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4 days ago | 
acousticguitar.com | Joey Lusterman |Jeffrey Pepper Rodgers |Adam Perlmutter |Dale Miller
In April 2025, we debuted the Acoustic Guitar Teaching Artist series, a program designed to help you grow as a guitarist. Our cohort of instructors—Isa Burke, Lisa Liu, Sean McGowan, Mamie Minch, and Thu Tran—is committed to helping you discover new musical and creative territory throughout the year, offering one new video lesson each week, plus virtual concerts, roundtable discussions, and more. You can unlock access for just $5 a month.
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6 days ago | 
acousticguitar.com | Mac Randall |Natalia Zukerman |Karen Peterson |Adam Perlmutter
Valerie June’s soundscapes stretch from Memphis soil to cosmic skies. Her voice is a mix of earth and ether, channeling gospel, blues, and folk traditions into something unmistakably her own. “I’m basically an ambassador for joy,” she says, and it’s hard to argue otherwise. June’s latest album, Owls, Omens, and Oracles (Concord), offers a mix of love, sweetness, and light.
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1 week ago | 
acousticguitar.com | Jeffrey Pepper Rodgers |Kate Koenig |Adam Perlmutter
One of the great deep cuts from Simon and Garfunkel’s 1970 masterpiece, Bridge Over Troubled Water, “So Long, Frank Lloyd Wright” taps into the sultry rhythms and jazz harmonies of bossa nova, with a lovely nylon-string guitar part by Paul Simon. When I interviewed Simon for this magazine in 1993, he noted that he must have started listening to Brazilian composer Antônio Carlos Jobim around the time he wrote the song.
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1 week ago | 
acousticguitar.com | Emile Menasche |Adam Perlmutter |Kate Koenig
Ernie Ball may be best known for its electric strings—especially the Slinky series, an industry stalwart for decades—but the company also has an impressive lineup of acoustic offerings. The latest is the Earthwood Bell Bronze set ($12.99), developed in collaboration with singer-songwriter John Mayer, a player as fluent on acoustic as he is on electric. Made with a proprietary alloy exclusive to Ernie Ball, these strings offer a distinct tonal character.
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2 weeks ago | 
acousticguitar.com | Jeffrey Pepper Rodgers |Adam Perlmutter |Scott Nygaard
To the uninitiated, guitar soloing can be both alluring and a little daunting—it seems to require a whole different kind of knowledge and facility on the fretboard than playing rhythm does. While it’s true that solos can be fast and complex, they certainly don’t have to be. You can build great, musically satisfying solos from very simple elements, just as you can create great songs from just a few chords.
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2 weeks ago | 
acousticguitar.com | Greg Ruby |Adam Perlmutter |Jeffrey Pepper Rodgers |Paul Mehling
The joy I felt strumming my first open G chord was liberating. My fingers fell into place, and the sound was big, bold, and powerful. At 12, I was convinced I could play guitar quickly and easily. Soon, I was switching between open chords, leaving behind the formality of seven years of piano lessons—I was a guitarist! Who needed written music or note names?
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3 weeks ago | 
acousticguitar.com | Joey Lusterman |Adam Perlmutter |Patrick Francis |Kate Koenig
On April 1, 2025 we debuted the inaugural Acoustic Guitar Teaching Artist cohort: Isa Burke, Lisa Liu, Sean McGowan, Mamie Minch, and Thu Tran. These five Teaching Artists will help you grow as a guitarist with one new video lesson every week. And there is a lot more to look forward to, including interactive roundtable discussions, virtual open mics, and even more acoustic guitar expertise! You can unlock access for just $5 a month.
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1 month ago | 
acousticguitar.com | Adam Perlmutter |Pete Madsen
Text by Jerry Snyder | Video by Doug Young — Excerpted from Ragtime Guitar Essentials. The roots of ragtime music come from gospel, banjo, and African American folk music traditions, as well as 19th-century European composers. From the late 1890s until around 1917, ragtime music was primarily arranged for the piano.
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1 month ago | 
acousticguitar.com | Jeffrey Pepper Rodgers |Adam Perlmutter |Maurice Tani |Danny Carnahan
The title track from Jason Isbell’s new solo acoustic album, Foxes in the Snow, is one of its happiest—an unabashed celebration of love and intimacy amid many songs that traverse much darker emotional terrain. Set to a bouncy minor-key groove, “Foxes in the Snow” also 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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1 month ago | 
acousticguitar.com | Jeffrey Pepper Rodgers |Greg Olwell |Michael Simmons |Adam Perlmutter
Jason Isbell owns some prized vintage guitars, such as a 1934 Martin 000-28 that he calls the best acoustic guitar he’s ever played. But when it came to recording his solo acoustic album Foxes in the Snow, he turned to this smaller and plainer Martin 0-17, a recent acquisition from Retrofret Vintage Guitars in Brooklyn, New York. Listed at $30, the 0-17 was nearly the bottom of the line in Martin’s 1940 catalog—only the 0-15, a very similar model with a less glossy finish, was cheaper, at $25.
