Music and Songwriting/The Songwriter's Grooves Project - A Guide to Singing and Playing Guitar/The Travis Picking Song Series/Treetop Flyer

Treetop Flyer - Stephen Stills
Introductory Lesson

This song has something of a cult following among singer-songwriters who have taken notice of its artful lyrics and creative guitar work. To many performing artists this song is a flagship creation in the craft of singer-songwriter performance. It's been recorded and performed by many artists other than Stills, and Ray Lamontagne has been quoted as saying it's the song that inspired him to start his career.

Wiki for the Album

Performance/Recording Links
Original Recording on the album "Stills Alone."

Live at the "Daylight Again" Concert

Bootleg from the "Just Roll" tape

Cover Performances
David Jacobs-Strain

Basic
Outline of the song by Steve from the Music Room

This lesson doesn't go into a lot of detail, but gives a good simplified idea of how the song goes. Not everyone plays in the double drop D tuning taught here, but it certainly can work.

Intermediate
Jon Michael Swift's Intro to playing the Verses

Tab Link

This lesson gives some examples of the common patterns Stills uses to comp the song.

Advanced
Video Link

Tab Link

This is a lesson on the transcription of the "Daylight Again" live performance, note-for-note, by Jon Michael Swift.

Song stats
Notable techniques

Original Key

Tempo

Tuning

Key fingering

SWG Level/Sequences

Practice logs
Name Previous Experience Current Playing Level Minutes in Practice Room

sequence links