In this tutorial we'll be covering topics ranging from moving chord shapes, to hammer-ons, to right hand strumming techniques. Each lesson will help showcase a different aspect of Jack Johnson's style, and will help you learn how using the acoustic guitar primarily as a songwriting tool can serve to better any player's approach to the instrument.

Focusing on Mayer's style on acoustic guitar, this tutorial provides 10 examples, all of which showcase a different element of his style on guitar.  By the end of these lessons, you should have a greater insight into using percussive techniques, dropped tunings, and interesting chord voicings - and be able to see how you can introduce these elements into your own playing.  

In this tutorial I'll teach you the first level of acoustic fingerpicking. We'll get started with a basic four-step pattern, then learn how to change chords with it. We'll then do some 2 and 3 chord practice drills followed by two songs. Then it's time for drills to build your speed and play another song. Next we'll learn different styles, play another song, and finish with more drills - and a final song!

Now that you have mastered the 4-Step Pattern, let's take things to the next level by adding variations of that pattern to create full-measure classic patterns. Along the way, you'll learn to play several classic songs, including Thyme, Blow Ye Winds of the Morning, and Make Me a Pallet on Your Floor. Get ready to ramp things up!

Now that you have mastered the 4-Step Pattern and full measure variations in 4/4 time, let's take a look at new patterns in 3/4 time and 6/8 time. Along the way, you'll learn to play several classic songs, including Star of the County Down, Do You Love an Apple, and a beautiful arrangement of Scarborough Fair with an impressive fancy figure you can play!

In this segment, we'll bring all your hard work and solid skills to work in learning to play 3 full songs, complete with fancy ornamentations and arrangements to learn. You'll learn to play The Water is Wide, John Riley, and Lord Franklin's Lament. Prepare to add these beauties to your repertoire.

This instrumental song project uses a single fingerpicking pattern, and some chord variations There are no other fancy moves, which makes this a great piece for the Advanced Beginner to Intermediate student. Mastering a Song Project is a great way to solidify your skills and build your repertoire.

Welcome to Acoustic Fingerpicking, Intermediate Level. In this set of lessons, we'll build on the skills learned in Acoustic FIngerpicking for Beginners, Levels 1 through 6. We'll take patterns and pattern variations learned in the Beginner section, and begin combining them within a single song. This will allow you to create song arrangements that are more interesting, varied, and dynamic. Learning to combine patterns leads to refined coordination, and lays the groundwork for adding in some exciting fingerpicking figures, which will be presented in Acoustic Fingerpicking 8, Fingerpicker's Goldmine.

Fingerpicker's Goldmine is a treasure trove of classic fingerpicking figures, perfect for adding flavor and complexity to fingerstyle guitar songs. From Hot Tuna to Jack Johnson, Joni Mitchell to James Taylor, these classic figures have been used extensively by acoustic music's icons. This tutorial is a continuation of the Acoustic Fingerpicking Series, created by Lisa McCormick. All prerequisite skills and concepts necessary to master these figures are taught in earlier lessons in the series.

This tutorial is the graduation ceremony for Acoustic Fingerpicking, Levels 1-8. Learning to play this tune will draw on skills you have learned in the previous levels, and give you a nice instrumental tune for your repertoire.

Every guitar player should have a working knowledge of how to change his/her guitar strings. What happens if you break a string on a gig? You should know how to put on a new one. You become a better player if you know your instrument better. This tutorial will help you do that.

Every guitar player should have a working knowledge of how to change his/her guitar strings. What happens if you break a string on a gig? You should know how to put on a new one. You become a better player if you know your instrument better. This tutorial will help you do that.

In this series of lessons I will teach you a nice way to play unaccompanied blues on just the acoustic guitar. I will show you what to play over the I chord, the IV chord and the V chord, and I'll show you a cool turnaround that you can add to your personal library of turnaround licks. Let's go!

In this second tutorial in my Boom Chick Blues series, we will build upon what we learned in the previous tutorial and take it to the next level. We will add a few licks to the mix, and play around with the chords a bit more. Watch out for the blazing fast ending lick! The very last lesson contains a slowed down performance to make it easier to follow.

In these six lessons, I will guide you through a small section of The Swan Lake ballet, adapted for guitar. We will play it in the key of Am to make the fingerings easier. First I'll show you the thumb part, then we'll add the melody, and finally we'll put it all together.

I will start by introducing you to boom chick fingerpicking, and in the four lessons that follow, I will teach you a little song I wrote just for this tutorial. We will start with the thumb, then add some chord hits, and ultimately we will learn the melody and put it all together. Let's dive in!

In this tutorial, Anders Mouridsen will teach you ragtime, or country-blues, fingerstyle guitar. Anders will introduce this style and discuss the history a bit, then teach thumb independence. Then it's time to add chords and melodies, after which we'll learn some examples inspired by Blind Blake, Rev. Gary Davis, and Scott Joplin.

Strumming is essential to playing the guitar, and in this tutorial Anders Mouridsen will teach you some basic techniques and patterns to give you a solid strumming foundation. We'll start with holding the pick and right hand/arm technique for optimum strumming. Next we'll examine a basic 8th note strumming pattern and a basic 16th note pattern in 4/4 time, followed by a pattern in 3/4. Anders will conclude with a synopsis of everything he taught. You'll be strumming in no time!

In this tutorial I'll show you how much cool stuff you can do with harmonics on the acoustic guitar. We're gonna break down the open harmonics and how to use them to play scales, melodies, and chords. I'll show you how to do the classic "cascading chords" and much more. This is one of those techniques that is nearly impossible to figure out just from listening, but after watching this tutorial you'll know everything you need to go learn some more harmonic tricks on your own!

This traditional ballad is a lot of fun to learn to play, with a great little acoustic melody solo and upbeat strumming technique. The story is great too. They really had it out for this poor guy, John Barleycorn. Have fun with this one!

In this tutorial, we'll take a note-for-note look at how to play the beautiful traditional tune, "Oh Danny Boy". We'll look at all the various elements of the song and how to play it fingerstyle on acoustic guitar, and do two play alongs: one in slo-mo and one at tempo. Plus, we'll discuss the underlying principles of practice that will make learning to play this tune much much easier!

Learn this haunting Celtic tune, played in 9/8 time and DADGAD tuning. Legend has it, this tune is too beautiful and mysterious to have been written by human hands. Its composition is credited to the Faeries of Ireland.

Let's start with the basics of strumming, and then teach you to strum in a variety of keys, tempos, and time signatures. Along the way, you'll learn to play 10 songs! A solid foundation in strumming basics is essential to playing folk, rock, pop, blues, and more. Get started right here!

In Acoustic Strumming Level 2, we build on the foundation created in Level 1, and move into the Classic Must-Know Strumming Pattern that underlies much of folk, rock, pop, country, and blues music. We'll learn several songs and variations along the way.

Using folk strumming techniques learned in the Acoustic Strumming Step-by-Step tutorials, this classic folk ballad also features a fun new challenge: a melody solo you can blend right in to the arrangement.

Caren Armstrong's Guitar Tricks Channel debut goes back to the basics. You'll see why Caren is a beginner's favorite teacher, with fantastic descriptions like "third finger first" of just what you need to do to break through the toughest beginning guitar roadblocks.

A capo is a device used to the neck and strings of a guitar that shortens the playable length of the strings & as a result raising the pitch. There are numerous advantages to this result and we'll explore the most important ones in this tutorial.

Here are four separate free lessons by Caren Armstrong.

This three part series is designed to get eager beginners making music and having fun with the guitar. If you already have a little bit of experience, we recommend skipping ahead to Chapter 1 of Guitar Fundamentals, as this tutorial is designed for people who are picking up the guitar for the very first time.

In this set of lessons, Caren Armstrong will teach basic Travis picking technique. We'll start with an overview of Travis picking, then get into basic terminology and orientation. Next up is the important hand position, the we'll detail the basic picking pattern and counting the rhythm. A simple exercise follows; then we'll review some reminders of what not to do. Then we'll play some examples in 3 keys, and end with increasing your speed.

Caren will show you to take the basic Travis picking skills learned in an earlier tutorial and play a more advanced version of this this acoustic guitar style technique.

Anders will show you the basics of the simple acoustic guitar strumming pattern.

Anders will show you how to embellish the basic open chords.

Anders will introduce a really simple version of a finger picking pattern, and as always it's really important that you take your time and don't rush ahead with this. And if you're lucky enough that this is easy for you, try to use these lessons to zoom in and perfect your right hand technique.

Anders will show you a slightly more elaborate finger picking pattern. It's a little more complicated than the one we used in the previous tutorial, but it is absolutely worth the hard work. This one uses the concept of inside and outside picking.

Anders will show you how to use the basic fingerpicking patterns to weave melodies into your playing and effectively accompany yourself, while also playing the lead.

Anders will show show you a very basic way to strum with your fingers, which is similar to how you hold a pick, but it does have a slightly different sound. This will enable you to switch seamlessly between strumming and fingerpicking, which is good for accompanying a singer, but it'll also enable you to come up with cool hybrid strumming and picking patterns.

Anders will show you how to incorporate alternating bass notes into the basic fingerpicking techniques learned so far. It inherently has a country sound, which is fun, but if that's not your thing, simply consider it an exercise in right hand independence and overall finger picking technique.

Anders will show you a practice tune using the various fingerpicking techniques taught in this chapter.

Anders will you how to strum using 16th notes. He'll explore a groove using this subdivision and come up with a cool strumming pattern that fits it. You'll recognize the sound of it, as this rhythmic feel is used in a million classic songs.

Anders will show you how to explore the most basic tools used to create this classic sound of the blues with dominant 7th chords in a few different keys.

Anders will show you how to combine fretted notes and open strings in your chord voicings to make your acoustic rhythm playing more interesting.

Anders will show you a strumming technique that separates the main bass note from the rest of the chord. This will strengthen that rhythmic element we explored in previous tutorials.

Anders will show you how to play barre chords with a strumming and muting technique that will help us get used to these sometimes difficult chords.

Anders will show you how to arpeggiate chords. This means to rhythmically separate the notes of a chord by playing them one after the other instead of all together in one strum. This is a great way to add variety to our chord playing!

Anders will show you how to integrate techniques from previous tutorials into your acoustic playing.

Anders will show you some basic examples of how you can add some bass lines to lead between, into and out of your different chords.

Anders will show you how to use a percussive slap technique to create the illusion of your guitar being more than just one instrument, because it sounds like a clap or a snare drum. The combination of the chord plucking and the percussive slaps is an extremely useful sound that can be used for thousands of songs in many different styles of music.

Anders will show you an introduction to the finger picking technique known as Travis Picking.

Anders will show you how to simplify the chords and picking patterns and the focus on the melody notes.

Anders will show you a practice tune that incorporates all the techniques taught in this chapter.

Anders will some basic music theory and look at how it applies to acoustic guitar playing. He starts with how chords are made from a scale and how that translates into basic triads and full chord voicings.

Anders will explain and demonstrate the basic concept of I, IV and V chords, and we'll play through a a few examples in different keys, so you can hear and feel the close relationship between these three chords.

Anders will show you the relative minor chords of the standard I, IV & V chords learned in the previous tutorial.

Anders will show you the concept of using dominant 7th chords as secondary dominants which are used to spice up many chord progressions.

Anders will break down, practice and ultimately play through a practice tune with heavy emphasis on rhythmic elements like strumming, hits and accents and overall groove.

Anders will show you a practice tune that features elements from a few different styles of music including country, rock and pop.

Anders will show you a practice tune in a different stylistic universe. It's a cool pop type sound and it features a lot of extremely useful right and left hand tricks and techniques.

Anders will break down, practice and play through a practice tune that'll create a whole new kind of mood and vibe with our finger picking tools. Most of what we'll use are things you've already learnt, but we will add a few new elements as well.

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.

"New Age" playing is used to describe acoustic guitar playing in its solo form that demonstrates a mixture of technical prowess and song-writing. Soloists such as Andy McKee, Antoine Dufour, and others demonstrate exceptional playing on the instrument, all the while writing meaningful songs and great melodies. Artists such as Kaki King and the late Michael Hedges have taken such ideas a step further, employing the style alongside other instrumentation (i.e. drums, bass, vocals, samples, etc.) The "New Age" style can both be used as a solo technique, as well as a great addition to a live band set-up. This tutorial works to showcase a variety of rhythmic, harmonic, and compositional ideas to bring out the "New Age" acoustic style in every guitar player. The acoustic guitar, like the players of the genre have worked to do, is taken into new territory and allows for students to see how the "New Age" style of playing has opened the doors for the instruments possibilities. All 10 examples showcase a different way that guitarists can take this new approach to their instrument.

Learn how to play basic Stringband guitar in the 4 most popular keys. The acoustic guitar has a specific and important role to play in traditional Stringband music. It's a lot of fun, and easier than you might think!

Take a close up look at the 12-string acoustic guitar. Find out why and how it makes such a rich harp-like sound, and how you can adapt your 6-string skills to a 12-string guitar and make magic happen!

In this artist study Mick Leonardi will teach you several guitar techniques in the John Prine style, used to support the storytelling in his songwriting. First we'll look at fingerpicking that incorporates the vocal melody and bass lines; then the use of boom-chick strumming. Then we'll look at the use of hammer-ons in 6/8 time, and strumming with a melody. We'll finish it all off with a look at banjo roll fingerpicking.

In this style tutorial, Dale Turner will teach you some ways that you can spice up your common "campfire" style chords. You'll learn how to create chords like add2/sus2, add4/sus4, and major 7 in C major and A minor. Dale will also show you upper register common tones. He'll then demonstrate some strumming and fingerpicking styles used by well known acoustic players, and finish it all off by putting it all together in a performance.

In these six lessons, I will introduce you to the concept of two-note chords. Then I will show you a small example song, so you can see how they can be used in a musical context.

In this technique tutorial, Caren Armstrong will get you focused on your strumming. Caren will start by look the right hand with basic 1/8th notes, then she'll spice it up in the next lesson. Caren will explain her concept of "zoning" in the following lesson, and get into some syncopation. Next up is a look at "extreme zoning", then a look at damping (or muting). To finish, Caren will take all the elements and mix them up.

In this collection of lessons, Lisa McCormick is the guest host for the GT channel and teaches you tips and tricks on using a partial capo, suspended chords, and a special holiday episode on Christmas acoustic guitar.

Neal Walter is best known for his classic rock tone and style, but beneath the noise is a softer "sweet sounds of acoustic" style. This is a collection of acoustic guitar lessons from the Guitar Tricks Channel host.

Christopher will cover some of the basic of tuning nylon strings if they are new & tips about them if you are new to them!

In this tutorial, I’ll be showing you how to play a commonly used strumming pattern for acoustic guitar style material. Though any of these principles could be also used in other genres that you’ve probably heard before. We’ll use a group of four chords that are frequently played together in many songs.