Guitar How-To

How To Play 12 String Guitar

The first step towards learning to play the twelve string guitar is the same as for learning the six string – play some chords and scales to toughen up your fingertips and get the muscles of your hands into guitar playing mode. A technical difficulty with the twelve string is that you need to press down on two strings instead of one to play a note. This needs some practice to keep fret buzz down.

Once you have some practice with the twelve string you will possibly notice, as have many other guitarists, that this instrument is best for playing chords rather than single note solos. The twelve string has a distinctive sound which is interesting when used for solos but is really at its best with open chords ringing out.

The first four pairs of strings are an octave apart. Tuning is quite critical with the twelve strings so it would be best to use an electronic tuner.

One of the most famous twelve string guitar players was Leadbelly, one of the pioneer blues players of the first half of the twentieth century. So let’s take a look at playing the blues on the twelve string guitar. As the blues usually features guitar solos of single notes so you will need to work on your single note playing technique. Many blues players recommend tuning the twelve string guitar to an open G or E chord. Also to bring out the full vibrant beauty of the twelve string sound, use a slide to get the real bluesy effect.

Here are some tunings you can use for slide playing on a twelve string guitar:

Open A: eE aA eE aAC# C# EE

Open C: cC gG cC eE gG cC

Open D: dD aA dD f#F# AA DD

Open F: cC fF cC fF AA CC

Open G: dD gG dD gG bB dD

Hawaiian: cC gG cC gG AA EE

Slack C: cC gG cC gG CCCC

George Harrison of The Beatles played a Rickenbacker 360/12 twelve string guitar in the movie A Hard Days Night and this inspired Roger McGuinn of The Byrds to go out and buy one and feature it on records. Harrison played twelve string on You Can’t Do That, one of The Beatles’ early hits so find that track and have a listen to the sound. And go to YouTube to find some examples of The Byrds music. Leo Kottke is another artist who has used the twelve string guitar to good effect as a solo instrument.

And finally have a listen to Led Zeppelin and The Eagles using double neck guitars to switch between six and twelve strings on Stairway To Heaven and Hotel California.

Here’s a great video of the intro of Hotel California slowed down and played close up on a twelve string acoustic . . .