Sponsored by Elixir® Strings: Taken from her Grammy Award-winning 2018 album Golden Hour, Kacey Musgraves’ ‘Slow Burn’ is a beautiful acoustic guitar tune built around a repeating chord pattern. The softly rhythmic 16th note strumming pattern drives the song throughout and an unusual-but-simple tuning gives ‘Slow Burn’ its distinctive character. In this…

Sponsored by Elixir® Strings: Moving fingers “inside” chord shapes while keeping others in place can be a surprising challenge that requires practice, particularly where large fretting hand stretches are involved. So, finding warm-ups that allow you to drill these moves, while also sounding good, can be really useful in improving accuracy and…

Sponsored by Elixir® Strings: Using open strings to create chords on the acoustic guitar makes for a big, bold sound compared to playing simple barre chords. Ringing open string chords are great for both solo playing and accompanying singers and can be developed into an advanced guitar technique, allowing you to play…

Sponsored by Elixir® Strings: Unlocking the fretboard and being able to play chords all over the neck is one of the most useful skills for a guitar player to master. The ability to locate chords all over the fingerboard allows you to be really creative with rhythm parts – and it will…

Sponsored by Elixir® Strings: In this quick acoustic blues lesson, renowned music educator and Elixir Strings artist Mary Flower shares how to play a simple Piedmont-Style blues melody and bassline. She plays Elixir Acoustic 80/20 Bronze Strings with POLYWEB Coating, for their slick playing feel. “Just gliding on the strings (not fighting…

Sponsored by Elixir® Strings: Have you ever wondered what effect your choice of string gauge has on the sound and playability of your acoustic guitar? In this video, award-winning acoustic guitarist Michael Watts compares three string gauges of Elixir Phosphor Bronze Strings on the same instrument to find out! Using gauges 11-52…

Sponsored by Elixir® Strings: Composer and musician Kaki King is considered one of the world’s greatest living guitarists, known both for her technical mastery and for her constant quest to push the boundaries of the instrument. Hailed by Rolling Stone as “a genre unto herself,” Kaki has released 9 albums and toured…

Sponsored by Elixir® Strings: Hybrid picking is a great technique for acoustic guitar players to master but using both plectrum and fingers on your picking hand can be a challenge – even if you’re used to fingerpicking. Building some simple exercises into your guitar practice routine is the way to develop this…

Sponsored by Elixir® Strings: Known for his distinctive use of melodic hooks, ear-grabbing chord progressions and monster technique, Elixir Strings artist John Connearn is one of the most exciting new players around. His track Quite Far Enough showcases John’s playing perfectly, and in this tutorial, he breaks down the main riff section…

Sponsored by Elixir® Strings: Altered tunings can provide a wealth of inspiration when it comes to composing and exploring new avenues on the guitar, forcing you to think differently about chord voicings and making possible parts that are unplayable in standard tuning. Open D – where the guitar is simply tuned to…

Sponsored by Elixir® Strings: No matter what level you’re at, your playing will always benefit from a good warm-up before practice or performance sessions. We all know that warming up can be dull though, so fresh inspiration is always welcome—and that’s just what Elixir Strings artist Scott Goldbaum delivers with this short…

Sponsored by Elixir® Strings: Once you’ve mastered the basics of 12 bar blues, adding in turnarounds at the end of a chord progression to return to the start is a great next step. Turnarounds are a distinctive element of both electric and acoustic blues and can be used in all sorts of…

Sponsored by Elixir® Strings: When it comes to fingerstyle guitar, the traditional alternating thumb technique is a tried and tested way of filling out the bass parts with your picking hand. It provides a rhythmic drive and can outline simple basslines, perfect for solo performances. As with all techniques though, it’s good…

Sponsored by Elixir® Strings: Drop D tuning (where the lowest string is tuned down a whole step – giving DADGBE from low to high) is an interesting way of adding some extra low end tone to an acoustic guitar. It also opens extra possibilities for creating interesting basslines outside the scope of…

Sponsored by Elixir® Strings: In this acoustic guitar lesson, Marc Seal teaches us common bass-style techniques like slapping and popping to coax some different sounds from your acoustic. Add some plucking and percussive clicking and you are ready to put it all together in a riff that will really improve your fingerstyle…

Sponsored by Elixir® Strings: While alternate tunings like Drop D and DADGAD are commonly used by solo acoustic guitarists, there are plenty more options that will open new creative possibilities. In this video, Elixir® Strings artist Tom Anello opts for DADGCE for a beautiful version of Childish Gambino’s “Redbone.” If you haven’t…

Sponsored by Elixir® Strings: The phrase ‘diatonic dissonance’ might be intimidating, but it’s a common sound in 1970s progressive rock. Characterized by a tension between notes, dissonance sounds particularly ‘other worldly’ when played on a 12-string guitar, as Elixir® Strings artist and educator Shawn Persinger demonstrates here. Playing chord progressions reminiscent of…

Sponsored by Elixir® Strings: Elixir® Strings artist Jake Fine breaks down the four chord acoustic guitar progression that underpins Rosa Linn’s song “Snap.” Even beginners will be able to get their hands round the simple open position chords with a bit of practice and, as Jake mentions, it’s a great feel that…

Sponsored by Elixir® Strings: Once you’ve mastered the basics of 12 bar blues, adding turnarounds at the end of a chord progression to return to the start is a great next step. Turnarounds are a distinctive element of both electric and acoustic blues and can be used in all sorts of settings.…

Sponsored by Elixir® Strings: The title track of her 2020 album, ‘Positions’ was a huge hit for Ariana Grande. With a muted nylon guitar-style figure powering the song’s verse, it’s an obvious choice for a full-on solo fingerstyle acoustic guitar arrangement. That’s exactly what Elixir® Strings artist Tom Anello has for us…

Sponsored by Elixir® Strings: Have you ever wondered what effect your choice of string gauge has on the sound and playability of your acoustic guitar? In this video, award-winning acoustic guitarist Michael Watts compares three gauges of Elixir® Phosphor Bronze Strings on the same instrument. Using gauges 11-52 (custom light), 12-53 (light)…