Acoustic Classic: ‘I Believe I’ll Dust My Broom’
Capturing that almighty triplet groove is what’s most important to playing this blues standard well.
Campfire Songs: Learn ‘Streets of Laredo’ With Four Cowboy Chords
Learn to play 'The Streets of Laredo' (aka “Cowboy’s Lament”), in the key of C major, using four cowboy chords: C (I), G (V), F (IV), and D (II).
ADVERTISEMENT
Campfire Songs: Strum “Home on the Range” with 5 Easy Chords
Few songs are as evocative of the ideal of the American West as this old ode to frontier life
Scottish Songs for Guitar | Acoustic Guitar Champions
Learn to play 15 Scottish classics, with standard notation and tablature, complete lyrics, and background information.
‘Whiskey River’ – Watch Willie Nelson perform this country classic live at Farm Aid in 1986
The song has a fairly simple structure, with two main repeating sections, a chorus and a verse, and instrumental solos played over the chorus progression.
ADVERTISEMENT
‘Tae the Weavers Gin Ye Gang’ — Learn to Play this Cornerstone of Scottish Repertoire
A tale as old as time. The picking pattern is a classic alternating bass that you should keep rolling jauntily along!
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.
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.
ADVERTISEMENT
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…
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.
ADVERTISEMENT
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.
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.
‘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 Excerpt: Learn to Play ‘This Little Light of Mine’
A popular song in the ‘50s and ‘60s, often sung at civil rights rallies.
ADVERTISEMENT
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…
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.…
ADVERTISEMENT
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 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.