Most Acoustic Guitar lessons for beginners start with some simple songs using basic chords.
This lesson starts by assuming you do not know much about Acoustic Guitar music. We will start with the two basic types of acoustic guitar, and the kinds of music associated with them. We then move onto the challenges of holding the guitar while playing, with some exercises which will help you work on the best playing position for your individual needs.
The Types of Acoustic Guitar
There are two basic types of acoustic guitar:
Steel string guitars have a bright, ringing sound, while the sound produced by nylon strings is warmer and mellower. Nylon string guitars lend themselves easily to finger style playing, as the strings do not break the nails as much as steel strings do. The sound of a steel string guitar will carry slightly better than that of a nylon string but in a crowded room, both will need amplification.
Acoustic Guitar Styles
Learning how to play acoustic guitar will vary in approach according to the kind of music you are interested in playing. Nylon string guitars are usually associated with classical, flamenco, Latin American or folk music, while performers in the American genres such as blues, country, flatpicking and bluegrass favor steel string guitars. Two major exceptions to the rule, Chet Atkins and Jerry Reed, often played nylon string guitars, and jazz player Charlie Byrd played on a classical guitar. You can play the nylon string guitar with a pick, fingernails or the flesh of the fingertips.
If you decide to try fingerpicking on a steel string acoustic, you can use your fingertips without nails. Alternatively, you can buy finger picks and a thumb pick which slide onto your fingers. These are easy to use but they do take a little practice. Pioneer acoustic blues guitarist Reverend Gary Davis used a thumb pick with a finger pick on his index finger. Another early acoustic blues player, “Doc” Watson, often used finger picking but he was known for his intricate “flat picking” using only a plectrum.
A fingerpicking style made famous by Chet Atkins is “Travis Picking”. The style was invented by country artist Merle Travis who played his electric guitar using thumb and index finger. Chet Atkins expanded the style by adding the second and third fingers, and the style has been adopted by electric and acoustic guitarists such as Tommy Emmanuel.
There were many acoustic guitar innovators amongst the big names of the British folk revival of the 1960’s. Davy Graham, Bert Jansch, John Renbourne and Martin Carthy are all artists you can catch up with in online videos.
Acoustic Guitar Songs
Many songs have become associated with the acoustic guitar even though they may not have started out that way. Layla by Eric Clapton and Light My Fire by Jose Feliciano are famous examples of acoustic guitar songs which began as rock songs.
Blackbird by The Beatles is in the repertoire of almost all acoustic guitarists, but other Beatles songs such as Revolution and When I’m Sixty-Four are also acoustic-friendly. The House of the Rising Sun by The Animals, Tears in Heaven by Eric Clapton are easy acoustic guitar songs to start a repertoire, and when your confidence grows you can try Stairway to Heaven.
Holding the Acoustic Guitar
Acoustic guitars are more responsive than electrics which means you need to be careful how you place your left hand fingers and how you use your fingers or pick when you play. All this depends on how you sit or stand. An acoustic guitar player needs to find how to hold the guitar without restricting the movements of either hand, or causing back pain or other discomfort during practice sessions.
Many online videos of guitar players are made with the artist sitting on the side of his bed. It is much better to sit in a dining chair or on a stool. A good way to begin your daily guitar practice is to place yourself towards the front of your chair, so you are not tempted to lean back. With your body leaning forward slightly, gravity will tend to keep your back straight but you will need to check your posture from time to time.
There are various opinions on where to rest your guitar if you play in a sitting position. Some guitarists use a footstool, others cross either leg. Whatever position you choose, your body should support the guitar. If you take your hands away from your guitar and it falls down, you need to find another position. Your left arm should not be supporting the weight of the guitar because it needs to travel up and down the neck without having to stop the guitar from falling.
The right arm should also have plenty of freedom but it is needed to hold the instrument in position against your chest. Finding the ideal way of placing the right arm to support your guitar will possibly include changing the way you attack the strings with your fingers or plectrum. The basis for playing an acoustic guitar while sitting should be the classical guitarists’ position. Classical players often use a footstool but flamenco players who require just as much stability, have other ways of supporting the guitar.
In this video you can see that having a footstool to raise the left leg leaves John Williams’ right arm completely free of supporting the guitar. In other sections of the video, Williams, Paco Pena and the other flamenco players rest the right arm on the top of the guitar.
This position also requires some discipline because most beginners will tend to lift their right arm off the guitar from time to time.
Whenever you are adjusting the way you play guitar, it is always helpful to use material you have never played before so you do not bring any old habits into the new routine. I have used a video of classical and flamenco guitarists to illustrate some ways of holding the guitar. To eliminate the need for you to rush out and take classical or flamenco guitar lessons, I have included a Travis picking pattern, a folk guitar fingerpicking pattern and a crosspicking pattern to help you see what you need to do to keep your guitar stable while the left and right hands are busy playing. The Travis picking and fingerpicking patterns are played with the fingers, and the crosspicking pattern is played with the plectrum.
The chords you need for these patterns are A minor, C major, and D major.
Travis Picking
Play the A and D string notes with your thumb, the G string with your index finger and the B string with your middle finger. In the third measure you will need to transfer this pattern onto the D G B and e strings.
Fingerpicking
Play the bass string with your thumb. In the third measure, the bass is the D string; in the others it is the A string. Play the G string with your index finger, the B string with your middle finger and the e string with your ring finger.
Crosspicking
Crosspicking is the art of moving from one string to another while picking with your plectrum. For beginner guitarists a moment of tension arises as they move between strings. This can take all the fun out of single note picking. Crosspicking is the ideal way to learn how to jump between strings comfortably while at the same time learning an interesting style of playing. In bluegrass music, the aim of crosspicking is to thrill your audience with your ability to pick a repeating fast pattern of notes.
For the crosspicking pattern below you play only the A G B and e strings in the first, second and fourth measures. In the third measure, you play the D G B and e strings. You can play this exercise using alternate up and down strokes of the pick.
Another way of crosspicking is playing the up or down strokes according to the direction of your next string. In the first measure of this exercise you would start with a down stroke on the A string, then play another down stroke on the G string, down on the B string, up on the G string, down on the e string, up on the B string, up on the G string, finishing with a down stroke on the B string.
These exercises will only be useful for developing your acoustic guitar playing technique if you practice them slowly. Speed will come in its own time.
Learn How to Play the Acoustic Guitar Without Stressing Your Body
