Tag Archives: Bluegrass

Shove The Pig’s Foot A Little Further Into The Fire: Banjo Lesson

In this lesson, we’ll look at this great Old-Time tune, in the key of G (standard tuning). This arrangement on the banjo features a combination of the melodic technique and Scruggs, which works really well to support the melody, and is well suited to the advanced picker. It will be a great addition to your repertoire, It’s a wonderful tune to pick and the combination of melodic & Scruggs certainly works well!

Go to lesson...

Old Grimes: Melodic Banjo Lesson

Old Grimes is an excellent traditional bluegrass tune, in the key of D. This arrangement is a challenge on the banjo, played in aDGBD tuning and is well suited to the advanced 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...

Old Grimes: Guitar 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...

Old Grimes: Mandolin 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...

Blackberry Blossom: Guitar 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...

Turkey In The Straw (Adv): Melodic Banjo Lesson

Turkey In The Straw is a well known bluegrass fiddle tune in the key of G (standard tuning). This is the second version for the banjo on Pickin’ Lessons and in this arrangement the melody is embellished making for a very challenging tune to pick! Featuring the melodic technique, with a little Scruggs style, this version is certainly for the advanced picker, but is an awesome technique workout!

Go to lesson...

Bluegrass Licks Vol. 3: Guitar Lesson

In this third instalment of Bluegrass Licks, we’ll dive into improvising up & down the neck, in the key of G. We’ll focus on three triad shapes with surrounding major blues scale boxes, which are all movable and can be used for any chord or key. The example break and licks are played over the G, C & D chords, while looking at how to link and transition between the chords as we move into positions up the neck. Go to lesson...

Melodic Vs Single-String (Big Sciota V2): Banjo Lesson

Big Sciota is a great bluegrass fiddle tune in the key of G. This is the second version on Pickin’ Lessons and in this arrangement we’ll compare the melodic & single-string techniques using the identical melody for each of the techniques. Each technique has its advantages and is suited at different times, but in this direct comparison, you’ll be able to try out each and compare them for yourself. 

Go to lesson...

Whiskey Before Breakfast (Basic): Guitar 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...

Bluegrass Licks Vol. 2: Mandolin 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...