The ultimate goal of many acoustic guitarists is to develop a personal style. A good way to achieve this is to study the guitar styles of the greats and synthesize the ideas you find most appealing. Acoustic Guitar has many lessons offering insights into the distinct styles and techniques of your favorite guitarists—including blues greats, folk icons, singer-songwriters, and beyond.
In this lesson, we’ll dive into some chordal innovations you can use to get a Django Reinhardt sound or to simply explore new ways of approaching chords.
This lesson breaks down Watson’s acoustic flatpicking, beginning with rhythm and backup, transitioning to his lead playing, and ending with the combination of the two.
Although John Hurt’s style and repertoire are often imitated, his guitar sound is hard to duplicate. In this lesson, Steve James teaches you how to play like Mississippi John Hurt.
The melodies and harmonies of Joni Mitchell's music rarely unfold in ways that our ears have come to expect. Here's a look at her guitar tuning Odyssey.
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.
Reverend Gary Davis is widely celebrated as a genius of blues fingerpicking. In this guitar lesson, Ernie Hawkins, who studied with him, teaches his 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.
Norman Blake is one of the great unsung heroes of 20th-century folk music. Here's a look at his life, music, and what you can learn from his guitar playing.
Here we’ll explore flatpicking guitar through some musical examples based on its key practitioners from Doc Watson to Molly Tuttle and identify some of the genre's essential recordings.
Bob Dylan's great acoustic guitar playing is often overlooked. Here we showcase his deceptive chord moves, his fluency with standard and non-standard tunings, and his knack for constant reinvention.
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.
On an early afternoon last September, Molly Tuttle, who was holding a spruce-and-mahogany dreadnought that appeared to be not much younger than 80, showed me the back of the guitar, which sported telltale lacquer wear. Tuttle explained that the instrument wasn’t in fact vintage but was recently made by Pre-War…
At 83, the guitarist Happy Traum is remarkably youthful—still playing concerts & teaching. Here is a retrospective of his life in music as captured by 6 songs.
If you like your blues with funky drive, listening to and learning Burnside’s riffs and licks will get your mojo working. Learn to play in his raw percussive style.
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.
