The Irish Washerwoman is a fantastic traditional Irish jig in the key of G. Played at quite a lively tempo, there are some demanding techniques within the tune including the right-hand picking structure to help emphasise the pulse, plus the melody has quite a bit of movement up the neck. This in combination certainly lends the tune to the advancing intermediate picker. Go to lesson...
St Anne’s Reel is a popular bluegrass fiddle tune, played at a medium/fast tempo, in the key of D (capo 2). This arrangement lays out a nice basic version of the tune, well suited to the advancing intermediate picker, but also allows for the fingers to more easily get around the tune comfortably at a faster tempo. Go to lesson...
Drops Of Brandy is a traditional Irish slip jig (9/8), in the key of D. This fingerstyle arrangement on the guitar is in open D tuning (DADF#AD) and is well suited to the advancing intermediate picker. It has a beautiful, driving melody, played at a brisk tempo and will be a great addition to your trad repertoire! Go to lesson...
Midnight On The Water is a popular, traditional American waltz (3/4 time), composed by Luke Thomasson (C. 1900), in the key of D. This arrangement on the guitar is in open D tuning (DADF#AD) and is well suited to the intermediate picker. It has a beautiful melody, played at a relaxed tempo and will be a great addition to your guitar repertoire! Go to lesson...
The Finnish Polka is a traditional polka, in the key of Bm. This arrangement is played with the capo at fret 2, and features the 2/4 time signature, played at quite a brisk tempo. For the intermediate picker wanting to work on increasing speed, this lively tune is a great technique workout for the right-hand, but equally as fun for the more experienced picker! Go to lesson...
Old Grimes is an excellent traditional bluegrass tune, in the key of D. This arrangement is played in the open D position and is well suited to the intermediate picker. It will be a great addition to your repertoire! It’s a wonderful tune to pick and the combination of melody & chord movement has certainly moved this tune to quickly become one of my personal favourites. Go to lesson...
Blackberry Blossom is a popular bluegrass fiddle tune in the key of G. In this lesson, we’ll look at a straight ahead, basic version of the melody, well suited to the intermediate flatpicker. You’ll need to have a solid technique in both hands to play this tune well, and if you have a solid grasp of the open position G major scale, it will certainly help. Go to lesson...
Whiskey Before Breakfast is a wonderful fiddle tune, a real standard in Bluegrass sessions. This is the second arrangement on Pickin’ Lessons, and is a nice basic, straight ahead version of the tune, well suited to playing at a faster tempo. Having a solid right-hand technique is crucial to playing any fiddle tune well and in this lesson we’ll work through this and other important areas to focus on. Go to lesson...
Rhythm guitar is a crucial aspect of your playing, so let’s look at some great ways of approaching rhythm guitar in a Bluegrass style! In the lesson, we’ll cover the basic boom-chick rhythm style with some variation, single chord vamping, a bunch of walking lines connecting the G, C & D chords (key of G), plus we’ll learn an example chord progression incorporating these ideas. Go to lesson...
Pig Ankle Rag is an awesome fiddle tune in the key of D (capo 2). There are 2 parts to the tune and it has the typical characteristics of a rag and is well suited to the advancing intermediate picker. Featuring a shuffle groove, crosspicking and syncopation there are some challenges in performing this arrangement, but we’ll break it down together in the lesson. Go to lesson...