TrueFire members: Best acoustic courses?
 

I have a membership at Truefire and I want to get some advice if I can on good technique courses for both fingerstyle and strumming techniques. I already play fingerstyle, but not really well and I'd love to work on technique there as well as new strumming techniques. Any suggestions?

Anything from David Hamburger. He's a great teacher and covers some really good material. His instructional techniques are the best.

Thank you!

My favorite TrueFire artist is Vicki Genfan. She is one of the most rhythmic and dynamic guitarists I've ever seen. She's got several lessons listed and a pretty good one on 30 strumming patterns. And you can find examples of those at youtube. Good luck...

https://truefire.com/educators/vicki-genfan/e4175

And Vicki's web site if you'd like it...

http://vickigenfan.com

I have Truefire lessons from Tommy Emmanuel, David Hamburger, Muriel Anderson and Brooks Robertson. I've only worked on the TE lessons, but the other ones looked interesting enough for me to buy them. I have so much stuff to work on that I'm overloaded and tax season looms ahead. So my advice is to take it slow, buy a couple and work on them, don't be like me, lol.

It's called TAS (Truefire Acquisition Syndrome) or HAS (Homespun Acquisition Syndrome). My name is Bob. I am a recovering TASoholic and HASoholic. At least it's a lot cheaper than GAS and the wifey will never know!

Lol, I'm on my second Homespun screen. Stefan Grossman has similar software, but I only have a couple things.... Then there's Toby Walker's stuff, Active melody.......

Couldn't agree more. He's excellent and scaffolds his lessons really well, especially in his newer courses.

I has HAS too. Hopefully the Traum family and their artists appreciate my support! And to be honest, I am a better player for it.

Best,

Rick

As a lifelong flatpicker, I'm ready to try something out of my comfort zone.

I looked at a few of the lesson samples from David Hamburger of Truefire. I think I might benefit from his style of teaching blues. However, I'm not exactly sure which beginner finger style blues lessons to start with. I'm an intermediate flatpicker but have tried and failed a few times to progress with finger style.
I welcome advice here, as there are no guitar teachers in my area. Any suggestions from David's students would be great. Thanks.

This is more fingerpicking, but a great course by Howard Morgen. Nice perspective of the fretboard from a nice dude.

FWIW, I am/was in a similar boat. I wasn't sure which Hamburger to start with, so I decided to start with 30 Beginner Fingerstyle Blues Licks You MUST Know. It's not billed as a structured course but it actually builds extremely well. The lessons build thumb and finger independence by starting with very simple lessons early on and then scaffolding/building from there. The only downside is that you're not really learning full songs and some of the licks are pretty basic. That said, each of the lessons works well as a vamp and as you get into the later lessons he starts moving between chords as well, both in turnarounds and song progression.

Another Truefire fan here.

I particularly like Adam Miller's Acoustic Groove, Massimo Varini's Rhythm Factory and Pierre Bensusan's DADGAD Explorer. I use these in a more or less structured way.

But I also use Chris Buono's Funk Fission and Andy Aledort's Progressive Blues Power. And I learned a lot about effects from Jeff McErlain's Guitar Effects Survival Guide. These courses are more for 'fun' in an entertaining way (just looking at the video's). But there are always little things I pick up.

I bought some of these courses during their end of year sale last December. I would not have gotten so many courses for the regular price. But for $5 each, I figured I'd give them a try (I still have some waiting to be opened for the first time!).