Acoustic Guitar Lessons

The steel-string acoustic guitar sits behind most styles of popular music. Strum it with a pick, play it with your fingers, or mix the two — and it comes in a range of shapes and sizes, each with its own tone and feel.

Not sure which body size suits you? We’ll match the instrument to your hands, your comfort and the sound you’re after before you spend a penny. In lessons I cover the lot: early blues and ragtime through to folk, country, rock, pop and indie. And if you fancy a whole different world of guitar playing, we can get into bottleneck / slide too.

New to the acoustic?

We start with a handful of basic chords and strumming rhythms, then move on to fingerstyle and more advanced strums as your hands settle in. You’ll be urged to pick songs you actually want to play — that’s how you keep it fun and keep making progress.

Already play?

Keen to fill in things you missed over the years, try a style you’ve never approached, or iron out some bad habits with better technique? We can do all of it. Play well but don’t quite understand what you’re playing? I’ll help you crack the code — learn the theory you actually use on the instrument, and leave out the rest.

Playing for singers

Struggling to play and sing at the same time? I’ll show you the tricks that make the two lock together with ease, so your voice and your hands stop fighting each other.

Fancy a twelve-string?

Twelve-string acoustics are available too, and they sound glorious. I don’t recommend one for a complete beginner — they ask for extra left-hand strength — but if you already play the six-string, we can absolutely give it a go.

A quick note on the classical guitar

The nylon-string acoustic, also known as the classical guitar, is a different instrument with a different technique. If that’s what you’re after, head to my classical & flamenco guitar page.

Your first three months on acoustic guitar

Month one is fingertips and chord changes. Steel strings ask more of a beginner’s hands than nylon or electric do, so we build up in short bursts, get you fretting cleanly right behind the fret, and work through the open chords — E minor, A minor, C, D, G and E — until the changes between them stop needing a pause. Alongside that: holding a pick, a steady down-strum in time, and reading a chord chart.

Month two adds rhythm and the first barre chord. Down-up strumming patterns, the sixteenth-note feel behind a lot of pop and folk, muting for a percussive strum, and F major, the chord that stops most self-taught players in their tracks. This is normally when the first full song appears — one you picked, not one I imposed.

Month three brings the fingers in. Travis-style alternating-bass fingerpicking, arpeggiated chords, simple hammer-ons and pull-offs, and the first riffs and melodies played on single strings. We look at a capo, at whether your guitar’s action and string gauge are actually helping you, and at how to work a song out from a recording rather than waiting for someone to hand you the chords.

Where the level goes after that

After the first term you choose the direction. Singer-songwriters go into accompaniment patterns, capo transposition and locking voice to hands. Fingerstyle players take on independent bass lines, harmonics, percussive body hits and full solo arrangements. Blues and roots players get into open tunings, bottleneck slide and the early blues and ragtime vocabulary. Behind whichever route you take, the theory stays practical — enough to explain what your hands are doing, and no more.

Graded exams, if you want them

Most acoustic students never sit an exam and are none the worse for it, but if a structured goal helps you practise, acoustic guitar lessons here can follow the RGT or LCM guitar syllabi.

His teaching covers all aspects of acoustic guitar playing, chords, rhythm playing, theory, scales, arpeggios, and soloing… My confidence in my guitar playing has increased enormously in just 9 months of lessons.— John Ford, acoustic guitar student

Where lessons happen

In-studio in London SE16 — Rotherhithe, Canada Water and Surrey Quays — at your place anywhere within TfL Zone 3, including Bermondsey and Borough (SE1), Walworth (SE17), Deptford (SE8), New Cross and Peckham (SE14, SE15), Lewisham (SE13) and Canary Wharf (E14), or live online worldwide over Zoom/similar. When the weather’s kind, studio lessons can even move out to a private front-garden area. Get in touch and we’ll pick what fits you best. I teach music lessons right across South East London — see the areas I cover →.