I decided I wanted to play the guitar when I heard Merle Travis on a barely-audible signal from WRVA in Richmond, Virginia back in the early pre-history of the 1950's. During high school and college I played the standard rock 'n roll of the era, but later drifted back to the alternating bass style I had learned as a youngster. I also discovered some of the great Piedmont blues players like Blind Boy Fuller, Willie McTell, and, of course, the incomparable Blind Blake.I've arranged a number of songs for fingerstyle guitar and they're available here. For the most part, they're original arrangements although some draw heavily on pieces from Travis or Chet Atkins and are so noted. These tunes are for the intermediate-level player and are in as standard a TAB form as I could create. Feel free to use them as you wish; it's a hoot to think anyone would be interested. Any suggestions for improvements or additions are welcome.
For those new to fingerstyle guitar, there's a tutorial on the basics along with some sample exercises. There's also a page of useful fingerstyle chords and an FAQ. For private instruction, drop me an e-mail.
I do use some TAB notation you may not have seen before. If you need an explanation, click HERE. For a general explanation of TAB format, check out Howard Wright's Guide
These TABS are in .txt files that are set up to print using a fixed font such as Courier or Courier New.
Beginners
For new guitar players, there are some beginner chords to get you started.
Midi Files
In addition to the TAB files available in text form, I have many of the same arrangements in Midi format so you can hear what sound like. These were created using MidiSoft and most use the piano sound because it reproduces better than guitar. You can use the right mouse button and do a "Save Target As..." on these files to save them to your local drive then play them using the media player of your choice. Microsoft Media Player seems to work OK.