Play Guitar Like the Great Songwriters

The great songwriters who play guitar have instrumental voices as unique as the songs they compose. Here's a collection of stories that break down the guitar styles of many great singer-songwriters to help you learn how each delivers a matchless performance.

Be sure to get yourself a copy of our complete guide, Play Guitar Like the Great Singer-Songwriters, to access these lessons and musical examples anytime.

Explore Joan Armatrading’s Unorthodox Acoustic Guitar Style

Joan Armatrading has followed her own path for 50 years to become one of the most revered songwriters of her generation. Here's an in-depth look at her guitar playing.

Lucinda Williams portrait by photographer Danny Clinch

Inside the Songwriting and Guitar Style of Lucinda Williams

Explore the music of Lucinda Williams by way of some of her best-known songs, with tab examples demonstrating her rhythm playing.

Bill Withers playing acoustic guitar and singing

Video Lesson: Inside the Soulful Acoustic Guitar Style of Bill Withers

An immersion in Bill Withers’ music brings powerful lessons for any guitar-playing songwriter, especially about the value of directness. This lesson goes inside some of Withers’ best songs—especially from his first few albums, when his own guitar was most prominent—to reveal the understated accompaniment style that carries them.

Guitar Lesson: Exploring John Prine’s Simple but Distinctive Acoustic Approach

This lesson takes a tour of John Prine’s music by way of his guitar style, using examples drawn from some of his most-loved songs.

Trigger Fingers: A Look at Willie Nelson’s Jazz-Inspired Style

Though Willie Nelson is most easily described as a country musician, elements of jazz have always permeated his style. Here, Adam Levy digs into Nelson's acoustic guitar approach.

Video Lesson: Exploring Joan Baez’s Elegant Guitar Style

A skilled and precise fingerstyle player, Joan Baez modeled an approach to accompaniment that was not flashy, but effective, elegant, and complete-sounding with no other instruments.

Video Lesson: Bruce Cockburn Teaches His Sophisticated Guitar Style

In Bruce Cockburn’s hands, the guitar becomes a true band in a box, delivering powerful grooves, riffs, melodies, harmonized lines, and improvised solos in real time.

Video Lesson: Learn to Play Like John Denver

Thanks to his gift for simple and emotionally direct expression, the songs John Denver wrote and interpreted have remained standard repertoire for any musicians who sing with an acoustic guitar.

Video Lesson: A Look at Richard Thompson’s Stunning Acoustic Guitar Style

When Richard Thompson plugs in his Stratocaster, fireworks regularly ensue. But his playing is equally brilliant when he picks up a Martin, Ferrington, or Lowden and goes unplugged.

Video Lesson: Inside Nick Drake’s Idiosyncratic Guitar Style

Unorthodox tunings made it possible for Nick Drake to create complex harmonies from one- and two-fingered chord shapes, freeing him to concentrate on his highly detailed picking patterns.