In this book, journalist, composer, songwriter, teacher, and 2003 Winfield Flatpicking Guitar Champion, Jeff Troxel, delivers a masterclass in arranging fiddle tunes for flatpicking guitar. These 20 themes and variations on favorite bluegrass melodies are designed to improve overall musicianship and augment your own arranging skills. Ideal for the intermediate to advanced flatpicking guitarist, the author reveals techniques for enabling readers to create their own theme and variations settings. Suggested rhythm guitar chords and light left-hand fingerings are also provided. Troxel points out that one of the unexpected benefits of learning and memorizing themes with variations is that the process will ultimately facilitate linear and harmonic improvisation. It would be a painstaking process to learn this skill from a teacher or a harmony textbook, but once memorized, the scale and arpeggio patterns within these tunes and variations will set you on a viable path towards original improvised lines. As a bonus, the author includes a generous appendix containing several of his Flatpicking Guitar Magazine articles that deal with aspects of musicianship that every guitarist should know. While written in standard notation and tab, if you have relied solely on tablature and recordings in the past, this book can provide the key to understanding essential music theory and reading standard notation. If you’re not quite ready to learn to read standard notation, you can still use the tab and the author’s excellent online recordings to learn these delightful arrangements. In any case, it will be fun to get these settings of standard bluegrass tunes “in-hand” and use them in future jam sessions.

Three-time national flatpicking champion Steve Kaufman teaches you how to buy a guitar, the easy way to fret a note, how to read chord charts and play all the basic chords, basic bluegrass strumming patterns, bass runs and walks, hammer-ons and pull-offs, how to read tablature, picking lead, crosspicking, practice techniques, and much more.

This comprehensive study of contemporary flatpicking guitar technique presents numerous solos for the beginning through advanced flatpicking guitarist along with tips on creating your own flatpicking arrangements. The book addresses the tablature system, tuning, right and left-hand technique, use of the capo and themicrophone, transposing using the Nashville numbering system, bluegrass back- up, arranging flatpicking solos and instrumentals. If you're into country or bluegrass music, or if you just want to develop outstanding flatpicking technique, this book is for you. Written in standard notation and tablature. The stereo play-along audio online features Steve Kaufman's rousing performance of each flatpicking solo! Also includes a videio online containing some of the solos andtechniques presented in the book. Audio and video download available online

This new book is perfect for beginners, players with a little experience and guitarists who want a good grounding in the flatpicking style. Using popular American fiddle tunes, Joe introduces the important basics of good flatpicking including pick direction, fingering, and hand position. the accompanying CD provides a clear performance of each exercise and tune. an introduction to playing up the neck in closed positions is included as well as several of Joe's own advanced arrangements of jam session favorites. Includes: Wildwood Flower, Soldier's Joy, Red Haired Boy, Whiskey Before Breakfast, Old Joe Clark, Salt Creek and more.•

This book includes a multitude of beginning to intermediate studies, designed to build right-hand picking technique and coordination between both hands. The material includes vertical picking exercises across various string combinations, linear picking studies, tremolo studies, warm-ups, picking etudes, triplet exercises and picking solos–essential material that will supplement any guitar method. Written in standard notation and tablature.

A masterful flatpicking technique book offering bluegrass licks, scales, basic chords, and solos in various positions up the neck in the keys of G-C-D-A-E-,B-flat and F. The companion audio features selections from throughout the book, played both slowly and at normal speed. Steve's solo guitar is recorded on both channels with no rhythm accompaniment. This book of basic technical studiespresents only a few flatpicking repertoire pieces illustrating each concept and key. Features: Fisher's Hornpipe; Lonesome Road Blues; and The Bluegrass Boogie.Novice players will find the recording a great asset in learning this material. All studies and pieces are written in notation and tablature. Includes a 60-minute companion video. Includes access to online audio and video

This book and accompanying audio are the perfect primer for anyone interested inlearning blues guitar played with a pick. An addition to Steve Kaufman's My First series, the book starts the student from the very beginning. Basic chords and notation are presented, progressing to blues strumming patterns and lines. Lessons also cover blues scales, tablature, I-IV-V chords and more. The book is perfect for anyone interested in learning blues guitar, and experienced tab readers who wish to learn standard notation

This fun and easy book and CD takes you from the very beginning. Learning right and left-hand techniques, learning your first chords, 18 great songs AND you painlessly learn them by reading notes. Anyone can do it. Steve's method and approach to learning to read notes is so simple that 4 year olds have done it. You will start with 4 simple notes. Steve then teaches songs using just those four notes. He systematically adds a few more notes at a time bundled with easy to understand instructions and songs so that in a short time you will know all the notes, chords, strumming patterns to play hundreds of songs. This is a perfect primer for many of Steve's best sellers and other author's books. Audio CD included.

William Bay and Mike Christiansen have collaborated to produce an outstanding comprehensive guitar method addressing all styles of both flatpicking and fingerstyle technique. Guitar teachers, take note: Mastering the Guitar series is the ideal method for the beginning student who has yet formed a stylistic preference, or for the intermediate player limited to one particular style who wishes to expand his horizons and improve his technique. an impressive double CD set with more than 80 tracks per CD is offered for both books 1A (96620;96620CD) and 1B (96621;96621CD). Each written example in the books is carefully cross-referenced to its corresponding audio sample on the CD by means of a disk and track number printed above each piece. the student is encouraged to learn to read standard notation and tablature as both systems are used throughout this 3-volume series. the Technique Studies book provides supplementary, more challenging pieces including chord studies in various keys as well as a few pieces in dropped-D tuning. Together, these three books comprise a powerful learning tool for Mastering the Guitar in a contemporary idiom.

Covers all the basics and will have you playing all the classic bluegrass favorites in no time. You'll learn classic bluegrass guitar techniques in the context of classic bluegrass standards. Beginning with basic left- and right-hand techniques, Dennis guides you through developing great backup parts, playing solos, and working with a bluegrass band. All books and videos in the Ultimate Beginner Bluegrass Basics Series are fully correlated to work together, allowing you to use these for putting together your own bluegrass band.