Picking Pattern - Billy Joel's Summer Highland Falls

Just giving this a quick listen (the chords are mostly right) my suggestion would be playing fingerstyle. You can come up with a pretty close approximation (in feel since you certainly wouldn't be able to do it note by note) by using a sixteenth note picking pattern - kind of a cross between "Dust in the Wind" and "Here Comes the Sun" if you can imagine that. Using a capo on the third fret means you can play in the key of D and take advantage of the typical "playing in D" guitar riffs to recreate the flavor of the piano part.

It's possible with a little more study, which I unfortunately don't have the time for at present, that you could also come up with a drop D based alternate tuning to create an even closer simulation to the cascading notes with a lot of open strings. I'm going to have to bookmark this one - it would be a lot of fun to do.

Hope this helps. And good to see you again, sir!

Peace

thanks david, it does help. i was hoping to get a closer replication of his actual notes on the piano, but i guess that's probably going to be too hard.

I like David's fingerpicking idea. Basically follow the treble clef (his right hand) and add in a bass note with your thumb at the start of each measure. In some cases he's playiing lower than a standard tuned guitar can go, but you might either tune down, or substitute another low note that fits the chord.

Having a copy of the sheet music would probably be a help in your project.

sheet music definitely helps.

thanks to both of you!