Guitar is probably the most versatile instrument in the world. You can learn 3 (or 4) chords, "get by" and be perfectly satisfied with your progress, or you can study iy your whole life and not learn all the nuances and subtleties.

But it's ACTUALLY EASY to play rhythm and melody at the same time. Especially in the American traditional styles of the piedmont songsters----folks like Elizabeth Cotten and Mississippi John Hurt and Etta Baker. Similar to styles popularized by Merle Travis and Sam McGee. John Fahey and many others from the folk revival---me included---used the style almost exclusively as both backup and for instrumental breaks. In bluegrass and old-timey music, listen to Kenny Baker's work when he's not playing fiddle with Bill Monroe. Earl Scruggs is a monster finger-picker on songs like "Jimmy Brown The News Boy" and "You Are My Flower".

The style involves (basically) an alternated bass with your thumb to keep the beat, and melody played on the treble strings with your fingers. The syncopated sound of this guitar picking style mesmerized me when I was young. Tom Paley, doing Sam McGee's "Railroad Blues" at the first University of Chicago Folk Festival in 1961 just blew me away. I did it for the next 40 years---give or take a couple... That exceptionally traditional festival is still going strong---every February.

Art Thieme