Joan Armatrading interview and guitar lesson

LessonsWriting

Mar 21

When Joan Armatrading picked up her first guitar from a pawnshop at age 14, she did not follow the typical route of learning the hits of the day—or taking any lessons at all. “That’s never been my way,” she says. “I would try and do my own songs. So I would make up riffs, and in terms of a chord, you can just play two notes on the guitar and make a nice sound even if you don’t know what that is.”

That find-your-own-way approach, perhaps, gave the budding songwriter a head start toward developing a sound of her own—as Armatrading certainly did, tapping into the harmonies and grooves of folk, rock, R&B, jazz, and reggae.

From her 1970s breakthrough ballad “Love and Affection” to ’80s pop anthems like “Drop the Pilot” and “Me Myself I,” and onward through her latest release, Consequences, Armatrading has followed her own path for 50 years. Along the way she’s become one of the most revered songwriters of her generation, particularly in the UK, with a stack of awards including a CBE (Commander of the Order of the British Empire) for her contributions to music, charity, and equal rights.

Armatrading considers herself a songwriter first, and her tough yet tender vocals and emotionally incisive lyrics take center stage. But one of the not-so-secret powers behind her music is her instantly identifiable acoustic guitar—at turns delicate, jazzy, fierce, and funky. In the realm of pop/rock, the acoustic is often assigned the limited role of accompanying soft ballads, but in Armatrading’s hands, the instrument has no boundaries.

“The reason I think my acoustic style developed in the way that it did was because when I write, I tend to hear lots of things—the bass part, the keyboard bit, some strings, what kind of percussive sound it should be,” says Armatrading. “I’m trying to play all those things at once, so my style is quite aggressive.”

While generations of fans have felt the power of Armatrading’s guitar work, both acoustic and electric, the mechanics of how she plays have not been well documented or widely understood. So in this lesson I take a deep dive into her acoustic style, using a series of examples inspired by some of her best songs. And Armatrading herself, by way of a Zoom interview from her home in England, shares observations about her guitar craft—and the songwriting that ultimately drives it.

In 2014–15, Armatrading undertook what she announced as her last major world tour, and while in California she visited Acoustic Guitar to record a video session performing three classic songs: “Down to Zero,” “Steppin’ Out,” and “Love and Affection.” See below for the complete video.

Find the full interview and lesson in the May/June 2022 print or digital issue of Acoustic Guitar, as well as in the book Play Guitar Like the Great Singer-Songwriters.

Also included in the issue is the complete lyrics and chords to “Love and Affection,” transcribed from this video.