Download music notation and TAB for more than 1,475 great songs from the first 30 years of Acoustic Guitar magazine.
Acoustic Classic: W.C. Handy’s ‘St. Louis Blues’
Learn how to play the prototype for the 12-bar blues as we know it today.
Acoustic Classic: New River Train
If you’re unfamiliar with mountain music—the traditional sounds of the southern Appalachians and Ozarks—then “New River Train” is a good place to dive in. This arrangement is based on the version of the old tune that the Monroe Brothers made famous in the 1930s, as well as an interpretation that…
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Learn to Play the Irish Tune “Star of the County Down”
Play one of Ireland's best loved songs, set in a rolling 3/4 meter that gives plenty of room to sing the lyrics.
Watch Joan Shelley and Nathan Salsburg Play ‘Wild Indifference’
The Kentucky-based folk singer-songwriter Joan Shelley calls forth colorful sonic landscapes within her trademark economical songs. This is particularly evident on one of her latest tunes, “Wild Indifference,” in which her gently strummed patterns intertwine beautifully with embellishments from her co-guitarists, Nathan Salsburg on the acoustic and James Elkington on…
Texas Gold: Joe Ely’s ‘Cold Black Hammer’
On “Cold Black Hammer,” from his 2015 album, Panhandle Rambler, the singer-songwriter Joe Ely evokes the tension between pumps and environment in the oil fields of his native Texas. The song is in the key of E minor. Its four chords—the i (Em), the iv (Am), the vi (C) and…
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Watch Mason Williams Play “Classical Gas”
In 1967, having completed his first season as a writer for The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour, Mason Williams spent a weekend with an old friend he had been neglecting: his nylon-string guitar. He composed an informal piece, thinking it might be handy for playing at parties, and called it “Classical…
Watch Paul McCartney Play ‘Mother Nature’s Son’
“Mother Nature’s Son” reveals that the Beatles's Paul McCartney plays the acoustic guitar just as deftly as he does the bass guitar.
Learn to Play the Traditional Tune “Don’t Let Your Deal Go Down”
I play “Don’t Let Your Deal Go Down” in the key of F, sort of. There are not a lot of F chords to it, because it’s a circle of fifths progression.
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Learn to Play the Mexican Son Jarocho-Style Folk Song ‘El Cascabel’
This song is a prime example of 'son jarocho'—a folk style, from the Mexican state of Veracruz, typically played on guitar-like instruments such as the jarana jarocha.
Learn to Play ‘Tie-Hackers Joy,’ Mark Bilyeu and Cindy Woolf’s Arrangement of an Ozarks Tune
This tune in open-D has a kind of Scottish feel to is
Play the Irish Tune “Whiskey in the Jar”
“Whiskey in the Jar” is instantly recognizable as an Irish pub favorite. Play the first eight bars with this excerpt from Irish Songs for Guitar.
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‘Freight Train’ Elizabeth Cotten’s Essential Fingerstyle Blues Song
In the instrumental intro as well as in the verses, Cotten plays the melody to this popular song over an alternating bass pattern. Practice slowly, measure by measure.
Lesson: How to Play the Guitar Rag ‘Jitters’
Often called Piedmont guitar—after the East Coast regions, running from Virginia to North Carolina, where many of the players lived—this challenging style makes use of an upbeat fingerpicking technique, which I’ll break down for you in this lesson.
Acoustic Classic: Play Bert Jansch’s Arrangement of the Trad Tune ‘Blackwaterside’
A Los Angeles judge recently exonerated Jimmy Page on charges of “stealing” the intro to Spirit’s “Taurus” for Led Zeppelin’s “Stairway to Heaven,” but there’s no doubt the famed guitarist had a habit of “borrowing” from songs he liked. Take “Down by Blackwaterside,” an old folk song the influential British fingerstylist…
Video Lesson: Dig into a Lute Work by the English Renaissance Composer John Dowland
As a fingerstyle steel-string guitarist, you might assume that your instrument precludes learning classical literature. But this isn’t actually the case.
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Lesson Excerpt: Learn to Play ‘This Little Light of Mine’
A popular song in the ‘50s and ‘60s, often sung at civil rights rallies.
Learn to Play Richard Shindell’s Song ‘Your Guitar’ from His Album ‘Careless’
Any guitarist who’s ever scored a vintage instrument has likely wondered about the music, travels, and caretakers it has known. That reflection is the inspiration behind Richard Shindell’s “Your Guitar,” from the singer-songwriter’s most recent album, Careless (Continental Record Services). Shindell recorded the song not on an old guitar, but…
Learn a Simple Arrangement of ‘Sloop John B’
An ancient folk song chronicling boating misadventures, “Sloop John B” was transformed into a chamber-pop classic when the Beach Boys recorded the tune and released it on their groundbreaking 1966 album Pet Sounds. Before then, the song—originally called “The John B. Sails”—had traveled far and wide. It originated in the…
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Peggy Seeger on The Child Ballads—Learn ‘O the Wind & Rain’
[Editor’s note] Peggy Seeger is no stranger to folklore. Her father was the famed folklorist Charles Seeger; her mother, Ruth Crawford Seeger, was a trailblazing avant-garde composer. Her folk musician brother, Mike Seeger, co-founded the New Lost City Ramblers, one of the most influential groups in the 1960s folk revival.…
Learn These 5 Easy Pieces from ‘The Song Train’
Harvey Reid says, “the best way to learn to play music is by playing songs, and there is no better place to start than some good songs that are easy to play.”
Learn a Solo Guitar Arrangement of the Christmas Hymn “O Come, All Ye Faithful”
This solo-guitar arrangement moves twice through the song’s simple verse-chorus form, set in the key of E major.
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Learn to Play “Scarborough Fair”
“Scarborough Fair” has been around for centuries, but it was popularized in the 1960s by Paul Simon’s arrangement of it for Simon and Garfunkel.
Learn a Solo-Guitar Arrangement of “Silent Night”
This fingerstyle arrangement is set in the key of A major.
Fiddle Tunes and Folk Songs | Acoustic Guitar Champions
Learn to flatpick the melodies to ten traditional fiddle tunes and songs, with simple melodic variations and performance tips.