I love playing the guitar. My wife plays fiddle and we often get together to play some fiddle tunes. I enjoy folk singer/songwriter/guitarists, but this site is mostly about playing backup guitar for old-time fiddle music.

Folk guitar is fun and easy to play. It mostly consists of simple chords with some bass runs. Most of the time I hit a bass note on the down beat and strum on the up beat. When I play this "boom-chuck" by myself there isn't much of a melody; but when I play with a fiddle, there is some good music being made.

There are Chords to Songs where maybe you can find the chords to a song you're looking for.

Fingerings for some basic chords are at How to Play Chords.

If you need help strumming or can't figure out how I've written the chords, go to How to Strum the Guitar.

There is some instruction on Guitar Bass Notes and Runs. The modern acoustic guitar was made for playing a lot of bass.

A little Chord Theory explains what triads, minors and sevenths are.

Knowing the key of a song helps with playing the right chords. See Keys and Chords.

Fiddle and guitar at the Matthews Farmers Market

Email comments and questions to wm20 @ folkguitar.us.