Acoustic Guitar, June 2007

Bibliography   72 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 00 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 UK & Ireland weeklies UK & Ireland magazines UK & Ireland newspapers US newspapers US rock magazines US music magazines US magazines US alternative weeklies European magazines European newspapers Canada  •  Mexico  •  Asia Australia  •  New Zealand South America  •  Africa Blogs  •  Fanzines  •  Books Online publications Acoustic Guitar   1997 August 2007 June 2009 August 2015 April 2016 April US music magazines  Absolute Sound Acoustic Guitar Alternative Press American Songwriter Amplifier Audio Bass Magazine Bass Player The Beat Billboard Blender BMG Discovery Cash Box CBS Broadcast Newsletter CD Review CMJ New Music Monthly Columbia House Discoveries DownBeat Drum! Elmore Magazine Filter Gavin Report Goldmine Guitar Player Guitar World Harp High Fidelity Hits Hot Wacks Quarterly ICE International Bluegrass Jazziz JazzTimes Keyboard M Music & Musicians Mix Modern Drummer Modern Recording & Music Music Connection Music Market Music World New Music Scene No Depression OffBeat Option Performing Songwriter Playback Pulse! The Quake Radio & Records Ray Gun Record Review Record World R.E.P. Seattle Sound Magazine Songwriter Connection SoundWaves Stereo Review Stereophile Stomp And Stammer The Street Sweet Potato Under The Radar Vibe Vinyl Propaganda — Alison Words and music by Elvis Costello, arranged by Doug Young. Doug Young Although Elvis Costello’s "Alison," a single from his 1978 debut album, My Aim Is True, was only a modest success when it was released, the quirky song has endured as one of his best known tunes. On the original recording, Costello’s backing band provides a solid beat with a soft-rock feel. However, Costello has performed the song solo with just his guitar and sometimes slows the piece down, giving the song a more melancholy flavour. I’ve arranged this instrumental fingerstyle version in D A D G A D, in the key of G. (Costello recorded the song in E.) Like many pop tunes, the melody and harmony are fairly simple and repetitive; a lot of the song’s appeal stems from the lyrics and Elvis’s vocal inflections. To compensate, I use several techniques to introduce some tonal variety, especially on repeated notes. In addition to slides, hammer-ons, and pull-offs, I sometimes play repeated notes on different strings (in measures 5 and 11, for example). A strumming technique (see measures 9 and 13) also helps give emphasis to various notes and adds some different colors. The bass line uses a light-rock, dotted-quarter/eighth-note pattern, which helps give the arrangement a bit of a groove. This pattern can be tricky to play against the melody at times. Take it slowly the first few times, so you can discover which melody notes fall at the same time as the bass notes. I like to play this tune a bit more slowly than Costello did on the original recording, treating it as a pretty ballad and emphasizing the minor-chord changes. The arrangement is fairly straightforward; the main challenge is to bring out the melody and to play lyrically. I find that knowing the words to this tune and hearing them in my head as I play helps me mimic some of Elvis’s subtle variation between phases. Acoustic Guitar, No. 174, June 2007 The Songbook section includes "Alison" arranged by Doug Young. Images Page scans. Page scans. Cover.

External links

• AcousticGuitar.com