Guitar Noise

The song Picking A Flower was the January winner in the International Songwriting Contest Song of the Year in the category jazz/world/instrumental. Guitarist (and Guitar Noise contributor) Gilbert Isbin tells us of the steps he took in writing the music for this award-winning song. At the end of the article, Gilbert is kind enough to give us more links and information on the song and the contest itself, including reviews from listeners.

Guitar Noise favorite Gilbert Isbin brings us a second lesson in finger-style guitar. In this piece, we use the first phrase of Jimi Hendrix’s classic Little Wing to learn about finger positioning and developing improvisational skills.

Improvising is basically composing on the fly. To do this you will need a fairly deep understanding of harmony and compositional techniques.