Singer-Songwriter
A style defined by subtraction. Harmonically it stays diatonic on purpose, because anything surprising asks for attention and that attention comes off the lyric. You want the listener on the words.
- diatonic
- fingerpicking
- the words win
In which styles
- Singer-songwriter
- Folk
- Indie
- Americana
In short
The harmony is deliberately predictable. A progression you cannot anticipate is interesting, and interesting is precisely wrong here. Open tunings, sus chords and pedal tones do most of the colouring, because they add texture without adding harmonic events.
Intimate, and close to the microphone. Every layer you add moves the listener one step further from the person singing, which is why the genre keeps resisting production.
How the style works
There is often no drummer, so the groove lives in the right hand. Travis picking, where the thumb keeps a steady alternating bass and the fingers take the top strings, is the most common engine, and it is a rhythm section played by one person.
Where you run into this
- A song carried by one voice and one guitar
- A tuning that lets strings ring open under a moving melody
- A verse where the chords barely move so the lyric can
What you leave out
Big production. Doubled guitars, thick pads, reverb to the ceiling: each one adds distance. Also harmonic cleverness, which competes with the text for the same attention.
Keep going
Everything in styles
- Pop
- Rock and Folk
- Singer-Songwriter
- Country and Americana