Volume One
The first five tunes presented in Volume One are original pieces, all designed to get both your picking hand and fretting hand coordinated. This sets the stage to tackle the widely-played fiddle tunes and solos that follow.
The material found here is most approachable for the later beginner. The tunes are arranged in approximate order of difficulty.
If you could use a daily warm-up exercise, the “Down-Up Picking Study” which appears early in this first book is for you. This gives you a gradual coordination of picking and fretting hands, while it gets the blood pumping and the brain humming!
Although the primary focus of Volume One is about new ways of soloing on popular bluegrass tunes, there is also a section devoted to understanding the chromatic scale. This is essential knowledge for any guitarist who is looking to expand their improvisational skills.
After an in-depth presentation of the nuts and bolts of the chromatic scale, nine exercises are provided to help your understanding of the entire fretboard…a virtual lifetime of study!
One way you might use these books, is as a reference for finding new ways to play popular bluegrass jam tunes such as: “Old Joe Clark,” “Devil’s Dream,” “The Girl I Left Behind Me,” “Bile Dem Cabbage Down,” and more!
Also peppered throughout Volume One are some short essays on practical subjects that the author believes could be useful to the up-and-coming musician. These include bluegrass jamming participation and etiquette, and daily practice routines. You will also gain insight into whether it is worth considering becoming an independent free-lance musician as a profession.
Volume Two
The solos continue in Bluegrass Flatpick Guitar—Solos, Licks, and Tricks, Volume Two.
For those of you looking for “the simpler side of things,” there are a few tunes in this volume that start you off with an easier version of a melody such as, “Soldier’s Joy,” “Cripple Creek,” and “Way Downtown.”
Use these books as a reference for finding new ways to play popular bluegrass jam tunes such as: “Yonder Stands Little Maggie,” “More Pretty Girls than One,” “Turkey in the Straw,” and more! Take them on the road to your favorite bluegrass festivals—some new licks to share with old friends!
The all-important subject of minor chords and the licks that work with them can be found in the unusual minor-chord treatment of “Columbus Stockade Blues.” This contains licks for the chords of E minor, A minor and B7.
Other chords that may give you pause in how to navigate them are E, A, B minor, B flat, and F. Potential licks for all of these chords are addressed in two tunes from the author: “Round Robin Progression” and “The Kitchen Sink” (They include everything, but…LOL!).
The ever-popular waltz, “All the Good Times are Past and Gone” gives a basic treatment of the melody as well as some variations that transcend the melody into a series of licks based on the chord structure. These licks are of course transferrable to other waltz tunes in the key of G.
Volume Two wraps up with a series of “Licks for the Mind’s File Cabinet.” This final section extracts licks from throughout the book to show you how they can be put into different contexts. This is one of the keys to becoming a fluent bluegrass guitar improviser—having a library of licks to call up at will and in the heat of the moment.
The underlying message these books mean to convey is, “Learn the solos verbatim, but don’t forget to read between the lines!” Bluegrass licks can be found everywhere in any music you play. Every measure in a tune is an interchangeable part that can be “fitted” to a different tune with the same chord center. Keep those eyes and ears open and fill up those “folders” with new ideas.
Happy pickin’ and jammin’ to ALL!