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Music notation:
Tablature:
Arrangement ideas:
The A section of this tune is pretty typical of one of my "on the fly" arrangements. The melody is played over simple chord basses. If you hold down the first position chords as marked, the tune falls under your left hand without trouble.
Notice the quick bass run in bar two - E,#F, up to the G in bar 3. This is a useful little chord changing flourish which doesn't interfere with the flow of your left hand fingering, while imparting a feeling of movement and counterpoint in the bass line.
Notice also that bars 5 & 6 are just more notey variations on the melody in bars 1 & 2. The great thing about simple tune settings is that they allow the player scope to move the melody, harmony and rhythmic emphasis around. Many Appalachian tunes have this compelling simplicity. You'll know what I mean when you look up and realize that you've been playing one round and round for forty minutes and you don't want to stop yet.
I've written out a full 16 bar B section to further demonstrate possibilities for variety.
The tunes gets a real lift when it jumps to A major in bars 9 & 10. I've emphasized this further by varying the rhythmic feel in the repeat at bar 17. I've also changed the bass line from bar 11 to the repeat bar 19. Unlike the bass run at bar 2, this E,F#,G move does require special left hand preparation and practise to fit to the melody.
The main melody motif (bars 5 & 6 and repeated at bars 21 & 22) gets a reworking in both the melody line and bass harmony at bars 13 & 14. I've simplified the melody while moving the bass stepwise through an Am - C - D9 - Am progression. When you work through the fingering for this, you'll find that it's a very straight forward and satisfactory move and should be repeatable as a variation/ improvisation possibility in other Am tunes.
