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These free guitar lessons are from Rich Maloof’s 50 Acoustic Guitar Licks You MUST Know which covers crucial phrases, concepts and techniques for the acoustic guitar that will help guide your development. With these licks in your acoustic arsenal, you’ll have more insight and chops to deliver the perfect mood and texture for any tune.

Acoustic Guitar Lick #3: Pete’s Best

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Pete Townshend will always be remembered for those windmills on his Les Paul, but where his playing really shines is on acoustic. We borrow from his repertoire here with upper-string voices strummed hard and fast over the top of a pumping bass note. The technique sets up a whole lot of tension, which is great to release with a first-position slam…or a vocalist screaming, Yeeaaaahhhhhh!

Acoustic Guitar Lick #6: Fill City

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This is a great acoustic fill that you can throw in at a turnaround, at the end of a tune, or any time you want to make your guitar-playing friends weep in envy. A sweet little upper-string slide on 6ths comes in for a gentle landing over an Esus arpeggio, and tails off with sliding doublestops on mid strings.

Acoustic Guitar Lick #22: Jam Bandy

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Who says only the Strat guys can get funky? Riffs played on acoustic can actually get a little more snap, crackle, and pop than you usually hear played on an electric. This particular phrase, built in the style of Dave Matthews, sets up a percussive progression that works great as the foundation of a chorus or as a loop to jam over.

Acoustic Guitar Lick #38: Real Harm

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Pretty as they may be, harmonics can also be used to add a little dissonance and color. After all, you’re pretty much locked into the few notes open harmonics offer regardless of the harmony of your song, so they’re only going to be harmonically appropriate if you’ve planned your changes accordingly. Here, a jazzy chord is punctuated by two harmonic strokes across the fretwire at the 5th and 7th frets.

Acoustic Guitar Lick #43: Why Not, Georgia?

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John Mayer has worked enough magic on an acoustic guitar to make Jennifer Aniston and Jessica Simpson bat their eyelashes. Worth a try, isn’t it? There’s a lot of mood and movement packed into this little two-bar phrase, and it requires you to work a fingerpicked groove that has a feel and strength normally reserved for strums. This is tricky to get underhand, but once you have it you won’t want to stop.

Looking for more Acoustic Licks? Download Rich Maloof’s 50 Acoustic Guitar Licks You MUST Know for much more including tab, notation, and jam tracks!