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Guitar Zen: Acoustic

Solid Foundations and Creative Fills for Acoustic Guitar

Marty FriedmanTommy EmmanuelSteve VaiEric GalesEric Johnson

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Guitar Zen: Acoustic
Eric Haugen

Eric Haugen

Educator

multi genre, rock

Genres

About this course

The difference between ordinary strumming and captivating acoustic rhythm guitar lies in the details. In Guitar Zen: Acoustic, Eric Haugen breaks down the subtle techniques, thoughtful embellishments, and musical concepts that will allow your acoustic playing to breathe with depth, expression, and life.

Drawing from traditions across folk, blues, and country music, Eric will guide you through his signature approach to acoustic rhythm playing. You'll explore everything from melodic fills and double stops to crosspicking patterns and chromatic movements, all while developing the musical intuition to know when to embellish and when to leave space.

You’ll learn how to:

  • Develop authentic Carter-style strumming techniques for driving acoustic rhythms
  • Transform simple progressions with strategic pentatonic accents
  • Weave major and minor pentatonic fills into your chord progressions
  • Master crosspicking patterns that add texture and dimension
  • Balance technique with restraint for more musical rhythm playing
  • Create a dialogue between rhythm patterns and melodic ideas
Each lesson systematically builds your rhythmic vocabulary, helping you naturally incorporate these techniques into your playing. You'll practice everything in context with specially designed backing tracks that develop your timing and musicality.

And with TrueFire's interactive tools including synced tab, slow-mo, looping, and fretboard animations, you can master each concept at your own comfortable pace.

“Acoustic rhythm guitar doesn’t have to be just strumming chords. It can be a whole conversation between groove, melody and texture,” says Eric. “You don’t need to overthink it or overload your playing – it’s about keeping things relaxed and musical, and letting the guitar breathe.”

Grab your acoustic guitar and discover the zen of expressive rhythm playing with Eric Haugen!

What you'll learn

  • Apply cross-picking technique to melody with drone tones
  • Apply hybrid picking to double stop passages
  • Create melodic motifs using double stops and develop them across chord changes
  • Create more interesting melodic lines by adding drone bounce
  • Coordinate down-up alternate picking patterns with drone melodies
Release date: 08/20/2025 • 2h 19m runtime
intermediatelate intermediateacoustic guitarguitarrhythmsoloingmodes
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Sample lessons
Open Position Major Pentatonic Etude
Open Position Major Pentatonic Etude
Performance
Leave Space Etude Introduction
Leave Space Etude Introduction
Overview
Leave Space Etude Demonstration
Leave Space Etude Demonstration
Performance
Leave Space Etude Walkthrough
Leave Space Etude Walkthrough
Breakdown

What's included

41 lessons • 20 charts • 7 Jam Tracks

Guitar Zen: Acoustic
I am Eric Haugen. Listen, I mostly play electric guitar, but when I pick up an acoustic, I want to sound legit. So I use shades of old-timey flatpicking techniques in my slowed-down, modern way. In this course, you're gonna hear about the Carter Family, Clarence White, Dave Rawlings, and other legends. We're gonna cover essential strumming patterns, open-position pentatonic fills, double stops, chromatic leads, and cross picking.

If we get a decent handle on those tools, we'll be well on our way to using an acoustic guitar the way it was intended—setting you up with a solid foundation and opening doors to your own creativity. The whole course is a vibe. We're gonna play through everything together using live backing tracks with upright bass and pedal steel. And as always, I keep things super simple and super chill.

Hey, what's that guitar I see in the corner? Go grab it. Let's get started.
SECTION 1: Essential Strumming
There are three rhythm patterns I find myself using pretty much every day, and we’re going to be leaning on them throughout this course. First up is the “boom boom chuck” — a halftime feel that shows up in everything from Neil Young to pop tunes. It’s just two hits on the bass note followed by a strum, and the trick is to keep it clean and relaxed, not fast. Then there’s the classic “boom chuck” — your go-to country rhythm. Think Johnny Cash. It's simple, it's old-timey, and when played with subtlety and separation, it adds a real depth to your acoustic sound without needing to be a flatpicking expert. Finally, we’ve got what I call the “ubiquitous pattern” — your basic mid-tempo rock strum found in loads of pop and folk songs. It’s all six strings, a little syncopation, and a big, open sound that can make even a simple chord progression feel dynamic. We’ll be using all three as a foundation for building up rhythm, leads, and fills, while focusing on playing clean, not just fast.
3 Everyday Strumming Patterns
There are three rhythm patterns I find myself using pretty much every day, and we’re going to be leaning on them throughout this course. First up is the “boom boom chuck” — a halftime feel that shows up in everything from Neil Young to pop tunes. It’s just two hits on the bass note followed by a strum, and the trick is to keep it clean and relaxed, not fast. Then there’s the classic “boom chuck” — your go-to country rhythm. Think Johnny Cash. It's simple, it's old-timey, and when played with subtlety and separation, it adds a real depth to your acoustic sound without needing to be a flatpicking expert. Finally, we’ve got what I call the “ubiquitous pattern” — your basic mid-tempo rock strum found in loads of pop and folk songs. It’s all six strings, a little syncopation, and a big, open sound that can make even a simple chord progression feel dynamic. We’ll be using all three as a foundation for building up rhythm, leads, and fills, while focusing on playing clean, not just fast.
Carter-Style Strumming
There are three rhythm patterns I find myself using pretty much every day, and we’re going to be leaning on them throughout this course. First up is the “boom boom chuck” — a halftime feel that shows up in everything from Neil Young to pop tunes. It’s just two hits on the bass note followed by a strum, and the trick is to keep it clean and relaxed, not fast. Then there’s the classic “boom chuck” — your go-to country rhythm. Think Johnny Cash. It's simple, it's old-timey, and when played with subtlety and separation, it adds a real depth to your acoustic sound without needing to be a flatpicking expert. Finally, we’ve got what I call the “ubiquitous pattern” — your basic mid-tempo rock strum found in loads of pop and folk songs. It’s all six strings, a little syncopation, and a big, open sound that can make even a simple chord progression feel dynamic. We’ll be using all three as a foundation for building up rhythm, leads, and fills, while focusing on playing clean, not just fast.
SECTION 2: Groove & Fill Playing
In this lesson series, we’re diving into one of my favorite go-to concepts: using major pentatonic scales to play over major chords. It’s a simple rule—major chord, major pentatonic—and we’ll apply it across common open-position chords like C, G, F, A, E, and D. I’ll show you how to pair a basic strumming pattern with a few melodic notes from the matching pentatonic scale, creating a sound that feels musical, useful, and real-world ready. The idea is to keep it chill, keep it simple, and develop the kind of phrasing that actually works when you’re playing with others and the chords are flying by. We’ll also talk about why pentatonics—rather than full major scales—are such a great way to outline changes, with a little help from old-school players. We’ll start off with a performance and then break it down in detail.
Open Position Major Pentatonic Fills
In this lesson series, we’re diving into one of my favorite go-to concepts: using major pentatonic scales to play over major chords. It’s a simple rule—major chord, major pentatonic—and we’ll apply it across common open-position chords like C, G, F, A, E, and D. I’ll show you how to pair a basic strumming pattern with a few melodic notes from the matching pentatonic scale, creating a sound that feels musical, useful, and real-world ready. The idea is to keep it chill, keep it simple, and develop the kind of phrasing that actually works when you’re playing with others and the chords are flying by. We’ll also talk about why pentatonics—rather than full major scales—are such a great way to outline changes, with a little help from old-school players. We’ll start off with a performance and then break it down in detail.
Open Position Major Penatonic Etude
In this lesson series, we’re diving into one of my favorite go-to concepts: using major pentatonic scales to play over major chords. It’s a simple rule—major chord, major pentatonic—and we’ll apply it across common open-position chords like C, G, F, A, E, and D. I’ll show you how to pair a basic strumming pattern with a few melodic notes from the matching pentatonic scale, creating a sound that feels musical, useful, and real-world ready. The idea is to keep it chill, keep it simple, and develop the kind of phrasing that actually works when you’re playing with others and the chords are flying by. We’ll also talk about why pentatonics—rather than full major scales—are such a great way to outline changes, with a little help from old-school players. We’ll start off with a performance and then break it down in detail.

+ 34 more lessons

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Reviews

7 results

skaterstu

Verified buyer

05/10/26

Guitar Zen - Chilled learning

Love the course, great and chilled out instructor. Lessons well paced and nice and challenging. Can't wait to see these lessons out to the end where it will definitely expand my learning and knowledge of acoustic playing.

paradisda

Verified buyer

04/04/26

Simple, short lessons - value for money?

I’ve purchased a few individual courses and find them to be too short with a limited number of short lessons. I’m not sure I’m getting good value for money paying for individual courses.

mbrisbois

Verified buyer

03/22/26

Excellent, with opportunity for extensions

The course is excellent in its focus on the acoustic guitar as a distinct instrument. There are excellent etudes and well suited backing tracks. The coverage of techniques will assist beginner and intermediate guitarists and provide fun for advanced players. Eric Haugen is as always a clear instructor with great taste in presenting the etudes. The one area that I think could be improved would be adding as just a supplemental pdf file suggested songs to seek out after each lesson. Some songs or players are mentioned, but only three or four, and providing perhaps 5-6 songs for players that might feature the skill would enable motivated learners to expand on the concepts Haugen teaches so well.

Dan1952

Verified buyer

01/31/26

Eager Beaver "Old Guy"

I am excited to continue learning along with Eric via Guitar Zen Acoustic. Having played guitar for 50 + years I know there's still much to learn and even more to gain proficiency. I'm eager to grow my skills.

EltonSquyres

Verified buyer

01/28/26

Eric Haugen is a master of doing things simply and tastefully. Open chords are a great starting point for his application of pentatonic scales to formulate very nice fills and lines in the songs he provides as teaching instruments. Simple, useful, great.

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