For this course I thought I’d approach this lesson a little differently, and try and write a song around the central theme of each lesson. I’m not really a country player, but I know country has great songs, and I like writing songs, so I feel there’s plenty to learn.

For this lesson I wrote a song around a i-vi-ii-v progression, turning the v chord in to a little lick either moving from iv to v or the other way around. At the end of each verse I threw in the iii chord as well, then tried to finish it off with a little instrumental part.

I then forgot it, relearned it, forgot it again, relearned it again, played it live a handful of times and spent several hours on my balcony trying to record a take with no mess-ups – the whole process taking about six months. At this rate I’ll be subscribed to Guitargate for a plenty-long time.

So Phillip Henry is an incredible English slide player. So it would make sense to share some of his slide playing. But actually, when it comes to sheer joy of music, this is really unmissable. Phillip gets some amazing sounds and rhythms while covering a Sonny Terry classic.

Back on the bandwagon after some time away . . . although time away doing some constructive musical stuff in other areas. For this lesson I composed a little piece incorporating a shuffle and lots of triplets. I recorded the video sight-reading from the tab.

Great crowd, amazing energy, wonderful build of tension leading in to the explosion of that riff!

Just some good moody shit

I'm going to keep on posting about John Martyn until Michael finally submits! Though this one might just have us putting down the guitar to pick up the double bass . . .

Hi Michael - let's expand the listening palette! Grammy-award winning Arooj Aftab has become an obsession in the last couple of years. Her band's come in many different incarnation, but always with staggeringly good musicians. Suroor is all so lovely, but really kicks off at 2:35 when Maeve Gilchrist on harp and Gyan Riley exchange some fabulous solos.

John Martyn was a brilliant, but troubled, Scottish artist whose music never failed to connect with my heart. This cover of Skip James' "I'd Rather Be The Devil" takes the a classic blues in completely new directions, thanks to John's innovative use of the echoplex, allowing him to create a rhythmic framework within which he could improvise and extemporise within the spaces between echoes.

And killer guitar playing too

Funnily enough, I've never really been interested in alcohol, but I always come back to this song again and again. I love Kris' voice and I think the melody and lyrics are perfect. I really like how the fingerpicking is on point without any need for flashiness.

There's also a full band version out there with electric guitar and spooky violin that's worth a listen, but this acoustic take says it best.

It's a deep, deep well!

Nobody seems to have heard of Cory Seznec, which is a great pity!

My top two guitarists are Richard Thompson and John Martyn. Richard for the head, John for the heart.

John's guitar style is pretty idiosyncratic, and he was forging some fascinating new paths back in the 60s and 70s.

This one is a very special song.

I've been hopelessly in love with Sara Tavares songwriting, singing and playing for years and years.

So I didn't really fine tune this one, as is rather evident, just went in with a few ideas and discovered a few more along the way!

As a fellow nylon nylon-string player I have great affinity for Nick Mulvey, but for me the true beauty of this song is how all the lovely vocal harmonies keep unfolding throughout the song. By the end I'm unable to prevent myself joining in.

Still, for us guitar players there's plenty to appreciate, such as the subtle precision of Nick's thumb as he thwacks exactly the right string while strumming with the fingers, plus some classy rasguedos and a clever use of a partial capo.

Sing along everyone (that includes you Michael): A-ya-yi-yeah-yeah-e-yo-ho-yo-yo!

This is just epic fun. What more needs to be said?

Hi Michael - so far the wonderful world of African guitar has been somewhat underrepresented in the Reacts videos. It's a guitar world I've been neck-deep in for a couple of decades and there's so much deeper to go. But my journey started with this great gentleman, on his collaboration album with Ry Cooder "Talking Timbuktu". I'd like to invite you along for the ride.

Boring name, brilliant playing! I fear that a lot of the excellent British acoustic players have been thus far overlooked Michael - Richard Thompson, John Martyn, Davey Graham, Bert Jansch and so forth. In that lineage, here's the brilliant John Smith playing the aching "Hares on the Mountain", a folk song supposedly from my home county of Somerset. I say supposedly because while we definitely have hares, we definitely don't have mountains.

Plus we also need a tutorial on ankle percussion!