About The Acoustic Music Archive
Hi, and welcome to the Acoustic Music Archive! This site is brought to you by Peter Webster. To find out more about me, just click here.
Why Does This Site Exist?
The aim of the archive is to help you learn folk songs by providing you with the guitar chords, the lyrics and a recording that you can play along to. The site also tries to tell you a little about each song's context - where it comes from and its history. I don't claim to achieve total accuracy all of the time, and nor do I have a monopoly on knowledge about folk songs. Most of what you'll read is garnered from other websites (how else does anybody learn anything these days?). Wikipedia and The Mudcat Cafe are two sources that I frequently use.
How to Use the Site
You can listen to a song and view its chords and lyrics by clicking on a song title on the Lyrics, Chords and Recordings page. You can find songs by using the Learn to Play Songs on Your Guitar menu on the left. Each song in the archive comes with chords, lyrics, and a recording that you can listen to and play along with, and also some text about the song.
You might have come to the Acoustic Music Archive because you want to find the lyrics or chords to a particular song. You might have come because you want to find out more about folk and other roots music, or just because you are curious. You might even have come here by accident. The fact is that there are plenty of other sites where you can find chords and lyrics. And there are also specialist sites where you can find out about the origins of folk songs. But this is one of the few sites where you can find out a little about the origins of a song, listen to a recording of it (not a midi file - a real recording) and see the lyrics and the chords all at the same time. And you can also add songs to the site yourself. See below for more information about how to do this.
How to Add a Song
Sign-up as a registered user. You will then be able to log in and on the menu on the left you will notice that you have access to an Add Song link. Click the link and then follow the on-screen instructions to add your song. Just like the songs that you can already see on the site, you will be able to add lyrics and chords. You will be able to embed a recording of the song and add some links - for example to your homepage or to a place where you can buy an mp3 of the song.
Please only add traditional songs that are in the public domain or songs that you have written yourself. If you add songs that are not either traditional or self-composed, I will have to remove them from the site. Bear in mind that this site is intended for songs with a predominantly acoustic feel. Whilst it's quite acceptable to add songs that include non-acoustic instruments, please use your common sense!
Please Follow the Acoustic Music Archive
Terms of Service
You can read our terms of service here.
The Webmaster
You can contact me here. You can also visit my personal site at www.peterwebster.org.uk, where you can find out about my other musical projects.
All the Best,
Peter Webster.
Download songs from the archive on iTunes