Lessons | Acoustic Guitar

Learn to Create Guitar Accompaniments and Solos for Traditional Songs with Happy Traum

In this acoustic guitar lesson Happy Traum demonstrates how to bring traditional songs to life using moving bass lines, varying chord choices, fills, and other techniques

pickin guitar lesson classical bluegrass

Classical Bluegrass? Learn How to Flatpick a Matteo Carcassi Etude

Matteo Carcassi’s 25 Etudes, Op. 60 are a rite of passage for the advancing classical guitarist. Learn how to flatpick this classic on acoustic guitar.

blues tunings acoustic guitar how to alternate blues tunings

Which Alternate Tunings are Most Commonly Used on Blues Guitar?

The two principal open tunings used in blues guitar playing have old, vernacular American names that I still like to use: Vastopol and Spanish.

neil young, "Harvest Moon" guitar lesson

How to Play Neil Young’s Luminous Love Song “Harvest Moon“

Learn to play Neil Young's “Harvest Moon.” The simple yet memorable guitar part in dropped-D tuning, and it works just as well solo as with other instrumentation.

Video Lesson: Learn the Classical Guitar Standard “Romanza”

So, you want to play a composition like the 19th-century “Romanza,” eh? Here's how to make it sound beautiful on classical guitar.

How to Create Literature-Inspired Narrative Compositions for Solo Acoustic Guitar

This guitar lesson explores how to approach narrative solo guitar composition through harmonic movements, ways to lyrically deliver a melody, and the use of silence.

Video Lesson: Play Like Reverend Gary Davis with Ernie Hawkins

From the May/June 2020 issue of Acoustic Guitar | Ernie Hawkins In the summer of 1965, a day after graduating from high school, I m... Read More...

Reimagining a Fernando Sor Etude as a String-Crossing Guitar Workout

This guitar lesson breaks down the mechanics of string crossing and applies it all to a classical guitar etude by Fernando Sor to help build up picking-hand precision.

12 Ways to Play Better Blues Guitar — Lesson 7: Building Call-and-Response Patterns with Western Swing Chords

Create call-and-response statements using Western swing chords. You’ll learn to play single-note licks on the I chord in the key of A major, answered by different combinations of sixth and ninth chords.

Guitar Lesson: Using Augmented Arpeggios to Add Dreamlike Sequences

In this guitar lesson, learn fretboard exercises to play beautiful, dreamlike augmented arpeggios for soloing and composing in any style.

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