“When I’m Sixty-Four”—Learn a Fun, Hybrid-Picked Arrangement of This Time-Honored Beatles Tune
“When I’m Sixty-Four” makes a great guitar song—whether played with a pick, fingers, or hybrid style, as it’s arranged here.
Jeffrey Pepper Rodgers
Jeffrey Pepper Rodgers, founding editor of Acoustic Guitar, is a grand prize winner of the John Lennon Songwriting Contest and author of The Complete Singer-Songwriter, Beyond Strumming, and other books and videos for musicians. In addition to his ongoing work with AG, he offers live workshops for guitarists and songwriters, plus video lessons, song charts, and tab, on Patreon.
How to Create a Solo Using Scale Notes and Chord Shapes
Even if you usually stick to rhythm playing, all you need to craft cool, musical solos are some straightforward ingredients that are right at your fingertips.
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Meet Jesse Welles, Fiery Folksinger on the Rise
Welles, 32, is a genuine phenomenon—an internet-era troubadour clearly in the tradition of Guthrie, Dylan, Prine, and Ochs (and Cobain, too), yet also very much of this moment.
Review: Heather Maloney Mourns and Celebrates Her Father on ‘Exploding Star’
The singer-songwriter’s new album is a beautiful and emotionally deep piece of work—suffused with sadness yet ultimately conveying a feeling of celebration of familial love.
How to Play Simon and Garfunkel’s Bossa Nova–Inspired Ballad “So Long, Frank Lloyd Wright”
The guitar part is challenging yet satisfying to learn, full of unusual changes and rich voicings.
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Learn to Play Simple but Musical Solos with Just Five Notes in Open Position
Welcome to a new Basics series that offers entry points into the world of soloing—for newcomers to lead playing as well as those looking to strengthen their foundations.
Remembering the Groundbreaking Folk/Pop Singer-Songwriter Jill Sobule
A champion of outsiders and an early crowdfunding trailblazer, Sobule’s 35-year songbook married sly humor, weird chords, and unforgettable hooks.
Hone Your Hybrid Picking on Jason Isbell’s Lighthearted Love Song “Foxes in the Snow”
Set to a bouncy minor-key groove, “Foxes” features some fine picking and is very fun to play, with a melodic solo that could stand on its own as an instrumental.
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Great Acoustics: Jason Isbell’s 1940 Martin 0-17
Isbell owns some prized vintage guitars, but when it came to recording his latest solo acoustic album, the singer-songwriter turned to this smaller and plainer 0-17.
Jason Isbell Takes the Solo Spotlight on ‘Foxes in the Snow’
Isbell sheds light on the creative choices behind his new solo album, a stunning close-up portrait that shows why he's one of today’s most revered singer-songwriters.
Guitar Basics: How to Play Melody and Chords Together
When playing accompaniment, you have melody notes literally at your fingertips in and around the chord shapes—you just need to find those notes and spotlight them.
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Joe Caruso of the Music Emporium Helps Guitarists Connect with Their Perfect Instruments
You’d be hard pressed to find a better selection of top contemporary instruments—or a more inviting space in which to put your hands on them.
How to Play Lisa Loeb’s Enduring Pop-Folk Hit “Stay (I Missed You)”
First released in 1994 with the movie ‘Reality Bites,’ “Stay” is in the long lineage of breakup songs, but in many respects is far from a conventional pop song.
New York’s Acoustic Guitar Project Takamine Has Inspired 92 Songs—and Counting
This well-used dreadnought is the original guitar of the Acoustic Guitar Project, which challenges songwriters to write and record a song in one week on a specific instrument.
Lisa Loeb Looks Back at Her Multifaceted Career and Ongoing Education as a Guitarist and Songwriter
In the 30 years since releasing her breakthrough hit, “Stay,” Loeb has thrived as a musician, film/TV/voice actor, theater writer and composer, radio host, and entrepreneur.
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Break It Up—How to Spotlight Chord Embellishments by Playing Across Chord Shapes
By breaking up strums and playing single notes across chord shapes, you can bring melodic lines out of your accompaniment and make embellishments pop.
Courtney Hartman | The Acoustic Guitar Podcast
Spend some time catching up with guitarist and singer-songwriter Courtney Hartman.
Learn to Play Gillian Welch and David Rawlings’ Powerful New Folk Rocker “Empty Trainload of Sky”
As with all of the duo’s songs, the basic ingredients of “Empty Trainload of Sky” are dead simple, with just two sections and four chords.
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Inside the Songwriting and Guitar Craft of Gillian Welch and David Rawlings
Rawlings and Welch go deep about the writing and recording of their latest songs and the vintage guitar discoveries that helped shape them.
Guitar Basics: How to Connect Chords with Bass Runs
We’ll start off with a series of examples that use a bass run to connect two chords, and then we’ll try out bass runs in a few classic progressions.
Review: Audigo Wireless Microphone/App Turns an iPhone into a Mobile Studio
Audigo lets you record and sync audio and video, use EQ and effects, and share the final product—all on your phone.
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50 Years into His Career, Pat Metheny Explores a New Landscape of Sound on the Baritone Guitar
The groundbreaking guitarist goes deep on his latest solo ventures—and why every one of his 50-plus releases feels like a single album.
Add a Blues Flavor to Your Rhythm with Simple Chord Embellishments
In this lesson we’ll work with some "blue" notes that you can use to add bluesy colors to open chord shapes.
Play Kacey Musgraves’ Dreamy Ballad “Too Good to Be True”
This intimate song is built on layers of acoustic guitar, with fingerstyle parts that are so closely entwined it’s often hard to pick out the individual instruments.
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Guitar Basics: How to Use Sus and Add Embellishments with Open Chord Shapes
Sus and add chord voicings are used all the time to add variety to rhythm patterns and create riffs.
