-
New to bluegrass style guitar. I am looking for a book---written music / tabs. There are a few tutorial books out there--any recommendations which is the best?
-
05-31-2026 06:44 PM
-
Which country are you from? If you're from the States go where the players are. Ask them, I'm out of touch. I don't remember any books worth buying in my time. Apart from very basic stuff I'm not sure it can be put in a book.
Don't try this at home.
-
I have a recommendation…. a talking book:
Flatpicking Guitar Lessons - Bluegrass Guitar | Peghead Nation
flat-picking takes serious repetition, discipline and some natural right hand talent…. like everything else guitar wise I suppose
-
Tony Rice, don’t be scared. Get in there, I got through four years in a bluegrass band with about five of Tony’s licks.
An Intimate Lesson with Tony Rice | Shop | Homespun
Later I learned a few of his jazzier tunes, fun to play.
-
Does guitar really take solos very often in bluegrass groups?
-
Lots.
Originally Posted by Kirk Garrett
-
Well yes, for those two. But I always read the advice on forums that the guitar should focus on rhythm first. When I see bluegrass groups usually it’s the mandolin, banjo and fiddle that take the spectacular solos, if that’s your thing. And you can actually hear them! Originally Posted by Jim Soloway
-
Bill Monroe traditionalists don’t like guitars soloing.
Everyone else does.
The current bluegrass darling, Billy Strings, is great.
-
I'm a big fan of Russ Barenberg. His "Mastering Bluegrass Guitar for Intermediate and Advanced Players" at Homespun is great, and is often on sale.
I never get tired of listening to the Big Bug Shuffle with Jerry Douglas and, here, Danny Thompson:
-
The OP seems to be not responding.
He should remember that bluegrass guitar is more about rhythm playing than flash solos. In case he's tempted just to get a book of solos only.
-
I’m not overly enamored with Billy Strings, but I think he sings rather well which helps him a lot. Originally Posted by Aiq
-
Eric Skye does a great job on slowing some of those fiddle tunes down to where you can enjoy them. He's demos them all on YT and you can download a bunch for free. Billy, I can take or leave - Molly, too, although both great players, I'd rather listen to Doc Watson and Norman Blake. There's a guy named Trey Hemsley (sp) who's pretty good, too. Lotsa good players in the bluegrass world but I think there's too much emphasis on blinding fast and not enough on melody.
-
Skip, what’s a Norman Blake album you recommend?
-
Just about any of them IMHO - all my CDs are packed away so I can't see them but you can't go wrong with anything he ever did. He did a couple albums with Tony Rice that are a master class - another is "Up From Rising Fawn". Tony is monster for sure but is a little too 'out there' for me - I use to play with his brother Ronnie and knew the whole family. Another guy to listen to is the great guitar builder Wayne Henderson - he flat picks but does it with a thumb and finger pick - sorta odd but it works. And.....never rule out Doc Watson - anything he ever did was just great with more taste than about anybody out there. Trey Hensley is another young guy who's very good - truthfully, there's a bunch of young kids out there who absolutely scare me to death with this stuff. Don't know whether you read or not (I personally hate TAB) but there are quite a few books of fiddle tunes out there and that's kind of the basis for the whole style. Also check out anything you can by the late Clarence White - lotsa current players got there by copying him. And buy a metronome - you'll need it! As I said in my last post, check out Eric Skye's website - he has a group of traditional fiddle tunes that you can download for free and he demos most of them on YT where he plays them slow so you can get an idea of what they really sound like - standard notation if I recall - not sure about TAB. And finally, there's website from a guy who calls himself 'Banjo Ben' and offers some decent lesson material and sells some really nice Gallagher guitars. Any more questions, just hit me up. Originally Posted by Kirk Garrett
-
^ Amazing, thank you!
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
-
Lots of trad vibe here. That’s ok, but…
A great development is advances in amplification for acoustic instruments. People can be heard.
Nothing is worse than coming off stage at a festival thinking you had a pretty good set and the first three people you talk to tell you they really couldn’t hear your guitar.
Blake is a great player but an ardent opponent of amplification. “If it comes through a wire it’s electric”. Did that include mics, Norman?
My group had an album reviewed in Bluegrass Unlimited magazine and our last season we did 15 festivals from Fl to Ak. Who cares but I know a little about it.
The arch is Doc>Clarence>Tony. Sort of like Charlie >Django>Wes.
Not the only parallel between jazz and bluegrass vis a vis what is “the real thing”.
Billy Strings is doing what none have done: filling big venues with a bluegrass band.
Just enjoy the music.Last edited by Aiq; 06-03-2026 at 08:24 PM.
-
Yes Eric Skye…gotta thank him for showing us that these fiddle tunes sound just as good at slower speeds. He has a very good Homespun course on flatpicking. Some great ideas on how to fill things out in a solo guitar context. Here is my loose adaption of a tune in the course:
-
"Blake is a great player but an ardent opponent of amplification. “If it comes through a wire it’s electric”. Did that include mics, Norman?"
I'm sure Norman used mics - that why he and Tony sounded so good. Doc had great studio mic'd sound but his live sound with whatever god-awful pickup he used sucked. Last bluegrass show I went to was Reno & Smiley in VA in '69 - they sounded just fine through the PA with mics as did everyone else on the bill (and that was outside). I don't go to concerts or live shows because I can't deal with crowds and I don't like 'loud' - I would much rather listen to music in my home without being around a bunch drunks and stoners. Personally, I don't care about great steps forward in acoustic guitar pickups because none of them sound like an acoustic guitar, only a bad electric guitar. And, I think, a lot of Billy Strings fans and popularity is derived from him including Grateful Dead songs in his act to appeal to a different audience than the traditional bluegrass fan and make as much money as possible and sell lots of merch. I don't go so far as being so traditional as to say that the guitar shouldn't solo, but I'm old and I like traditional music. I listen to Doc, Norman, Etta Baker, The Carter Family, Elizabeth Cotten, Delmore Bros, Charlie Poole, and others much more than anyone else. The great thing about Norman is, he writes songs that sound like they're 100 yrs old..
-
Personally, I don't like these slow versions. I think he's trying to be 'creative' with simple fiddle tunes. He does it quite well but it's too idiosyncratic for my taste.
What people normally do is play these tunes correctly with the skill required and then write their own slow tunes. There are also plenty of slow/medium popular tunes that can be played with acoustic flat-pick guitar.
I think he's mixed up.
-
Mandolinist David Grisman never plugged in either. I have been to several bluegrass camps and sat very close to many of the masters….even got to jam with a few. You would be surprised at how softly and relaxed they play even at fast tempos.
-
"Bluegrass Guitar" album by Dan Crary. And a lot of recordings he has made since.
-
I wish it was still the 1960s in the sense that what was most popular was also pretty much the best music. Originally Posted by Aiq
But today, it’s closer to the opposite. I hear a lot of straining and effort in a lot of the current players’ music, a lot of pushing. I love how Doc Watson just made it feel easy like it just came out of a warm place.
As for the analogy, I still think there’s something magic about Charlie Christian’s playing that has never been equalled in some ways.
What feels like evolution to some isn’t always. We seem to live in a time where a musician really has to prove something.
-
I don't disagree re. Doc and Charlie. Both had some magic to their playing that it's very easy to lose sight of in the search for technique (speed!) - and both were as rapid as is really needed, imho.
I tend to throw in an arbitary disctinction between bluegrass guitar and flat-picking. There's a lot of flat-picking that I wouldn't describe as bluegrass, and much of it I prefer to songs with that high lonesome harmony vocal about killing Sadie down by the railroad track. Of course, I love Doc (and Clarence - although those off-beats fry my brain a bit) but I find myself listening to the solo players a lot, too. Tony Rice did a lovely solo album or two, and Norman Blake has already been mentioned, but few players make as beautiful music as Kenny Smith when he's just playing on his own. David Grier creates his own world, and I tend to really like it. Bob Minner is another one who creates a lot of music out of just a solo guitar, too.
All that said, I still like Tony Rice and Bryan Sutton.
Derek
-
My search on Spotify turns up a lot of different Kenny Smith people, and mixes them together in the discography. Do you have an album title of him playing by himself? Thanks for all the suggestions.
-
I don’t think Kenny Smith has a pure solo album; not many flat pickers do. Robert Bowlin does, Norman does, Grier does, Minner does heck even Mel Bay”s son has one.
Plenty of YTs of Kenny playing solo though…check out his version of Leather Britches where he tunes his A string down to G…a cool trick when playing out of G position.
Kenny Smith’s Acutab lesson DVD has plenty of purely solo playing.
Check out Kenny’s album Studebaker for his signature flatpicking style.
Reply With Quote
New LEDs Day
Today, 07:28 PM in Other Styles / Instruments