-
Nov 27, 2024 | 
acousticguitar.com | Cathy Fink |David Hamburger |Jeffrey Pepper Rodgers
So far in this series of lessons on chord embellishment basics, we’ve talked about adding or changing notes in the open chord shapes—using hammer-ons and pull-offs, sus and add chord voicings, and bluesy colors. Now let’s turn our attention to the bottom of the chords: the all-important bass notes.
-
Oct 9, 2024 | 
acousticguitar.com | Cathy Fink |Pete Madsen |Pat Moran |Jeffrey Pepper Rodgers
When you’re playing accompaniment, adding or changing just one note in a chord can do so much to enhance and vary the sound. In the last installment of this series on chord embellishment basics, we focused on sus and add chord voicings, which include the second or fourth of the chord. In this lesson we’ll work with a different set of notes that you can use to add bluesy colors to open chord shapes.
-
Jun 9, 2024 | 
newsbreak.com | Cathy Fink
Welcome to NewsBreak, an open platform where diverse perspectives converge. Most of our content comes from established publications and journalists, as well as from our extensive network of tens of thousands of creators who contribute to our platform. We empower individuals to share insightful viewpoints through short posts and comments.
-
Jun 9, 2024 | 
acousticguitar.com | Judy Minot |Jane Miller |Adam Perlmutter |Cathy Fink
You’ve seen that T-shirt that reads “Plays Well with Others.” While many people perform solo, ensemble music can be a special delight but does require additional skills. Just as you need to have your act together about your own playing, you need skills in listening to and interacting with other musicians. You must learn to adjust to how others play, flex your music to fit, and ideally approach all of this with a warm and welcoming attitude.
-
May 15, 2024 | 
acousticguitar.com | Sean McGowan |Sean Mcgowan |Jeffrey Pepper Rodgers |Cathy Fink |Cameron Knowler
Welcome to Non-Traditional, a new song department where contemporary guitarists offer fresh takes on old songs. Originally composed in the late 1890s by cowboy poet, composer, and horse wrangler D. J. O’Malley, “When the Work’s All Done This Fall” is a classic ballad that details the longing of a young cowboy to return home when his work is completed on the range. In a tragic accident during a stampede, he is swiftly killed, then put to rest the following morning in an unmarked grave.
-
Mar 15, 2024 | 
acousticguitar.com | Cathy Fink |Jamie Stillway |Gretchen Menn |Jane Miller
If you are making progress on sight-reading duets with a partner and would like to take things to the next level, it’s time to revisit some familiar materials, but in a different key, this time playing up the neck and negotiating some trickier rhythms.
-
Nov 1, 2023 | 
acousticguitar.com | Paul Mehling |Cathy Fink |Gretchen Menn
Andrés Segovia’s version of the iconic Tárrega piece “Recuerdos de la Alhambra” was love at first listen for me. Even with ears accustomed to the polyphony that abounds in classical guitar repertoire, I found the effect fascinating—not just for the clarity of the separate voices, but for the long, seemingly sustained melody notes accompanied by arpeggios in the lower and middle range. The guitar doesn’t allow for sustained notes the way wind or bowed instruments do.
-
Sep 8, 2023 | 
acousticguitar.com | Adam Levy |Josh Workman |Cathy Fink |Jane Miller
Many of us learn to improvise by memorizing a couple of scale patterns and then matching them to the key that we’re in. On a good day, melodies are born, blues are expressed, licks are found. On a not-so-good day, when it’s your turn to solo the song is not in the right key—not only that, it changes keys every two or four bars, and by the time you figure out how to chase that around, it’s not your turn anymore.
-
Jul 28, 2023 | 
acousticguitar.com | Grant Gordy |Adam Perlmutter |Alan Barnosky |Cathy Fink
About Acoustic Guitar lessons. Learning to play the guitar takes more than just figuring out what fingers go on which frets and which strings to pluck or pick. You need to absorb these mechanics, for sure, but you also need to know how different techniques fit together and how you can put them to use in service of making music with soul and spirit.
-
Jul 12, 2023 | 
acousticguitar.com | Scott Nygaard |Jeffrey Pepper Rodgers |Cathy Fink |Josh Workman
Maybe you are familiar with basic boom-chuck patterns in different keys, but not yet the common guitar key of D major. In this lesson, you’ll learn the basic boom-chuck accompaniment on a I–IV–V (D–G–A) progression in D, then make it sound more interesting by playing around with the bass line in a couple of different variations.
