Strata is a level 5 piece intended to teach the technique of reading and playing music in multiple lines. Multi-line or multi-layer music on guitar means that a single player is reading two or more lines of music at the same time.

As we begin the journey of reading music in multiple lines we will separate a bass line, played with thumb, and a higher ostinato, played with i and m. You can see in the parts that the thumb melody has note stems facing down and the i-m ostinato has stems facing up.

In multi-line music, we often treat one line differently than the other in order to emphasize and melodic parts over accompaniment. In the example, we would play the thumb slightly louder than the accompaniment while shaping both lines equally.

There is an accompanying solo that goes along with the ensemble piece Strata. All students can learn this solo in preparation for or alongside the ensemble piece. The solo piece is essentially identical to the score, just divided among parts.