Tutorials - Acoustic Woodshed

The Room Matters More Than the Microphone, and Nobody Tells You That First

I have set up more amps and pedalboards on kitchen tables than I can count, and about ten years ago I started doing the same thing with recording gear, because gigs got scarce and demos became the way you got hired. Here is what I wish somebody had told me before I dropped three hundred dollars on a microphone I did not need yet. The first thing nobody tells you: your room is doing more damage to your sound than your gear is helping it. … Read the article

Tutorials

The Site With Over 400,000 Tabs Isn’t Where You Should Learn Your First Song

The site sees a lot of traffic asking where to start, and the honest answer is nowhere near the biggest name first. First warning: not all … Read the article

Tutorials

Singing While You Play Is Not the Same Skill as Playing, Twice

Here’s the myth I hear from students who’ve been at it a year or two: if you can already play the guitar part clean, and you … Read the article

Tutorials

Palm Muting an Acoustic Without Killing the Tone

There’s a belief that gets passed around a lot, usually by someone who came up playing electric and picked up an acoustic later: palm muting is … Read the article

Tutorials

Fingerpicking Patterns That Sound Harder Than They Are (And the One That Doesn’t)

Every few months somebody at a gig asks me to show them “that fancy fingerpicking thing” and points at my right hand like it’s doing something … Read the article

Tutorials

The 45-50% humidity rule is a target, not a cliff

The belief: your acoustic guitar has to live at 45-50% relative humidity, and if the reading drops below that, the wood is about to crack. The … Read the article

Tutorials

The Nashville Number System: a chart that survives a key change

The singer decides at soundcheck that the song sits better a step down. If your chart says G, D, Em, C, you are now rewriting it … Read the article

Tutorials

Measure first, adjust second: an acoustic setup walkthrough

Most guitars that get described as “hard to play” are not badly built. They are badly set up, and the owner has been compensating with their … Read the article

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