Acoustic Masterclass

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I've spent the last 20 years touring and gigging around the UK, in Europe and across the USA. Along the way I've performed and worked with some of the world's leading folk, jazz, roots and blues musicians. Some feedback......

J.Comerford - "Highly recommended, I've learned a lot!"

R.Smith - "...Seriously, I enjoyed every minute and you've really helped me understand some of the things that in the past I couldn't get my head round or didn't know how to approach. My playing is going to be so much better now"

C.Jerret -"A huge thanks to Chris, so useful.... if he does another one GO, you won't regret it"

29/09/2026
11/09/2026

The workbooks printed and collected! 🎵📒

I can’t believe it’s that time of year for the annual Brittany folk guitar retreat. 10 of us head to rural France for a week of acoustic folk with our friends John and Daphne at KoumKinvi

🇫🇷🎸🥐🍷☺️🥳

A little change to the online lesson schedule this week — our lesson will be on next Tuesday, just before the Open Mic, ...
03/09/2026

A little change to the online lesson schedule this week — our lesson will be on next Tuesday, just before the Open Mic, rather than Sunday, as I’ll be away gigging at a guitar festival in Portugal.

And we’re changing musical direction for a week too!

I’m currently in the middle of one of our guitar retreats with the brilliant Irish guitarist John Doyle, and we’ve been spending quite a bit of time exploring DADGAD and other open tunings.

So this Tuesday I’m going to bring some of that into our online lesson with the beautiful Song for Ireland, based around the version made famous by the great Scottish folk guitarist and singer Dick Gaughan.

If you’ve never really explored DADGAD before, this is a great way in.

We’ll start with the basic progression and get the song under your fingers as quickly as possible. Then we’ll dig deeper into what makes this tuning sound so good — using partial chords, chord substitutions, trills, hammer-ons and harmony lines to start creating that rich, open Celtic sound.

We’ll also look at one of my favourite aspects of this style: using the guitar to support the voice with little fragments of melody and harmony, rather than simply strumming chords underneath it.

It’s a completely different approach from the fingerstyle blues we’ve been working on recently, but I think a lot of you are going to love it.

Even if your normal world is blues, Americana or American folk, learning a little DADGAD can open up a whole new dimension on the guitar. Suddenly familiar chords and simple ideas take on a completely different character — and you don’t need to be an advanced player to get something really beautiful out of it.

So, for one week at least, we’re crossing the Atlantic and heading for Ireland. 🇮🇪

Tuesday — Song for Ireland in DADGAD - live inside our online guitar school Acoustic Masterclass.

We’ll have the lesson first, followed by our usual Tuesday Members Open Mic.

24/08/2026

🎸 Fancy joining us for the next lesson?

Every week inside Acoustic Masterclass we get together live on Zoom for a guitar lesson — learning songs, techniques, fingerstyle, blues, folk and roots guitar.

You can join in live, ask questions, play along — and all the lessons are available to watch again afterwards.

👉 Come and join us — link in bio

See you at the next one!

Live lesson news! 🎸👉🏼 This Sunday we’re sticking with country blues fingerstyle for one more week, moving on from Blues ...
22/08/2026

Live lesson news! 🎸👉🏼 This Sunday we’re sticking with country blues fingerstyle for one more week, moving on from Blues Stay Away From Me to the brilliant Nine Pound Hammer — a traditional American song famously recorded by Merle Travis, John Prine, Johnny Cash and Tony Rice, and also a favourite of players such as Tommy Emmanuel.

We’ll start right at the beginning, getting that Travis-style alternating thumb working and building a version that sounds great even if you’re relatively new to playing fingerstyle guitar.

From there, we’ll start weaving in the melody and chord ideas whilst keeping the bass moving underneath — that classic country-blues sound that makes one acoustic guitar feel like it’s doing several jobs at once.

It’s a great tune for developing thumb independence, rhythm and coordination, and it sits beautifully under the fingers once you get the basic pattern going. If you’ve been enjoying the country blues lessons over the last few weeks, this is a really useful one to add to your repertoire.

As usual, we’ll spend around 45 minutes on the lesson, followed by time for questions and a look at your technique if needed.

You’ll receive the TAB and chord sheet around an hour before we go live. See you Sunday!

🎸 Get the alternating thumb working — build the foundation of Travis-style country blues fingerpicking

🎸 Learn Nine Pound Hammer — a classic tune that’s perfect for developing this style

🎸 Weave melody into the fingerstyle pattern — keep the bass moving whilst bringing the tune out on top

🎸 Develop thumb independence and coordination — techniques that will transfer into countless country blues and folk tunes

17/08/2026

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Shrewsbury

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