Introduction to Folk Music

This is my introductory post about folk music (part of an ongoing series of posts which started here).

Quick background: Folk music, if you include tradtional music, has been around for about as long as people have been singing songs and making music. I think nowadays when someone says "folk", we tend to think acoustic guitars and interesting musical tales about some person, place, or happening. But generally speaking, folk music tends to be acoustic and places a strong emphasis on storytelling.

Sometimes people lump in world music and traditions into the "folk music" genre, which is fine, but that is not what this post is about (mostly because I know little to nothing about that kind of music, but also because most people don't think of that when they think of "folk" music, at least not in North America).

Who should learn about folk? Do you music that tells interesting stories? Do you have some interesting stories you'd like to turn into a song? Are you a Bob Dylan fan, or do you like older, traditional music? These are all good reasons to learn more about folk music.

What makes folk music unique? Folk music tends to be the simplest in terms of orchestration; the music is often very repetitive, and more often than not pretty easy to play. It's usually the compelling story that really makes folk music stand out from other genres.

Popular folk artists: Bob Dylan, Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger

How to play folk music on guitar and ukelele: The easiest way to get started playing folk music is learning your basic or open chords [I'll have a page for this soon! I'll also include a few on this page], and a few simple strumming or fingerpicking patterns [Another page I'll have up soon! And I'll also include a sample here].

Tell me a story.

Folk music is really the music for storytellers. If you like sharing stories, whether yours or someone else's, folk music is for you!