I've been using classic guitars since 1955 and have found them to be very good for folk song and ballad accompaniment. But then, I don't do blues or bluegrass (not because I don't like blues and bluegrass, it's that my interest is more in ballads). Most general audiences don't really differentiate between nylon-string classics and steel-string guitars, and I find the wider fingerboard easier to play on. But then, I keep my thumb behind the neck, not wrapped around it in a strangle-hold.

Also, I prefer the sound of a good classic. It blends very well with the human voice. AND—with the sort of songs I sing (ballads mostly)—I find a sort of atavistic kinship with the lute. Minstrel tradition.

I was born and raised in a big city and came to singing folk songs and ballads in my early twenties, and frankly, I find city folks attempting to sound like they just stumbled down from the hills to be a bit—phony. But you're mileage may vary.

If you've already had some classic guitar lessons, just stick with the hand positions you were taught (left hand thumb behind the neck, right hand fingers at a more-or-less right angle with the strings). Then learn the basic first-position chords. Lots of chord books available, or heaps of chord diagrams to be found on the internet.

Start out with simple strums or picking patterns like "Burl Ives Basic:" right thumb (p) plays the three bass strings (alternately one at a time, not all at once), i, m, and a play 3rd, 2nd, and 1st strings respectively. For a two or four beat rhythm, play the thumb on ONE followed by all three fingers together on TWO and do the same for THREE and FOUR (thumb-fingers-thumb-fingers). For a three-beat, thumb-fingers-fingers (ONE TWO THREE).

Burl Ives made a lifelong career out of playing little else for song accompaniment.

But you can vary it all over the place. Once you can accompany a fair number of songs with Burl Ives Basic, you can try things like arpeggiating the chord. Hold the chord with the left hand and play the strings individually with the right-hand fingers. Use your imagination. Many combinations possible. And there are books available. The Carcassi Method has arpeggio patterns until hell won't have it!

Then, bass runs—single note scale-wise passages from one chord to the next. Experiment. Dink around.

What are my qualifications? In addition to making a fairly decent career as a singer of folk songs (concerts, coffeehouses, television), for about thirty years I taught classic and/or folk guitar in private lessons and classes of up to a dozen people in folk guitar. Some of my former students wound up performing professionally. [So I guess I couldn't have screwed them up too badly.....]

Don Firth