Acoustic Style Guitar Course: Level 2

Anders will show you how to take your Travis Picking skills to the next level with one of the most classic patterns you'll ever learn.

Anders with show you one of his favorite ways of strumming on an acoustic guitar, which is often referred by the term that banjo players use called "clawhammer" because you alternate between "clawing" the strings on the upstrokes and lightly hammering them on the downstrokes.

Now that you have a whole bunch of left and right hand tools under your belt, it's time to test your strength with a full on Travis Picking Practice Tune.

Anders will show you the basics of the technique called hybrid picking.

Anders will show you how to start out with the most basic pattern of 3/4 time and then we'll build upon that until we end up with quite a few tools to draw from, whenever you run into a song that has this rhythmic feel.

Anders will put together a practice tune with a strong Travis picking country vibe using the skills and ideas in this chapter: Travis picking, clawhammer, hybrid picking.

Anders will discuss and demonstrate how to use the capo to change the key of your open chords, how to use a combination of your capo and transposing to play the same chord progression in a higher register and how to use that trick to come up with a complimentary part for when you're lucky enough to play with another guitar player.

Anders will discuss and demonstrate the basics of finding a flatpick that's right for you, and we'll also talk about some of the more alternative tools that people use like metal finger picks as well as both real and fake finger nails. He'll also demonstrate a classic tool called a thumb pick which is quite popular for certain styles of acoustic guitar playing.

Anders will discuss and demonstrate common ways to amplify an acoustic guitar for live performance settings.

Anders will discuss and demonstrate equipment and techniques for recording acoustic guitar.

Anders discusses and demonstrates different types acoustic guitars. In this tutorial we'll look at some of the most common types of acoustic guitars: dreadnought, nylon string, parlour guitar, resonator and archtop.

Anders will discuss and demonstrate how to strum with a swing feel, both for 8th and 16th note based strumming patterns. This may seem deceptively simple at first, but behind the basic mechanics there's a whole world of personal expression and important musicianship to be explored.

Anders will show you how to take hammer-on embellishments to the next level.

Anders returns to the technique of arpeggiating but in a different way which is really more of a overall approach than a specific part or pattern. It's a concept that is widely used and can incorporated in many different styles.

Anders will discuss the classic fretted power chords, but we'll also explore the more bluegrass-sounding open power chords that are particularly cool on acoustic guitar.

Anders will demonstrate how to take your palm muting to the next level by incorporating all the skills learned so far in the course.

Anders will demonstrate the concept of dynamics. It's an all-important tool for distinguishing the different sections of a song and making your playing more musical.

Anders will introduce the concept of alternate tunings starting with drop D tuning as well as the lesser known double drop D.

Anders will demonstrate and discuss using the open D tuning.

Anders will explore a classic variation on the open D tuning, which is known as DADGAD referring to the names of the open strings D A D G A D.

Anders will explore the classic open G tuning.

Anders will show you a handful of wild card tunings including: various single string tuning, open minor tuning, Nashville Tuning.

Anders will start in the simple end of the spectrum and explore how little we can get away with when accompanying a singer completely by ourselves.

Anders will explore some useful and fun ways to add embellishments and fills in between the vocal phrases using a pick. These tools can also be used for instrumental sections like intros, outros and solo sections, and it's really fun to explore the gray are between rhythm and lead playing.

Anders will explore the different tricks and techniques you can use to fill in the space between vocal phrases when you're fingerpicking.

Anders will explore how to double a guitar part for extra emphasis or use your knowledge of voicings, chord licks and capos to come up with complimentary guitar parts.

Anders will show you how to apply the skills in this chapter to a fun practice tune with a groovy 16th note feel.

Anders will show you how to use a thumb pick to take your Travis picking technique to a new level.

Anders will show you a classic and useful way to play melodies on an acoustic guitar, which uses a combination of open strings and fretted notes to create a piano-like sustain between the notes. This can be a bit confusing to wrap your head around at first, but it's a really cool sound and something you encounter quite frequently when you're learning classic instrumental guitar arrangements in this style.

Anders will break down, practice and ultimately play through a slightly more advanced instrumental guitar arrangement of a melody written to include a lot of classic sounding tension notes.

Anders will show you how to use natural harmonics to play triads, scale patterns and an interesting and somewhat harp-like sound.

Anders will show you some of the more jazzy chord voicings that often come in handy, when you want to play instrumental versions of classic songs. This is where country and blues really start to overlap with jazz, and the result is a beautiful and classic sound which is a ton of fun to play.

Anders will break down, practice and play through one final practice tune that incorporates most of the techniques taught in this chapter. This will include the swing feel, open string licks, tension notes, a few harmonics and some of the jazzy chord voicings. It's a fun tune for using a thumb pick, but it is completely possible to play the arrangement without one as well.