Create Your Own Unplugged Acoustic Version Of A Song That Sounds Better Than The Original

When learning how to create your own cool unplugged acoustic versions of songs, it pays to see how others have gone about this before you. By carefully watching, observing and analysing existing acoustic arrangements, there is much insight you will gain that you can then apply to creating your own unplugged versions. The alternative is to take the trial and error approach. If you have heaps of time, and don’t mind unnecessary amounts of frustration, then feel free to take this road, but I will of course strongly suggest you don’t. Aside from this, there are things that you just don’t know, and will never know, if you don’t analyse existing unplugged acoustic songs. Today, I am going to get you started with this by having a close look at 5 acoustic versions of songs that have been created by various artist’s. Each presents a unique take on the original and uses some of the many tools and tricks available to us as an acoustic guitar player when creating unplugged arrangements. These “tools” and “tricks” are skills that will carry through to other areas of your acoustic guitar playing, not just when creating an unplugged version of a song. Unplugged Acoustic Song Analysis Before we start, I highly recommend you search up both the original and unplugged versions of the songs we are about to take a look at. It’s important you do this so you can hear all the things we refer to in our analysis. You shouldn’t have any trouble at all finding these on youtube. 1. Song title: Hey Ya Artist: Obadiah Parker (original by Outkast) Songs you least expect to hear acoustic versions of, often work out the best. It’s the surprise factor people love, and so is the case with this unique version of Hey Ya, by Obadiah Parker. Key Aspects Tempo and feel: Changing the tempo and feel of a song can instantly give you a unique take on the original. This acoustic version of Hey Ya is almost a completely different song, yet you recognise it when you hear it, with the tempo much slower compared to the original. Changing Key: A simple key change can be very effective when creating an unplugged version of a song. Combined with a capo, even more so. In this arrangement of Hey Ya, the key has changed from G to E. The guitar has also been capo’d at the 4th fret, allowing the chords of C major to be used for the key of E. Having different open chord shapes under your fingers, compared to the original song, creates all sorts of cool nuances that you can play around with. Adding to the more mellow feel of this acoustic version is the change of the last chord of the progression from major to minor. 2. Song title: Everlong Artist: Dave Grohl (Foo Fighters) The rendition Dave Grohl presents here of the bands classic Everlong is much more mellow compared to the original. Gone is the band, replaced with just a single guitar and vocal line. It’s a great example of stripping a song right back to it’s core. Key Aspects Slowing it down: A great way to instantly change the feel of a song when creating an acoustic version from it, is to simply slow it down. This is the case with Everlong. Here we are presented with a considerably slower version of the song compared to the original. This allows more room for the guitar and vocals to breathe, adding to the more laid back feel. Altering the arrangement: Often, in an acoustic version of a song, the format is re-arranged a little. This is a nice way to change things up without re-writing the song. If you listen from 3.10 into the acoustic version of Everlong until the end of the track, and compare back to the original, you will hear that the format has changed a little. Omitting parts of a song: Sometimes it may be necessary to leave parts of the original song out in your acoustic version. In this arrangement of Everlong, the riff in the intro, that also appears throughout other parts of the song, has gone. Considering there is just the one guitar, this is not surprising, however at no stage do you feel as though anything is missing. Your aim is to create an acoustic arrangement that is its own song, not to simply copy the original onto your acoustic guitar. This version of Everlong is a great example of this. 3. Song title: Girls Just Want To Have Fun Artist: Greg Laswell (original Cindy Lauper) So here we have a piano version of a famous song from the 80’s. While it’s not strictly an unplugged acoustic version of a song, there is still much we can learn. Being open to versions of songs that have been arranged on other instruments, as oppose to the original being played on another instrument, will give you ideas you may never have thought of otherwise when creating your own acoustic arrangements. Key Aspects Embellishing and substituting chords: Despite all the differences between this piano version of Girls Just Want To Have Fun and the original, it’s the chord choices that have been used from which you will perhaps learn the most. To start, the key has changed from F# to B for this rendition. The tempo is also slower, leaving lots of opportunities for arpeggiating and embellishing chords. Upon closer examination you will also find chords that do not even appear in the original tune. These have been added, or substituted in. Can you hear the slash chord used in the intro and verse of the song? Here is a great exercise for you to do. Transcribe the chords from the original song, Girls Just Want To Have Fun, as well as the chords in this version. Put them both in the key of B and compare. There is so much you will learn doing this! 4. Song title: Message In A Bottle Artist: John Mayor (original by The Police) If a song is any good, it should still sound great when stripped back to it’s bare roots. John Mayor’s acoustic version of Message In A Bottle proves this to be the case. Once again we are presented with an acoustic version that consists of a single guitar and a vocal line, providing a very laid back feel throughout. Key Aspects Fingerpicking: Using the fingers of your picking hand allows you to do things that just aren’t possible with a plectrum. In his version of Message In A Bottle, John Mayor adopts a fingerstyle approach throughout. This not only allows him to play chords in certain ways, but also provides a different tone to that you get from a plectrum. Percussive Techniques: A great element to add, especially if you just have a single guitar for your acoustic version, is percussion. Throughout Message In A Bottle, Mayor is slapping the strings of his acoustic guitar on beats 2 and 4, emulating what might be the snare or hi-hat of a drum kit. This, combined with the fingerpicking approach creates a very unique, cool, laid back version of the original, recorded by The Police. 5. Song title: Imagine Artist: Jack Johnson (original John Lennon) Here we have an example of a song played on another instrument, arranged for the acoustic guitar. This is a great way to get a cool sounding version of a song, and Jack Johnson certainly has achieved that with this all time classic. Key Aspects Arranging songs that use instruments other than guitar: Notice that in Jack Johnson’s version of Imagine, he is not trying to copy the piano line onto his guitar, note for note. This isn’t necessarily what you are trying to do when arranging an acoustic version of a song from another instrument. Rather, he is creating his own unique version by placing a capo at the 6th fret of his guitar and arpeggiating chords throughout with a fingerstyle approach. Creating an acoustic version of a song that is played by another instrument is a great way to come up with a unique and original arrangement. Take this into consideration when choosing a song to create an acoustic version from. Watch, Listen, And Lea The heading above says it all, and has been the point of this article. Learn from as many different unplugged acoustic versions of songs that you can find out there. Each will have something different to show you as have the 5 arrangements we’ve looked at today. You can then take these ideas and apply them to your own unplugged songs. It was the late, great Miles Davis who once said “First you imitate, then you innovate”. rnIn order to be able to play all parts of a song at the same time on your guitar, you need clear structure and guidance. You can get it right here by learning how to play instrumental songs on your acoustic guitar