Just the Two of Us is one of the most harmonically sophisticated pop songs of its era. Released in 1981 by jazz saxophonist Grover Washington Jr. and featuring vocalist Bill Withers, the track became an instant standard — a jazz-influenced groove built on a chord progression so elegant that musicians across every genre have returned to it for decades. On classical guitar the piece reveals something extra: the nylon string's warmth and the instrument's natural polyphony turn those lush jazz voicings into something genuinely orchestral.
This tutorial by the Siccas Guitars channel walks through the full arrangement section by section, giving intermediate-to-advanced players a thorough guide to both the technical demands and the musical thinking behind each choice.
The Original Recording: Grover Washington Jr. and Bill Withers
To play a piece well you need to know where it comes from. "Just the Two of Us" appeared on Grover Washington Jr.'s album Winelight, released by Elektra Records in 1980 and reaching its commercial peak in 1981. Bill Withers — already famous for "Lean on Me" and "Ain't No Sunshine" — wrote and sang the vocal, while Washington's soprano saxophone provided the signature melodic hook over a bed of shimmering jazz chords.
The song won the 1982 Grammy Award for Best R&B Song and reached number two on the Billboard Hot 100, an unusual chart position for a track so harmonically complex. Its chord sequence moves through a cycle of major seventh, dominant seventh, and minor seventh chords in a pattern that resists obvious resolution — which is exactly what gives the song its dreamy, suspended quality. That same quality translates beautifully to classical guitar.
Bill Withers brought a distinctive vocal directness to the song that contrasted with Washington's flowing saxophone lines. The interplay between voice and sax on the original recording is worth studying even as a guitarist: that dialogue between a sustained melodic line and a rhythmically active supporting voice is exactly the texture this guitar arrangement recreates, with the melody on the upper strings and the harmonic motion happening in the bass and middle voices.
Why Classical Guitar Suits This Piece
Jazz guitarists often play "Just the Two of Us" on steel-string or semi-hollow electric guitars, and the standard chord shapes they use work well in those contexts. On classical guitar the approach changes fundamentally. Nylon strings respond differently: they are slower to attack, richer in the midrange, and less bright at the top end. This means chord voicings that would sound cluttered on a steel-string can open up and breathe on nylon.
The classical technique of planting the right-hand fingers before plucking — the prepared stroke — also allows for precise control over which notes of a chord are emphasised. In a jazz voicing with a major seventh and a ninth, you want the melody note to sing above the harmony without blurring into it. Classical technique makes this straightforward in a way that pick technique does not.
There is also a structural reason. The original recording layers saxophone, keyboard, bass, and percussion. When one instrument tries to represent that whole texture, it helps enormously to have an instrument capable of true polyphony — melody and bass moving independently while inner voices sustain. The classical guitar, played with intention, does exactly that. For more on how this instrument handles complex harmony, see our overview of great classical guitarists who have explored the boundary between jazz and classical idioms.
The sustain characteristics of nylon strings also matter here. A piece like "Just the Two of Us" lives on its harmonic richness — the way chords blend into one another rather than stopping cleanly. On classical guitar, the natural decay of a nylon string creates a slight overlap between successive chords, adding the smooth, legato quality that is central to the song's character without any deliberate effort from the player.
The Arrangement: Choices and Priorities
The Siccas Guitars arrangement presented in this tutorial is an original interpretation, not a direct transcription of the 1981 recording. Several deliberate choices shape the arrangement:
Open G Tuning
The guitar is tuned to open G — low to high: D G D G B D — rather than standard E A D G B E. This is an unusual choice for a piece that is not blues or slide guitar, but it pays off clearly. Open G places a G major chord across all six open strings, which means that the root chord of the arrangement rings naturally without any left-hand pressure. Many of the key chord shapes in the piece fall neatly under the fingers in this tuning, reducing the amount of shifting required and allowing the player to focus on right-hand tone production.
The tuning also shifts the resonant frequencies of the instrument. The lower two strings — now tuned to D and G rather than E and A — give the bass register a darker, rounder character that suits the smooth R&B feel of the original. Players accustomed to standard tuning will need a short period of reorientation, but the rewards are audible within the first few bars.
One practical note: when tuning to open G, the first string is dropped from E down to D, which reduces its tension. Allow a few minutes after retuning for the strings to settle before beginning serious practice, and check the tuning again once they have stabilised.
Chord Voicings
The chords in this arrangement are voiced specifically for the guitar's capabilities and the melody's needs. In the original recording, keyboard chords often include close intervals — seconds and ninths — that sit perfectly in the midrange of a keyboard but would muddy a guitar's upper register. The arrangement respaces these voicings, placing the densest intervals in the middle strings and leaving the top string free to carry the melody clearly.
This is standard practice in classical guitar arranging and connects to a long tradition. Arrangers working on Recuerdos de la Alhambra and similar pieces faced the same challenge: how to suggest a full harmonic texture on an instrument with only six strings and a limited range. The solutions developed in that tradition — open strings as pedal tones, inner-voice movement through melody notes, bass lines that imply rather than state the full chord — all appear in this arrangement of "Just the Two of Us."
Where the original harmony includes extensions that are stylistically appropriate to the jazz context but impractical to finger cleanly on guitar, the arrangement simplifies to the nearest viable voicing. This is not a compromise but a translation — the same move that any good arranger makes when the medium changes.
Difficulty Level
The arrangement is rated intermediate-to-advanced. The main technical demands are:
- Consistent right-hand voicing control — bringing out the melody while keeping inner voices audible but subordinate
- Clean left-hand shifts in the verse, where the chord sequence moves quickly through several positions
- Maintaining a steady pulse in the bridge section, where the rhythmic pattern is more active
- Managing the open G tuning, which requires relearning familiar chord shapes
- Sustaining the smooth, legato character of the original across all sections
Players who are comfortable with standard classical repertoire at roughly the grade six or seven level should find the arrangement accessible with careful practice. The reward is a piece that sounds impressive in performance but is genuinely enjoyable to work through in the practice room.
Section-by-Section Guide
Intro (0:00)
The intro establishes the harmonic language of the piece and introduces the main chord shapes in the open G tuning. The pace is deliberately relaxed — this is music for listening as well as playing, and the intro signals that to the audience before a note of melody has been played. Pay close attention to right-hand position here. Because the melody will be carried on the first string throughout most of the piece, the angle of the right hand relative to the strings matters more than in standard repertoire. A slightly more parallel approach — fingertips closer to parallel with the strings rather than perpendicular — helps produce the sustained, singing tone the melody needs.
The intro also functions as a warm-up for the left hand in the new tuning. Approach it slowly at first, letting each chord ring fully before moving to the next, and use the time to confirm that the open strings are resonating cleanly and that the tuning has settled.
Verse 1 (1:13)
The first verse introduces the full chord progression in its simplest form. The melody is straightforward rhythmically, which gives the player space to concentrate on tone colour and dynamic shaping. This is where the open G tuning pays its biggest dividend: the open strings ring sympathetically under many of the chord shapes, adding a natural resonance and sustain that would require deliberate technique to achieve in standard tuning.
The left-hand fingering through the verse is designed to keep position shifts to a minimum. Where a shift is unavoidable, it is prepared by releasing the previous chord a fraction early so the hand arrives at the new position without rushing. This is a habit worth building from the beginning of the learning process; trying to add it later, once the notes are memorised, is considerably harder.
Dynamically, the first verse should be relatively contained — save something for the chorus. A moderate mezzo-forte through the verse, with small swells on the longer melody notes, sets up the contrast that makes the chorus feel like an arrival.
Verse 2 and Chorus (4:52)
The second verse introduces harmonic variation — the chords are essentially the same as the first verse but voiced differently, giving the arrangement forward momentum. Listen carefully to the tutorial video at this point: the different voicings change which strings carry the melody and which carry the harmony, and it is easy to miss the shift if you are working from memory rather than careful observation.
The chorus is the emotional peak of the piece. Dynamically it should sit above the verse, and the melody notes here are the highest on the fingerboard, so the right hand needs to adjust its angle slightly to keep the tone full rather than thin. At higher positions on the fingerboard the string length between the fret and the saddle is shorter, which means the string requires less force to produce a clear tone — a lighter touch than in the lower positions often works better.
The transition between verse and chorus is a characteristic feature of the song's structure: the harmony builds tension through a dominant chord and then resolves onto the tonic of the chorus. Getting the timing and dynamic exactly right at this moment makes the whole piece feel inevitable rather than assembled from parts.
Bridge and Outro (7:10)
The bridge departs from the main chord sequence and introduces a contrasting rhythmic pattern. This section requires the clearest right-hand articulation in the piece: the rhythmic pattern needs to be even and consistent, but not mechanical. The feel should be loose enough to suggest the R&B groove of the original without losing the classical guitar's natural legato quality.
A useful practice method for the bridge is to isolate the rhythmic pattern — without worrying about the notes — and tap it on a silent guitar or a table until it becomes completely automatic. Then add the left-hand chord shapes, and finally combine the two. This sequence prevents the common problem of the rhythm stiffening once the left hand is involved.
The outro brings the piece to a quiet close, unwinding the harmonic tension accumulated in the bridge. Here the open strings of the G tuning play their final role: the last chord resolves to a full open G that rings freely, a natural and satisfying conclusion that standard tuning could not provide as easily.
Learning Tips for Classical Guitarists
Work in Short Segments
The tutorial is structured in sections, and that structure reflects genuine musical divisions. Resist the temptation to play through the whole piece before any of it is secure. Work one section at a time, bringing each to a performance standard before connecting it to the next. The connections between sections — how one chord shape resolves into the beginning of the next — should themselves be practised as transitions, not assumed to work automatically once the surrounding material is solid.
Record Yourself
Jazz harmony is harder to self-monitor than classical melody because the ear is drawn to the melody note and can miss a muddied inner voice or an imprecise bass. Recording yourself, even on a phone, and listening back with the tutorial video beside you, is the fastest way to identify what is working and what needs attention. Pay particular attention to the balance between melody and inner voices — it is the single most common source of dissatisfaction when players first work through jazz arrangements on classical guitar.
Listen to the Original
Spend time with the 1981 recording before and during your practice of this arrangement. Notice how Bill Withers phrases the melody — where he places the beat, where he pulls back — and try to bring some of that flexibility into your guitar playing. The more you understand the spirit of the original recording, the more musical your playing of the arrangement will be.
Explore the Broader Context
Understanding where "Just the Two of Us" fits in the landscape of jazz-influenced pop will deepen your playing of it. The harmonic language draws on the same pool of major seventh and minor seventh chords that defined the smooth jazz of the 1970s and 1980s — a tradition that connects back through the bossa nova of the 1960s to the modal jazz of the late 1950s. Classical guitar has its own points of contact with that world. For more on the intersection between classical guitar and popular music, the Agustín Barrios article on this site is a useful starting point: Barrios worked at a moment when popular and classical idioms were less sharply separated than they later became, and his approach to melody and harmony has much in common with what makes "Just the Two of Us" so durable.
The Place of This Piece in the Guitar Repertoire
"Just the Two of Us" does not belong to the classical guitar's core concert repertoire — it is a popular song arranged for the instrument, and it should be understood as such. But arrangements of popular music have always been part of what classical guitarists do. Francisco Tárrega, the nineteenth-century master whose technical innovations underlie most modern classical guitar technique, arranged popular salon pieces alongside his original compositions. The tradition of bringing music from the broader popular world into the classical guitar's idiom is as old as the instrument itself.
What "Just the Two of Us" offers, in this tradition, is a chance to demonstrate that the classical guitar's strengths — harmonic richness, polyphonic independence, tonal variety — are not confined to the concert hall. They work just as well on a piece written for a jazz session in 1980. The arrangement on this tutorial shows that clearly, and for players who want to expand their repertoire beyond the standard recital programme, it is an excellent addition.
The piece also works as an introduction to the jazz harmony that classical guitarists sometimes avoid because it seems foreign to the instrument's tradition. In reality the two traditions are closer than they appear. The voice-leading principles that make a Tárrega étude work — smooth bass movement, inner voices that resolve stepwise, a clear melodic line on top — are exactly the principles that make a jazz standard sound musical rather than mechanical. Learning "Just the Two of Us" teaches those principles in a context that many audiences find immediately appealing.
For a broader overview of pieces that have made the journey from other genres into the classical guitar canon, see our article on famous classical guitar pieces. And if you are looking for an instrument on which to play this arrangement — one with the warmth and projection to do justice to the jazz harmonics — browse our current selection of classical guitars.
