Fingerstyle guitar is one of the most popular and satisfying ways of playing. Use the thumb and fingers to open up the range of sounds that the guitar can produce, and you're really flying. This is especially so when playing the blues. You can have a neat bass line while still picking away on a melody in the many different blues styles out there. I've been playing this style for many years and it is certainly one of my favourite ways of either arranging or performing. In this collection, I...

'As a guitarist, I've always thought the most satisfying way of playing has got to be fingerstyle. Whether it's in a classical, folk, blues, ragtime or any style, it's like the whole spectrum of sound is being used and nothing wasted. When someone says to you, 'Go on, play us a tune', it's a must to be able to pull something out of the bag, and play a complete piece. This is what I've been doing for years. Slowly building up a repetoire, so yes, I can play a tune! This anthology of fingers...

Christmas is a great time to get out the guitar and play a few tunes for family and friends. For many years I've doodled around making up my own arrangements of christmas tunes for solo acoustic guitar using my favourite method, which has got to be fingerstyle. It offers a whole range of sound from high to low, and a great way of performing solo or with added accompaniment.In this collection, I've chosen a mix of carols and Christmas classics which are both easy to play and well sui...

Explore a whole range of slide guitar styles and tunings with Rick Payne's 'Beyond The Delta'. The journey begins in the Delta and moves through Texas and Chicago to Hawaii and beyond. The course includes exercises, tips, tunings and tricks that will inspire you to journey even further. Twelve study pieces and relative tuning guides will help you on your way. This is an exciting new course and a must for all slide guitarists who want to travel further.I picked up my first bottleneck...

Fingerstyle guitar has always been the most satisfying ways of playing guitar. I started the long journey on the fingerstyle road when I had my first classical guitar lessons many years ago. From there my interest in grew into using folk styles of fingerstyle, especially after listening to players of the folk boom era of the the 60's and early 70's: Nick Drake, Paul Simon, Bert Jansch, Martin Carthy, John Renbourne and many more. I was amazed at the textures of sound you could get out of a...

Blues music and Blues guitar has its roots in the Gospel and Spirituals that raised the hopes of the down trodden descendants of the slave trade. Deeply connected to religion, early field hollers and chants slowly became the popular tunes that were passed down from generation to generation. Songs like 'The Battle Of Jericho', 'Swing Low Sweet Chariot' or 'Nobody Knows The Trouble I've Seen', would have been familiar to all the Blues greats. Also, many blues guitarists were preachers by tra...

Finger Style guitar has always been a melting pot of many different styles and influences. It is hard to pin it down to one ingredient that is unique to American or British finger style. However when you begin to stir the pot, the ingredients begin to separate, and without being too patriotic you could say there really is a thing called 'Great British Finger Style'. In this course we'll be exploring the influences, styles and techniques that make up the quintessential Great British Finger ...

In this first volume of Bottle Neck Blues by Rick Payne you'll be learning the basics of slide guitar playing. If you've never tried it before it can be at once quite tricky but also an immediate way of sounding just like the old bluesmen Robert Johnson, Son House and many more. You'll have the chance to get your hands on some of the techniques that are necessary to achieve the authentic sounds of the slide guitar. There are lots of exercises and riffs to try all in the blues style....

Six original Celtic guitar tunes inspired by St Cuthbert's Church in Wells, Somerset. Written by acoustic guitarist Rick Payne. These intermediate pieces suit those players who have a fingerstyle or classical background and an interest in the modal and folk styles made famous by players such as Martin Carthy, Richard Thompson and Martin Simpson. Plenty of room for improvisation and development.

Suites are a collection of short pieces of instrumental music. They originated in the late 14th century as a way of grouping together various dance tunes, perhaps played on the lute, or as a group performance. Suites grew in popularity in the Baroque period with Bach harpsichord suites being the most prolific.The suite would normally be set in one key and consist of five dances: Sarabande, Bouree, Prelude, Minuet and Gavotte. In this collection for the guitar I've added a 6th tune c...

'I've been asked many times if any of my Blues and Ragtime tunes were available in one collection. So, as requested I've chosen some of the oldand written a few more and put them together in this collection Blues and Rags'. As a guitarist I have always had a fascination for fingerstyle.To simply strum with a progression of chords was never enough for me, and I constantly wanted more from the guitar. Great players like Big Bill Broonzy, Rev Garry Davis, Bert Jansch, Ry Cooder ...

Ragtime fingerstyle guitar is one of the most satisfying ways of playing. If you love the challenge and want to try some syncopated rhythms, or move away from the normal arpeggiated fingerstyle of picking, then the tunes in this volume are just for you. There's a mix of classic tunes that I have arranged by players such as Big Bill Broonzy or Rev. Garry Davis, and a whole bunch of ditties that I've written in the ragtime style. Some tunes are more difficult than others, but well worth the ...