guitar. This is where arranging techniques are useful.

Corey Hart’s “Sunglasses at Night” is a great example of this. In the recording, the keyboard part is dramatic and effective, but sounds thin on a solo acoustic guitar. Using the keyboard riff as a starting point, we’ll utilize the implied underlying harmony to arrange a nice classical-style arpeggio figure.

The second half of the lesson covers improvising over the changes. The main chord progression is Amin – D9/F# – F – F/G. Three of these chords sound in the key of A minor (no sharps, no flats). The second chord is a D dominant sound (D – F# – A – C – E), which sits a bit outside the key of A minor. No worries, I’ll show you a simple way to alter the A minor pentatonic scale to improvise over D7.

I’ll be happy to respond to any questions or comments!

Enjoy!