Be a Better Acoustic Guitarist: How to Add Excitement to Your Acoustic Rock Sound

You may wonder how artists like John Mayer, the Beatles, or the Allman Brothers Band write songs with big, ringing chords that don’t sound like what you’d hear from typical root-position shapes. Listen closely to the second and third chords of the Allmans’ “Melissa,” for example, and you’ll detect the twang of open strings—like the high open E and B strings from the standard E chord that begins the song. But these additional chords are more exciting than that plain old E.