Tag: August 2018

These articles originally appeared in the August 2018 issue of Acoustic Guitar magazine.

illustration of a person chasing music notes

Between the Lines: All About Guitar Notation

Here you’ll learn how guitar notation evolved into the sophisticated tool it is today, how it’s prepared for publications like AG, and most important, how you can use it to learn new music, whatever your style.

Adam Perlmutter
August 15, 2022

get heard guide to acoustic guitar pickups and amplification

Get Heard: A Guide to Acoustic Guitar Pickups and Amplification

Here we cover the 3 main elements of an acoustic guitar amplification system: pickups, preamps/DIs, and amplifiers/PA systems.

Doug Young
August 12, 2022

Danny Carnahan smiling with his acoustic guitar resting across his lap

“Black Velvet Band” — Learn to Play this Popular Irish Waltz

This waltz-time tale is quite straightforward and easy to sing and play, as the chorus and the verses follow the same melody and chord changes.

Danny Carnahan
March 16, 2021

Gear Review: SkinTone Leather Picks

Leather has a distinct advantage for players looking for a pick that combines some of the power and facility of a plectrum with the warmth of fingertips on a string.

Greg Olwell
July 9, 2018

Guitar Talk: Peter Ciluzzi’s Guitars Spin Stories Without Words

Peter Ciluzzi plays music in his dreams. He tells me this as we’re standing outside The Evening Muse in Charlotte, North Carolina, where he has just played a transcendent set. As an unseasonably chilly wind rushes down the street, the guitarist and luthier, who built guitars out of his Provincetown,…

Pat Moran
July 2, 2018

illustration showing a person laying down in a field playing the guitar

Seeing the Big Picture: How to Build a Solid Foundation for Creating Wonderful Music

Prominent guitarists and educators offer advice on what it takes to become a more musical guitar player and improve your musicianship.

Adam Perlmutter
June 28, 2018

Gear Review: Roadie 2 Automated Tuner

An automatic string tuner might sound like overkill for the average guitarist. But...

Greg Olwell
June 27, 2018

Learn ‘Pachelbel’s Canon’ on Guitar

"Pachelbel's Canon" is an often-requested composition for gigging guitarists. Here's a compact arrangement that sounds just as good on the steel-string as nylon-string.

Adam Perlmutter
June 25, 2018

Guitar Mash Nashville: Songs Shared, Bridges Built

It goes without saying that bluegrass dobro titan Jerry Douglas is no stranger to the bandstand. Still, even Douglas had to admit that co-hosting a “Guitar Mash” at Nashville’s City Winery on April 7, 2018, alongside longtime Paul Simon musical director Mark Stewart, was a whole new way to approach…

James Rotondi
June 25, 2018

How to Find the Right Guitar Teacher

While having options is a good thing, it’s still important to take your time selecting a guitar teacher. Here's how to find the right guitar teacher.

Jeff Gunn
June 24, 2018

artists rendering of a person playing guitar while wearing headphones

Ear Training Will Make You a Better Guitarist and Musician

Set aside just a few minutes a day to work on these steps, and you can make noticeable progress within weeks.

Adam Perlmutter
June 23, 2018

Review: Fender Redondo Special and Malibu Classic

Fender has refined its acoustic line and is now making perhaps the best steel-string guitars yet to carry the company’s name.

Greg Olwell
June 21, 2018

Syracuse’s Guitar League has Created an Impressive Model for Both Teaching and Learning

On a Monday night in Syracuse, New York, guitar cases line the walls of a hotel meeting room. Around 70 players, many cradling their instruments, are listening to a presentation by singer-songwriter Tim Burns, leader of the local Americana band Two Hour Delay. Burns is sharing ideas on how to back up another guitarist, and to demonstrate, he’s invited to the stage John Cadley, a veteran of the bluegrass/country scene in upstate New York and beyond (Lou Reid & Carolina once topped the bluegrass charts with Cadley’s song “Time”).

Jeffrey Pepper Rodgers
June 20, 2018

Tips on Playing Leo Kottke’s “Ice Miner” in Open G

An outtake from 6- and 12-String Guitar from The Thousand Incarnations of the Rose: American Primitive Guitar & Banjo 1963–1974 shows the guitarist’s more contemplative side.

Adam Perlmutter
June 19, 2018

Review: Audio Sprockets ToneDexter Preamp/DI Gives the Sound of a Mic with Convenience of a Pickup

The ToneDexter learns how your guitar sounds through both a microphone and a pickup, and uses this information to produce a snapshot of your tone.

Doug Young
June 18, 2018

A Modern Picking-Hand Study by Muriel Anderson

The accompaniment part for "Night Lights" will have you breaking out of familiar patterns.

Adam Perlmutter
June 18, 2018

Gear Review: Guild F-512 12-string

Introduced in 1968 as a special-order version of the 6-string F-50R, the Guild F-512 had varying appointments, including Brazilian rosewood backs and sides, before it became a regular model in 1974—and a go-to instrument for players such as Pete Townsend, Brian May, Tim Buckley, John Denver, and Dan Fogelberg.

Pete Madsen
June 15, 2018

Guitarist Paul Geller explains and demonstrates the musical examples from this lesson on sixth harmonies

Video Lesson: Bringing Sunny Sounds Into Shadowy Harmony

Playing melodies in parallel sixths evokes the sweet sound of classic Memphis soul. Here's how to use sixths in a variety of musical ways

Adam Levy
June 14, 2018

Video Lesson: Get Rhythm, Part 1: Beats, Meters, and More

THE PROBLEM Rhythm is a shaky area for you. You have a difficult time communicating a rhythmic idea unless you can play it; you have a tendency to fall into familiar, repetitive rhythms. THE SOLUTION Learn the fundamentals of rhythm, then work through exercises designed to improve your rhythmic cognition. Music…

Gretchen Menn
June 14, 2018