Hi Friends and welcome back to one of my little corners on the world wide web of music!

This time around I want to do something different than simply writing a few sheets of music for you to work on and jam with by illustrating a few ways to go about tune development. I took a simple tune that I love to death - "Sally Gooden", and wrote out the [A] and [B] sections for you in a couple of different ways.

The first section is the basic and original melody line- the "head" as we'll call it. Each section of "Sally" is only four measures long, so you'll repeat both parts. It's really a short little number, but when you hear it played in the real world it lasts for 5-10 minutes or so. I must play 100 variations on the head, still keeping true to the melody of "Sally Gooden". How is it done? There are only a handful of notes to the melody and only one chord in the backup part, so how do you suppose we can play it with so much variation? This is the concept we'll be working on in this series of articles.

Your first task is to learn and memorize this first solo and the backup "chord" to the song. It is a weave and twist of 2s and 4s with a couple other notes thrown in. Play it over and over so when it comes time to start with the variations on the theme, you will still be able to 'feel' Sally Gooden. Be sure to use the fingerings as marked and also to alternate right- hand pick direction for the eighth notes. All numbered beats in the measures are hit with a down swing and all the '+' beats are hit with an upstroke.

Good luck and let me know how it treats you.

See you at Kamp in June!
Steve Kaufman
www.flatpik.com