Ever since I was a kid, I wanted to learn to play an acoustic guitar with its warm and soothing tones.

For my 30th birthday, my wife surprised me with an absolutely beautiful acoustic. I later purchased an electric guitar simply to practice without an amp. It made for quiet practice late at night and didn’t torture the family.

All these years later I’m still learning to play my six-string and thought it would be fun to write about it here, inspire, and broaden my guitar playing.

One technique…acoustic fingerstyle guitar

Fingerstyle guitar is the technique of plucking the strings directly with your fingers, or fingertips, as opposed to holding a flatpick. “Fingerpicking” falls under the “Fingerstyle” heading because it’s also plucked by the fingers, but fingerpicking is generally used to play a specific type of folk, country-jazz and/or blues music.

When it comes to fingerstyle guitar, there’s one person that truly stands out, Sungha Jung. Here’s a great video of Sungha playing along with Jason Mraz (another favorite). Take a look…

I’m not big into cover artists. However, I did come across Boyce Avenue who has been hitting it big for the past few years and now touring on their own around the world. Here’s one of their video’s featuring Sarah Hyland from the TV show, Modern Family, singing Closer, by the Chainsmokers.

Strings

I’d like to think that I’ve been experimenting to find the most comfortable strings. However, in all these years, I haven’t strayed far from what’s been working for me. Not much of an experiment, I know. Most of what I like to play is either folk, country, and some classic pop rock. I’ll keep a running list here and if you have any recommendations, please send me an email.

MfgModelToneMy .02
ElixerLight (.012-.053) 80/20 bronze w/Polyweb coating WarmBy far my favorite! Quick, smooth, easy on my fingers, great tone.
D’AddarioEXP13 Custom Light (.011-.052) 80/20 bronze coated phosphorBrightToo stiff
ElixerLight (.011-.052) 80/20 bronze w/Nanoweb coatingBrightNot as quick as the 12-guage Polyweb

So as my 30’s came to an end and 40 arrived (yeah, I know it wasn’t yesterday), it was a good time to stop, reflect, and think about what I wanted to be when I grow up and this one pretty much sums things up…