The Acoustic Guitar Project

One guitar. One week. One song.

The Acoustic Guitar Project is a global music platform—and concert series—that inspires musicians to write and record a song in one week on the same guitar.

The project originated in New York City and has spread around the world. Projects are underway in more than 50 cities, from Amsterdam to Asheville, Havana to Hanoi, Minneapolis to Moscow, and São Paulo to...Syracuse.

The project began in Syracuse in 2014, curated by Jeffrey Pepper Rodgers, with a guitar handmade in Maryland by Minor Bird Musical Instruments.

To date, 55 songs have been written on the Syracuse project guitar.

➢ Listen to all the songs on the Acoustic Guitar Project website.

➢ Listen to a sampling of project songs (some in their original project recordings, some in new versions) on Spotify.

Syracuse Acoustic Guitar Project 2023

Join us for our tenth annual concert!
November 17, 2023, hosted by the Folkus Project

Featuring
Chris Merkley
Tiesha McNeal
Ryan Burdick
Alison Mullan-Stout
Loren Barrigar

Project songwriters

The first 50 songwriters (including a few songwriting duos) for the Syracuse project, 2014–2022.

The 2020 project showcased next-generation songwriters—all in their teens to early 20s.

Watch the closing concert, streamed live from Subcat Studios. Thanks to concert sponsor Ish Guitars. Project photos of Ella Drotar, Emalee Herrington, and Nate Glyn are by Tom Honan.

In memory of Jack O. Bocchino

Jack O. Bocchino, the legendary supporter of the Central New York music scene who passed away in March 2020, was a major contributor to the Acoustic Guitar Project in Syracuse (learn more about Jack here). Jack photographed all the songwriters for the first six years of the project, as collected in this video. The soundtrack is “Twenty One Rounds” by Mike Powell, written for the project in 2016.

Till I’m Alone with You

I released my project song as a single in 2020. More about the song.

Only One

I wrote this song in 2022 when the Syracuse project reached the milestone of 50 songs, and I perform it here on the project guitar.