I had a recent query from my old friend Flip Breskin of the Puget Sound Guitar Workshop about a student she has with thumbs that bend backward severely. She wondered what I might suggest to help him use his thumbs more successfully when fingerpicking and fretting. I realized that some of my thoughts would be applicable to many guitarists whose thumbs don’t bend backward quite so much. So here is my first installment on this subject of thumbs, specifically the picking-hand thumb. Perhaps it will be thought provoking for you. When it comes to playing guitar, I preach relaxation, using […]

I continue to receive questions about amplifying acoustic guitars. Since there are so many possible combinations of pickups, microphones and amplifiers, I can’t pretend to know them all. But I will share my experiences and current preferences. When I play very small and quiet venues I simply play acoustically. I cut my acoustic teeth in the late ’60s and early ’70s, when good acoustic amplification consisted of a high-quality microphone through a PA system. Players needed to project back then! Out of sheer necessity, and at the insistence of several good instructors I had, I learned to use the entire […]