I recently published my version of Hard Times Come Again No More, which I recorded in Luke’s studio in Grange. Here’s a video featuring a close-up of the acoustic guitar, for anyone who would like to delve a bit deeper into it. It’s in drop-D tuning, and played with a fingerpicking technique that’s based on… — read more

Rory Gallagher was a beast. Probably best known as an electric blues guitarist and singer, but he could also turn his hand to acoustic guitar, harmonica, mandolin and a host of other instruments. (Not unlike our own Seamie O’Dowd, who was heavily influenced by Rory.) This is a lovely little acoustic fingerstyle tune of his… — read more

A further exploration of the Travis style of fingerpicking. This tune uses the ‘alternating thumb’ throughout most of the piece, but the fingers deviate a lot from the typical patterns we have been using so far. I first heard this tune played by Doc Watson and his son Merle. (Listen HERE.) I worked out a… — read more

A version of Mother Nature’s Son by The Beatles (well by Paul McCartney, really, John didn’t have anything to do with this one!) I’ve used the Travis technique in this playthrough. It’s not how Paul plays it on the original recording, but I think it suits the song nicely. At a few points in the… — read more

This is a playthrough of Dust In The Wind by Kansas. In the previous lesson we looked at the picking pattern used in the Intro of the song. You can use this right hand pattern for almost the entire song. The pattern changes slightly at bar 42, so keep an eye out for that in… — read more