Rockschool
Eva Cassidy – Song bird
Songbird was originally written by Fleetwood Mac’s Christine Mcvie, who described the song as being “like a gift from the angels”, having materialised in around half an hour in the middle of the night. With truly universal appeal, the song drew more attention following Eva Cassidy’s astonishing cover on her posthumous album of the same name, released in 1998.
Rockschool’s Grade Five arrangement condenses the vocal melody and chord progression into one part for solo acoustic guitar.
It can be challenging to achieve a clear tone when playing chords and melody together, so try to focus on short phrases, planning your fretting hand fingering and positions, and practising the motions with your picking hand before joining the two.
For example, it may take some preparation to grasp the pull-off in bar 1 whilst also sounding a Cadd9 chord. Once these techniques are secure, there is plenty of scope to add ‘sheen’ to the performance, from the dynamics to the arpeggiated chords.