The Melody Spin Song Encyclopedia

This Stratocaster with acoustic guitar accompaniment is a rich and soulful as acoustic music gets. Written originally for Watson and Company, the violin guitar duo that brought Darren to this style of music, the song broadens the frontier of acoustic music by the unlikely combination of the two families of guitar, electric and acoustic. Darren uses his Martin D-28 acoustic guitar with his Eric Clapton issue “Blackie” Stratocaster. A cello and acoustic guitar version was also released on The Guitar Tree (Re-Growth 1993-2005) CD and is also available on this website.

“I originally wrote this song off the coast of California on Catalina Island. Malcolm Watson and I were performing there on the invitation of one of the restaurant owners. I will always remember that day because we played on The Wrigley Plaza Stage. That stage is a small concrete riser that faces the shops and has its back to the ocean and harbor. It was so incredible because the ocean was twinkling like diamonds, the warm ocean wind was blowing in our faces, and we were making beautiful acoustic music! This is my original version where I play both parts and is closest to my original vision of the tune.” - Darren Curtis Skanson

Guitar history - Fingerstyle applies to all guitar music in which a plectrum or guitar pick is not employed. However, the term is commonly understood to designate not only a technique but a range of musical genres.

The style originated in the late 1800s and early 1900s as Southern African-American blues guitarists tried to imitate the popular ragtime piano music of the day, with the guitarist’s thumb functioning as the pianist’s left hand, and the other fingers functioning as the right hand.

Music arranged for fingerstyle can include chords, arpeggios and other elements such as artificial harmonics, hammering on and pulling off with the fretting hand, using the body of the guitar percussively, and many other techniques.