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.

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

(Musicians Institute Press). Navigate the guitar neck better than ever before with this easy-to-use book! Designed from Musicians Institute core curriculum programs, it covers essential concepts for players of every level, acoustic or electric. A hands-on guide to theory, it will help you learn to build any scale or chord on your own and unleash creativity. No music reading is required.

Providing the "What," "How," and "Why," master guitarist and teacher Shawn Persinger shows you how to get the most out of the best guitar books. You'll find insightful commentaries and more than 100 individually tailored guitar lessons - in all styles - that will provide beginner, intermediate, and advanced players with a lifetime of knowledge, insight, and inspiration.Unlike any other guitar method, The 50 Greatest Guitar Books is part guitar instruction, part music appreciation, and part literary criticism. Persinger delivers as much practical musical content as he does analysis and educated insight.Includes contribution from legendary educators and players: Rik Emmett, Henry Kaiser, Steve Kaufman, Wolf Marshall, Tim Sparks, and many more.More than 100 stylized guitar lessons: Chord Voicings, Arpeggios, Two-Handed Tapping, Fingerpicking, Slide Guitar, Walking Bass Lines, Improvisation, and much more.Featuring all styles: Blues, Classical, Funk, Metal, Rock, Jazz, World, Ragtime, Flamenco, Bluegrass, Gypsy Jazz, Pop, Latin, Fingerpicking, Country, Fusion, and more.

In this book three time National Flatpicking Guitar Champion Steve Kaufman presents rousing guitar solos on 24 gospel favorites. Each song is shown with a melody part in notation and tablature, lyrics, an accompaniment part in tablature and a stirring flat- picking solo in notation and tablature. This recording is designed for listening first and second as an instructional tool. All 24 songs are played through three times at least. The first time is as it appears in the book and the two versions that follow are improvised versions. Making this a listening tool and an ear training tool. Recorded Digital to Analog in true stereo sound. This recording can be used with either Flatpickin' the Gospels or Autoharping the Gospels. Audio and Video download available online

Book & CD. This FUN instruction book will get you playing forty old-time and bluegrass guitar tunes in no time flat! Wayne's many years of teaching guitar are evident on each page of this book. The instruction audio CD is complete with a whopping 91 tracks and the complete lyrics to all forty songs found in the book. This book is guaranteed to help the beginning and intermediate guitarist.

Celtic Flatpicking in Open D Guitar Tuning Tuning your guitar to DADF#AD or "Open D" compliments Celtic music brilliantly. The open tuning allows the strings to vibrate easily, creating drones and overlapped notes that sound reminiscent of a harp or bagpipe. The 30+ tunes represent a good selection of well-known Celtic session tunes including, jigs, reels, hornpipes, waltzes and songs. Each tune shows notation, tablature and chords. Some of the tunes are arranged with chords added in with the melody, while the faster tunes just have the melody line. Go to my website (KalymiMusic.com) to play along with the accompaniment tracks to help learn the tunes quickly. If you are new to this style, then check out my twelve useful tips for Flatpicking. There are also some examples of how to use ornamentation to further embellish the tunes. For further study in Open D, I have included a series of chord and arpeggio charts with fingerboard diagrams. These charts will help you learn the DADF#AD fingerboard and allow you to accompany in Open D with Major, Minor and Dominant 7th chords. Campanella (overlapping) scales in Major and Minor are given plus Mixolydian and Dorian modal scales, which are common in this style. Use these scales as a technical practice to help master the fingerboard and to help achieve a flowing legato-sound to authentically play the tunes. There is also a small selection of common chords in Open D, some Celtic strumming patterns in 4/4 and 6/8, and note charts and DADF#AD fingerboard charts. If you are new to reading tablature, there is a page on how to read tablature and how to read rhythms. Some audio tracks are available here: Celtic Flatpicking Open D Guitar Tuning - Kalymi Music (brentrobitaille.com)

Understanding DADGAD is a complete introduction to using the DADGAD tuning for fingerstyle acoustic guitar. the book systematically explores the tuning, starting with simple chords and scale patterns, ultimately showing how DADGAD can be used to play in nearly any key and in many different musical styles. Topics include moveable and open-string chords and scales, intervals, the harp-effect, common chord progressions in DADGAD and more, all in the context of either short musical examples or complete tunes.Rather than just providing scales, chords, or tunes, this book guides the reader through the process of understanding the guitar from the perspective of DADGAD tuning. Topics are organized as a series of small self-contained sections ideal for a single study session or lesson. After exploring extremely easy ways to get started with DADGAD, involving as little as a single finger on the fretting hand, the book progresses to examples that will interest even more advanced players. 200 musical examples, including several full performance-quality pieces, demonstrate each concept. the companion recording features the author playing many of the examples.A complete introduction to DADGAD tuning for fingerstyle acoustic guitar. Begins with simple chords and scale patterns and progresses to more complex musical examples in many different keys. Topics include moveable and open-string chords and scales, the harp-effect, intervals, common chord progressions in DADGAD and more.

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. DVD and CD included.

In this new DVD/book/CD set Brad Davis teaches you how to add the blues to your flatpicking repertoire and how to introduce the blues feel to the flatpicking tunes you already know. In this comprehensive course you will learn the scales, rhythm styles, and chord progressions which define the blues, standard blues licks and phrases, and blues styles of players like Robert Johnson, Eric Clapton, and Stevie Ray Vaughn. Brad even demonstrates how to play Bill Monroes bluesy mandolin licks on the guitar. Elements of the blues can be found in all forms of American musicfrom bluegrass, to folk, to rock. On the DVD Brad demonstrates how to play several different arrangements of 12-bar blues rhythm and then shows you how to utilize the blues scales to improvise over the chord progression. This is done in a step-by-step easy to follow method through a variety of written examples in the book and opportunities for you to practice with the practice tracks on the audio CD. The audio CD also contains ear training lessons in the context of the blues! The goal of this book/DVD/CD set is not only to show you the elements of the blues, but to teach you how to be an improvisational player in the context of the blues so that you can jump into any blues jam and hold your own. Additionally, Brad teaches bluesy arrangements of a number of standard flatpicking fiddle tunes (Nine Pound Hammer, Lonesome Road Blues, Salt Creek, John Hardy). If you are tired of playing the same old deedle-deedle-deedle arrangements of fiddle tunes on the guitar, this course will help get you out of that rut! Duration: 81 minutes