Acoustic guitar songs are loved the world over. Whether songs are placed on acoustic guitar albums or find their way onto individuals’ mobile devices, the most popular acoustic guitar songs are difficult to get away from. Furthermore, they are familiar to millions of people all around the world.

Here is our take on the world’s most popular acoustic guitar songs.

Good Riddance

Most people hear this song and fall in love with it before they discover it is performed by Green Day. This is one of those songs that has been covered hundreds of times through the years and not one of them comes anything close to the original. Of course, covers not being as good as the original tracks isn’t a new trend, but when a song is covered so much it is usually the case that at least one of them stands up to scrutiny.

Not in this case, which is what makes Good Riddance such a popular acoustic guitar song.

Wonderwall

Oasis have a number of “signature” tracks, and while Wonderwall isn’t everyone’s cup of tea there is no doubting its status as a musical classic. What makes it stand out from an Oasis perspective is that it is one of the few songs they do that can be stripped right back, and while the original was produced and featured many instruments it is the rawness of the track that shines through and makes it great to play on an acoustic guitar.

Wanted (Dead or Alive)

Bon Jovi often don’t get the credit for their music that many think they deserve, often because they’re not seen as a cool band to enjoy listening to. That aside, there is little doubt that the opening licks of Wanted (Dead or Alive) are among the most recognisable in any track around the world, and it is such a well written and performed song that there is little difference between the recorded version and the acoustic track.

Any Beatles Song

The Beatles are the undisputed kings of the popular acoustic guitar song, and we make no apology for bundling all of their work into one here. Whether it is something obviously acoustic like Yesterday or a track with a little more production and noise like She Loves You, there isn’t a Beatles song that cannot be enjoyed simply by sitting down with an acoustic guitar and playing it, whether you’re doing so alone or with friends.

While the modern trend for recording music is to do it electronically (both in terms of the guitar and where it is recorded to) the love many people have for acoustic guitar music means that artists still need to find the best methods of recording acoustic guitar. Established musicians tend not to have a problem, as they can go to the studio and enjoy professional recording conditions, but what if you wanted to make an acoustic recording at home?

Electric Acoustic

Admittedly, this is cheating somewhat, but if you can get an acoustic guitar that you can plug into an amp or your computer, then you’re sorted.

This goes a long way to helping dealing with the issues we’re about to explore when it comes to recording acoustic guitar.

Housekeeping

As difficult as it may be, you need to try and give yourself as quiet a surrounding as possible. If this means recording at an odd time of day or bribing people to get out of the house, then you might have to do this. Soundproofing your room like a studio probably isn’t practical for you!

You should also be aware of any echo that may happen from your guitar. Know the difference between an awkward echo sound and the natural reverb that makes acoustic guitar playing what it is. Home recording is best done close to hard floors and walls so you get strong reverb without the sound echoing into nothingness and ruining your recording.

You also need to be mindful of anything that could interfere with the sound. Rough areas on jeans, belt buckles, your watch or any other jewellery are all included here, you need to take away anything that could hurt your recording.

Your Equipment

The mic is obviously the key to acoustic recording, so you should go for something that captures sound perfectly and will put a clear recording onto your computer system. The mic should sit as close to the guitar as possible (considering the room you need to play), but if you want to get the sound you hear you can always place the mic closer to your head. If you’re going to sing over the acoustic recording consider how your voice balances against the sound of the guitar.

A thinner pick is often best for live acoustic recordings; play around and see which one gives you the sound you like best.

Recording Acoustic Guitar

There’s no real exact science when it comes to recording acoustic guitar; play around and when you find a formula that gives you recordings you love and that sound great, stick with that set up. Once you’re happy with something, don’t keep playing around, as invariably you’ll find it hard to get back to the start. You can always add reverb or remove excessive echo if you haven’t been able to do this already by using mixing software on your computer later.

Have fun when recording acoustic guitar, and most of this will come to you naturally.

The sound of the flamenco guitar is one of the most distinct in the world. While many untrained ears might not be able to pick out exactly what the instrument it, those familiar with the different styles of guitar will instantly be able to recognise when a flamenco guitar is being played.

While the sound of the flamenco guitar is widely recognised, a number of flamenco guitar artists have also reached iconic status in the music world. Here are out top five flamenco guitar artists.

Ramon Montoya

Ramon Montoya is widely credited as being the father of modern flamenco. What we mean by this is that flamenco music used to be dominated by the singing and dancing, with the guitar being played in the background little more than an afterthought. Montoya changed this, bringing an aggressive style to his guitar playing that redefined flamenco as a dance style and made everyone associate it with this particular way of playing a six string.

He is widely regarded as the most influential flamenco guitarist of all time.

Carlos Montoya

Keeping it in the family, Carlos Montoya was the nephew of Ramon, and was another hugely influential flamenco guitarist. Although Carlos Montoya died in 1993, he is widely regarded as the man whom, through the latter part of the 20^th century, helped to cement flamenco as a credible music genre and ensure that there would be opportunities for other artists who enjoy playing this style long into the future.

Oscar Herrero

While Oscar Herrero has not enjoyed the commercial successes of some of the larger flamenco guitar artists, he is already assured of his place in flamenco folklore, and at the age of 54 he has many more years with which to cement his legacy.

Although Herrero has released a number of flamenco guitar records, his biggest contribution to the genre has been through a number of highly effective textbooks and DVDs that help teach beginner flamenco enthusiasts everything they need to know. Herrero has also created a number of resources for advanced flamenco guitarists, meaning players at all levels should be familiar with his work.

Eddie Freeman

It is natural to look at Spain and other Latin countries when seeking out the best flamenco guitar artists, but in Eddie Freeman England produced a highly successful and influential artist of their own.

Like Herrero, Freeman’s main successes came in the instruction and guidance of how to play flamenco guitar, and he was also famous for being able to transcribe flamenco music after listening to it. Freeman was also involved with the production of instruments, making him a central figure in 20^th century flamenco.

Vicente Amigo

Vicente Amigo is a Grammy Award winning flamenco guitarist who released his most recent album, Tierra, in 2013. As well as being commercially successful with his solo albums, he also plays guitar live and in session recordings with a number of prominent flamenco singers, and is indeed one of the most sought after guitarists in the world in this regard.

There are many famous Spanish guitar songs that people around the world recognise and love, so coming up with a definitive list of the top five is always going to be a challenge. However, we’ve taken it up and looked to bring you our own top five. We’ve moved away from the traditional meaning of the word “song,” however, as many of these don’t have words so, strictly speaking, are pieces of music rather than songs. Still, it is likely that most people wouldn’t differentiate between the two, so we won’t, either!

Here are our top five famous Spanish guitar songs.

Romance Anonimo

You might have heard of this piece being called Spanish Romance or Romance of the Guitar, but we’ve stuck to the traditional name here. Although it is a stunning piece of music that is great to learn, even on a traditional acoustic guitar, part of the fame of this piece comes from the fact that there is great debate around who composed it and where it came from.

Various musicians have been credited with writing the piece, but all that is certain is that it comes from the mid-to-late 19^th century and would appear to come from Spain or South America. Narciso Yepes is widely credited with making it popular, but not thought to have been the composer (he wasn’t born until 1927).

Asturias, Patria Querida

This piece of music is actually the anthem of the Asturias region of Northern Spain, while the melody was also used in The Doors’ Spanish Caveman.

When played as the Asturian anthem, it is more regularly played with bagpipes, but is a popular and famous Spanish guitar song in its own right.

El Porompompero

Manolo Escobar is perhaps more popular around the world for his version classic party track Y Viva Espana, but El Porompompero is the Spanish guitar song that probably represents his best work. Such was his success on the back of this track that his home in Benidorm was named after it.

This is another great track that all aspiring guitar players should look to learn.

Bésame Mucho

Bésame Mucho is actually a Mexican track yet one that uses Spanish guitar to its fullest. It is one of Mexico’s most popular songs, as well as one of the most famous of all bolero-genre pieces, and is also the most sung and recorded track from the Central American nation.

In recent years, a number of successful contemporary artists including Michael Bublé, have recorded versions of the song in many versions, with upbeat and big band versions recorded in contrast to the original bolero.

La Isla Bonita

Most people wouldn’t expect to see a Madonna track on a famous Spanish guitar songs list, but it is almost impossible to leave this one off. It is widely seen as one of the tracks that made Madonna a more experimental and daring artist (although she’d had great success before releasing this track trying out a variety of musical styles) and has been covered by many Latin musicians since its 1987 release.

The track was actually offered to Michael Jackson before Madonna took it, so it may have ended up as a wildly different song from the one we know today!