Flatpicking Guitar Magazine

Free Monthly Lesson

January 2021

“Keep On The Sunny Side”

Arranged by Dan Miller

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This month we are bringing you an arrangement of a great old tune from the Carter Family catalog, “Keep On The Sunny Side.” In my book The Guitar Player’s Guide to Developing Creative Solos, I explained how to use a variety of techniques to spice up the melody of a tune. One of those techniques was double stops. One recommendation that I had was that after you learn a new technique you develop some arrangements that use an abundance of that technique so that you can become familiar with it. In this arrangement I have used an abundance of double-stops so that you might become better familiar with this technique.

Adding double stops and strums to a basic melody is a first step to start to develop a more interesting arrangement of a solo. Many more techniques can be added to make the arrangement more interesting, but adding double stops is a good place to start. I hope you enjoy this arrangement.