[Audible]

What is a good storytelling harmony? Like when on a movie or cartoon, when a person is telling a story about something, and he pulls out his guitar and starts fingerpicking while telling it.

[dadfad]

I'm not sure exactly what you mean, but a way to do a "talking song" is to take a simple progression from a tune that ISN'T talking and then use it to play behind telling a story. Take a simple one like......oh.......Kris Kristoferson's "Me and Bobby McGee" (also done by Janis Joplin). It has a pretty simple three major chord progression behind it. If you just played that progression, you could "talk" a story over it instead of sing one. Here's part of that tune.......

CODE

ME AND BOBBY MCGEE
by KRIS KRISTOFERSON

G
BUSTED FLAT IN BATON ROUGE,
G              
HEADIN FOR THE TRAINS;
G                          D
FEELIN NEARLY FADED AS MY JEANS,
C               D
BOBBY THUMBED A DIESEL DOWN
D              
JUST BEFORE IT RAINED;
C                D           G
TOOK US ALL THE WAY TO NEW ORLEANS.
G            
I PULLED MY HARPOON OUT OF MY DIRTY RED BANDANNA
                                        C   (C7)
AND WAS BLOWIN' SOFT WHILE BOBBY SANG THE BLUES;
C
THEM WINDSHIELD WIPERS SLAPPIN TIME
G              
HOLDIN' BOBBY'S  HANDS IN MINE,
D
WE SANG EVERY SONG THAT DRIVER KNEW

.........try it. Instead of going into the chorus part ("...freedom's just another word for nothin' left to lose...." etc) you might just wanna end the progression right there on another G-chord, and then start it over for the next part of the story. Listen to some Woodie Guthrie tunes for good progressions. He also did a few "talking" tunes himself. As did his son, Arlo Guthrie, with his classic "talking" tune "Alices Restaurant".

[airdog4125]

Alice's Resturaant Masacre - Arlo Guthrie

[theprik]

dave matthews little thing

[wannalearn01]

What type of finger picking would you use? A constant pluck(dust in the wind style) or one with bass line and separate harmony?

T^roy

[Audible]

Ya, I forgot about Alice's Restaurant, that is an example of one. Thanks a lot for the help guys.

[dadfad]

What type of finger picking would you use? A constant pluck(dust in the wind style) or one with bass line and separate harmony?

T^roy

I would think not really a pattern. Maybe sort of a re-occuring line, like "Alice's Resaurant" maybe. Often doing nothing but changing the bass strings from one chord to the next. And alternating the notes of the bass within the chord into a simple walking-bass line, like this as an example....

CODE

Very simple walking bass-line

Hold a G 320003 or 320033, then play...

----------------------------------------
-----------0------0-----0-----0---------
-----------0------0-----0-----0---------
-----------0------0-----0-----0---------
---------------2-----------2------------
--0--2--3------------3------------------


Now hold a C like this: 332010 and play....
----------------------------------------
-----1-----1-----1----------------------
-----0-----0-----0----------------------
-----2-----2-----2----------------------
--3-----------3-------------------------
--------3-------------------------------


Then repeat the G-line.......

----------------------------------------
-----------0------0-----0-----0---------
-----------0------0-----0-----0---------
-----------0------0-----0-----0---------
---------------2-----------2------------
--0--2--3------------3------------------

Then maybe go to the D X00232......

-----2-----2-----2---------------------
-----3-----3-----3---------------------
-----2-----2-----2---------------------
--0-----------0------------------------
--------0------------------------------
------------------------0--2--3--(and back to the G, etc)

You wanna keep it simple for two reasons. First, it isn't easy talking and playing, especially if it's a spontaneios kind of then. Second, you wanna keep it simple so the guitar-playing doesn't interfere or detract from the story itself which in the case of a talking-tune is the most important part.