Acoustic Guitar

Acoustic Guitar is a monthly publication that has been available in the United States since July/August 1990, produced by String Letter Publishing. This magazine provides valuable information, motivation, and guidance for acoustic guitar enthusiasts, catering to everyone from newcomers to experienced educators. Each edition features around three songs complete with notation and tablature, along with lessons, product reviews, and interviews with well-known acoustic musicians. The magazine enjoys a readership of about 54,000 and has a strong social media presence, boasting over 490,000 likes on Facebook, making it easily accessible across North America.

International

English

Magazine

Outlet metrics

Domain Authority

Ranking

Global

#244880

United States

#115582

Arts and Entertainment/Music

#1464

Traffic sources

Monthly visitors

Articles

Review: Heather Maloney Mourns and Celebrates Her Father on ‘Exploding Star’

3 days ago | acousticguitar.com | Derk Richardson |Jeffrey Pepper Rodgers |Pat Moran

“Are you floating in the cosmos, finally free from time/ While I’m down here on the highway looking for signs?” asks Heather Maloney in the title track from her new album, Exploding Star, over the light 6/8 strum of her guitar.
Teaching Artists May Recap: The Bass Rumble, Jazz-Blues, Map Your Fretboard with Intervals, Musical Travis Picking, and Summer Goals

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.
Valerie June on Finding the Right Guitar, Crafting Her Sound, and Channeling Magic Through Music

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.
How to Play Simon and Garfunkel’s Bossa Nova-Inspired Ballad “So Long, Frank Lloyd Wright”

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.
Developed with John Mayer, Ernie Ball’s Earthwood Bell Bronze Strings Provide Bold Tone and Solid Tuning

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.
Scott Goldbaum Teaches the Fingerstyle Technique Behind “Taste and Tame”

1 week ago | acousticguitar.com | Joey Lusterman |Doug Young |Mark Hanson |Luke Edwards

Scott Goldbaum is an in-demand session and performing guitarist who has collaborated with artists such as Sting, Dashboard Confessional, and Keith Urban. With “Taste and Tame,” an ethereal acoustic rock original, Goldbaum employs a deft tremolo picking-inspired fingerstyle pattern that creates a quiet intensity. It’s a challenging song, both technically and emotionally; Goldbaum composed the music and lyrics after he was diagnosed with a severe heart arrhythmia.
Learn to Play Simple but Musical Solos with Just Five Notes in Open Position

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.
Six Ways to Master the Musical Alphabet and Build a Deeper Understanding of Your Fretboard

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?
Remembering the Groundbreaking Folk/Pop Singer-Songwriter Jill Sobule

3 weeks ago | acousticguitar.com | Jeffrey Pepper Rodgers |Greg Olwell |Greg Cahill |Mark Small

On May 1, 2025, the singer-songwriter world lost one of its most irrepressible and beloved free spirits when Jill Sobule died in a house fire while on tour in Minnesota. Sobule, 66, was best known, in her own words, as a “two-hit wonder”: for “I Kissed a Girl,” from 1995, the first overtly gay-themed song to reach the Top 20 (13 years before Katy Perry’s song of the same title); and “Supermodel,” featured in the Clueless movie soundtrack.
Teaching Artists April Recap: Fingerstyle Blues, Segovia with a Flatpick, Strum Like a Drummer, Diatonic Chords, and the Simple Yet Complex G6 Chord

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.