Play acoustic like Ani DiFranco

Born in Buffalo, New York, singer-songwriter and feminist icon Ani DiFranco's music defies easy categorisation.

Drawing on folk, rock and hip-hop influences her songs have gained her a large and loyal fanbase. She has also recorded incredibly prolifically, releasing at least one album each year since 1990 on her own label, Righteous Babe Records. Her guitar style is characterised by a percussive approach that she achieves by striking downwards at the strings, incorporating hammer-ons to create intervallic jumps.

The result is arresting and dynamic. Despite her extensive palette of open tunings, we'll remain in standard tuning for this example of her playing, that features strumming in 6/8 time and tasty hammer-on figures. Remember: play with plenty of attitude!

Gear

Ani's main guitar is an Alvarez Yairi signature. For the recording we used a Guild CO-1C mic'd with an AKG C1000S into a laptop via an Edirol UA-25 external soundcard.

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Tutorial audio: Play acoustic like Ani DiFranco