Learn to Play the Fun and Breezy 19th Century Dance Tune “Jenny Jenkins”
“Jenny Jenkins,” which has been covered by the likes of Jerry Garcia (with David Grisman) and Lisa Loeb, is as simple as it is sweet.
Lessons
The Captivating Harlem Swing Rhythms of Freddie Green, John Trueheart, Bernard Addison, Morris White, and Al Casey
Freddie Green is synonymous with swing guitar. Born in Charleston, South Carolina, in 1911, Green enjoyed a 50-year career holding down the rhythm chair of Count Basie’s famed big band.
7 Tips to Make Cover Songs Feel Like Your Own
As a songwriter, do you stick to your guns and your own songs—or cave and just deliver the hits everyone can sing along with? There’s a healthier way to look at covers: as a creative vehicle that can actually enhance rather than compete with your songwriting.
How to Add Bass Lines to the Boom-Chuck Guitar Strum
Learn how to use different kinds of bass lines to add variety to boom-chuck accompaniment in the keys of E and A major.
12 Ways to Play Better Blues Guitar — Lesson 12: Improvising on the 12-bar Form
Learn how to use the form of the 12-bar blues as a roadmap for your improvising and give your blues solo a sense of logic and musical development.
12 Ways to Challenge Yourself and Discover New Territory on Guitar
We talked to a group of artists and educators who share their favorite exercises, strategies, and tricks for helping get beyond the comfort zone and discover new territory on the guitar.
Video Lesson: How to Use a Capo to Play Music in All 12 Keys
The capo is a small but powerful tool for guitarists that raises the notes of the open strings but retains the individual relationships between strings. Here's how to use one.
Arranging W.C. Handy, the “Father of the Blues,” for Fingerstyle Guitar
Guitarist and W.C. Handy scholar Jon Shain shares strategies for adapting ragtime pieces for fingerstyle guitar using the 1917 Handy song "Beale Street Blues" as an example.
Weekly Workout: Using Triads to Negotiate Seventh Chords
Learn to use three-note, three-string triads — you probably already know a lot of these chords, and in this lesson, you’ll find ways to repurpose them.
Learn a Simple Guitar Arrangement of the Scottish Folk Anthem “Fortune Turns the Wheel”
"Fortune Turns the Wheel" is simple, and the sung melody needs little in the way of instrumental propulsion, so the guitar setting is spare in this arrangement.