alessandroramos
Verified buyer
09/13/25
Simple and valuable
Valuable material, practical approach.
50 Acoustic Guitar Licks You MUST Know
Crucial phrases, concepts and techniques for the acoustic guitar
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About this course
Top educator, player and author of dozens of instructional publications, Rich Maloof presents 50 acoustic guitar licks covering a broad range of essential acoustic techniques you MUST know! Maloof's handpicked range of phrases, concepts, and techniques will help guide your development of the tools, techniques, and vocabulary you'll need to take your acoustic guitar playing to the next level.
While a single-note line — a lick — is certainly fair game in here, the bread-and-butter of acoustic playing is covered in 50 lessons demonstrating fingerpicking patterns, open-string voicings, changes with bass lines, alternate tunings, Brit-pop strums, left-hand mutes, double-stops, funk patterns, alternating bass, movable chord shapes, advanced voicings with open strings, barre chords concepts, Travis-picking, descending bass lines, hammer-ons and pull-offs, alternate chord voicings, movable chord shapes with pedal tones, advanced chord voicing concepts including open strings integration, mixing barre chords with open strings, and harmonics. Rich also shows you the tips and tricks that help set the styles of such acoustic masters as Chet Atkins, Neil Young, Pete Townshend, James Taylor and Jimmy Page apart from the pack.
Add these 50 licks to your acoustic arsenal and you'll have the insight and chops to deliver the perfect mood and texture for any tune – from acoustic power comping to delicate fingerstyle work.
While a single-note line — a lick — is certainly fair game in here, the bread-and-butter of acoustic playing is covered in 50 lessons demonstrating fingerpicking patterns, open-string voicings, changes with bass lines, alternate tunings, Brit-pop strums, left-hand mutes, double-stops, funk patterns, alternating bass, movable chord shapes, advanced voicings with open strings, barre chords concepts, Travis-picking, descending bass lines, hammer-ons and pull-offs, alternate chord voicings, movable chord shapes with pedal tones, advanced chord voicing concepts including open strings integration, mixing barre chords with open strings, and harmonics. Rich also shows you the tips and tricks that help set the styles of such acoustic masters as Chet Atkins, Neil Young, Pete Townshend, James Taylor and Jimmy Page apart from the pack.
Add these 50 licks to your acoustic arsenal and you'll have the insight and chops to deliver the perfect mood and texture for any tune – from acoustic power comping to delicate fingerstyle work.
What you'll learn
- Execute a fingerstyle pattern with moving bass line under static arpeggio
- Execute a cascading fingerpicking pattern using partial capo technique
- Apply inverted pedal concept to create musical interest
- Coordinate thumb for bass movement while maintaining consistent upper pattern
- Develop accompaniment patterns suitable for instrumental or vocal backing
Release date: 09/13/2009 • 1h 43m runtime
Sample lessons
Pete's Best
Lick 3
Fill City
Lick 6
Jam Bandy
Lick 22
Real Harm
Lick 38
What's included
52 lessons • 50 charts • 18 Jam Tracks
50 Acoustic Guitar Licks
Welcome to 50 Acoustic Guitar Licks You Must Know! This course is really unique in that we're showing more than great licks and parts we're teaching a broad range of crucial acoustic techniques. While a single-note line -a lick- is certainly fair game in here, the bread-and-butter of acoustic playing is covered in examples demonstrating fingerpicking patterns, open-string voicings, changes with bass lines, alternate tunings, and a whole lot more. We hope you'll try applying them to different keys, different positions, and different styles once you get them under your fingers. Ultimately, the idea is that each mini lesson might crack open a new door, and shed a little light on a technique or approach you can use in developing your own ideas. So, enjoy. If you're not already in tune, we have a Standard Tuning file waiting in the media folder.
Open and Say Ahh
Our course opens up, appropriately enough, with a progression of open chords. Grabbing an E shape and moving it around the neck makes for some gorgeous changes, and thanks to the open strings you get a mix of common tones and oblique motion (where some voices change and others stay on the same notes). It's a strummer's paradise when all six strings are ringing loud and true -- and you can even add in some great tension when you want it.
Updraft
When the key lends itself to open E and B strings, you can turn the interior strings of many barre chords into open-voicings without going too far astray. Check out how this example in A major has a nice climb from an A chord to a D chord, all with an open A on the bottom and a mix of G's, B's, and E's on top.
Pete's Best
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!
Silver Hammers
Electric rhythm & blues players starting with Curtis Mayfield and continuing with Jimi Hendrix, Stevie Ray Vaughan, and others know the value of sweet doublestop pairs treated with hammers, pull-offs, and slides. On the acoustic, upper-register 4ths and suspensions get a metallic sheen that you just can't get on electric. Check these pairs of hammered doublestop 4ths, dropped into a ballad tempo and played in the style of Pat Metheny (a la "Travels").
Sliding 4ths
The doublestop 4ths here are similar to the shapes used in our "Silver Hammers" example but notice how they get a nice bluesy edge when you slow 'em down and slide 'em around. A similar phrase wraps the acoustic lead opening Pink Floyd's "Wish You Were Here." Notice that the resolving G-B doublestop is an interval of a 3rd rather than a 4th.
Fill City
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.
+ 45 more lessons
Reviews
14 results
owlgroover
Verified buyer
07/25/25
A treasure of techniques.
Wonderful selection of techniques that demonstrate the power and majesty of a single acoustic guitar. A real treasure to be assimilated into the skillset of any style.
AlstrT
Verified buyer
02/19/25
Useful and fun collection.
A great collection of varied styles that you are encouraged to develop further. Clear explanation and demonstration that’s not overburdened with too much information. Instructor is pleasant and knowledgeable.
Baritonepaul
Verified buyer
04/02/23
Licks to spice up your acoustic playing.
Richard covers a wide range of styles and techniques with this course, I will return to this course in the future. The material is clear and not difficult to follow, I like this course. Baritonepaul
vcmvcm
Verified buyer
11/28/22
Fun stuff
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