100 Years of Popular Music '60s, Vol. 2: Piano/Vocal/Chords Book

Opening this collection is like stepping into a jukebox that captured one of the most musically inventive decades in recorded history. These songs range from infectious pop hooks and smooth soul grooves to adventurous studio experimentation, all notated in a format that lets you play them however you want. There's real pleasure in the variety: you might move from a straightforward three-chord song to something with unexpected modal shifts or syncopation.

This book serves pianists and guitarists working with singers in recital or band contexts, music theater directors building accompaniment charts, and music educators teaching pop songwriting and arrangement through authentic period material. It's also invaluable for serious students building a working knowledge of '60s standards for performance or study.

• Listen to original recordings before you arrange your instrumentation. The '60s sound shifted dramatically across the decade, and knowing whether a song sits in folk-rock, Motown, or psychedelic territory informs how you voice the accompaniment.
• Lock the vocal melody with the piano or guitar line during ensemble rehearsals. Many of these songs use the instrumental hook as a primary melodic anchor, and doubling it strengthens ensemble cohesion.
• Explore the chord voicings on guitar separately from piano. Jazz and pop voicings from this era often cluster notes differently than classical voice leading expects, and that compression is part of the period sound.

Use this as a primary source for pop song programs, jazz ensemble repertoire, or cabaret-style recitals where singers work with live accompaniment. Vocal ensembles can mine these charts for solo and small group arrangements, while pianists preparing recitals focused on popular standards of the era have immediate access to period-appropriate voicings.

• Reading and playing chord symbols alongside staff notation
• Accompanying singers with flexibility in tempo and phrasing
• Recognizing and performing period-specific voicing conventions from the 1960s
• Transposing songs to accommodate different vocal ranges
• Building ensemble cohesion between melody, piano, and guitar parts