Go Tell It On The Mountain is a traditional Gospel Christmas Carol. This arrangement on the mandolin is in the key of G, played at a medium tempo, and will be a great tune for the advancing beginner picker. It is a wonderful melody, played at a medium tempo and will be a great addition to your Christmas repertoire! Go to lesson...
Whiskey Before Breakfast is a very popular bluegrass tune, played in the key of D. This basic arrangement of the tune is well suited to the intermediate picker and is structured in a way that keeps it on the simpler side, making it more manageable for a newer picker or when played at faster tempos. Go to lesson...
The Finnish Polka is a traditional polka, in the key of Bm, featuring the 2/4 time signature and 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...
In this lesson, we’ll learn a great blues break in the key of G. At a groovy, slow tempo, this blues is fun to play and is packed full of lots of great licks and ideas! We’ll cover the G7, C7 & D7 chord positions, looking at the major pentatonic, minor pentatonic & dominant 7th arpeggio patterns, and how the tones of the these patterns can be blended to create some great ideas, with a lot of analysis while we cover the licks. Go to lesson...
Old Grimes is an excellent traditional bluegrass tune, in the key of D. This arrangement is well suited to the intermediate picker and 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...
Kitchen Girl is a traditional American Old-Time tune, in the key of A (mixolydian) in Part A and moves to Am in Part B, making it a great modal tune. This arrangement is well suited to the intermediate picker, with some fun rhythm variations. With the key change from part A to B, this is a fantastic tune to pick, with a very interesting melody! Go to lesson...
Fairmoy Lasses is a traditional Irish reel, in the key of Em in Part A and moves to G in Part B. Played at a fast tempo, it certainly suits the advanced picker, but also makes for a great technical exercise. The melody is fairly simple and in the lesson we’ll cover strategies you can use to help increase your tempo while learning the tune. Go to lesson...
Waltzing Matilda is a well known traditional Australian bush song, and in this version on the mandolin, we’ll look at a chord melody arrangement in the key of G. You can find the basic melody and a bluegrass inspired arrangement on Pickin’ Lessons, but here, the melody is supported by 2 & 3 note chords in the chord melody style, and suits the tune very well. Go to lesson...
In this second instalment of Bluegrass Licks on the mandolin, we’ll dive into a movable set of licks, demonstrated in the key of B, but can be applied to any key or chord! We’ll focus on licks in two connected scale positions, linked with two double positions, a bunch of example licks and an example break over a standard chord progression using the 1 4 & 5 chords. Go to lesson...
The Trumpet Hornpipe (AKA Captain Pugwash Theme) is a traditional Irish hornpipe in the key of G. There are 2 parts to this up-tempo tune and it is suited to the intermediate picker. The tune makes for an excellent study, as it features the hornpipe feel (shuffle), some great triplets that are a real highlight of the tune, arpeggios and some excellent scale patterns that are great technical exercises. Go to lesson...