![]() Unfortunately, I don't have a great reference for it handy. It makes transposing to different keys very easy. It's a system for being able to quickly figure out the root, subdominant, and dominant chords of a song. Pretty much all of Western music is based on it. If you don't know any music theory, a great bit of bang for your buck would be to learn the circle of fifths. I've also met Dan Miller and Tim May, two of the authors, a few times - good dudes and good players. I think they'd answer a lot of your fundamental questions well - how to change keys, how to pick up on keys, what are common chord changes, etc. I've read some of the books in this series and find them pretty informative, and structured well to build on previous material. The updates aren't that frequent anymore but there's a sizable back catalogue you can go through. Throwing out a few suggestions that I haven't seen here yet.įlatpick Apprentice is a free site run by a guy who taught himself bluegrass guitar. You will learn what you need to learn and if you're playing rhythm you can get started right away. TLDR: Go to jams and play rhythm, and basically just go to jams a lot. Then string those pentatonic runs together through a bluegrass chord progression. Learn to play a G major pentatonic scale over an open G, a C pentatonic over an open C chord, D pentatonic over an open D chord, etc etc. A good starting point is a lot of bluegrass leads are pentatonic scale. Bluegrass rhythm is mostly pretty straightforward, and there's almost always another guitar player to follow.Īs far as playing solos, I could say a lot. Follow other guitar players and capo how they do and etc. Next - find a jam and go there and play rhythm! Make clear that you aren't going to play any 'breaks' (ie solos) so that there isn't confusion when it comes to your turn to play a break. Other guitar players will be using capos, so if you want to copy them at the jam, you should also have a capo. Get a capo! You can play the same chord shapes for a song in A as you would if it was in G, by capoing up 2 frets. Basically if someone says a song is I IV V and in G, that means it has a G, C, and then a D chord. ![]() ![]() Chording higher is ok for solos or whatever, but generally not done for rhythm, probably because its too much work.Īrmed with those chords, learn about the "nashville number" system. Bluegrass chords are played at the nut - the 'cowboy chords'. Also minor chords, but those are less frequent. ![]() You'll want to also know the dom7 version of those - that's about the only 7th chord that gets played in bluegrass. Good news is you probably know all the chords already. You'll be playing rhythm guitar 90% of the time at least. Otherwise, flat pick at the ready, the next step is playing rhythm. If you're really into fingerpicking and you want to fingerpick at bluegrass jams, do it on a dobro or banjo! With fingerpicking, no one will be able to hear you at all. Out of all the bluegrass instruments - fiddle, bass, banjo, mandolin - guitar is the least loud by far - and thats with a flat pick. I need a path, I guess.įingerpicking is not going to cut it in a bluegrass jam, volume wise. Surely there are some standards and etiquette to follow that other people are expecting when you play guitar. I'm not looking to learn, say, exact Tony Rice style I just want to learn how to jump in and jam with some like minded people. I've also been looking at books on Amazon, but I don't know which to get.īased on my skill level (I can record some if that would help better gauge), what would you suggest I do? I feel like I just need some general direction and I'm just spinning my tires. All the free lessons (except the Tony Rice lessons) are lacking, I think. I've tried looking up some free lessons but they lead to paid lessons and I'm not sure how great those are or would be for me. I can't just single out the guitar and learn it, it seems. I feel overwhelmed by bluegrass and the techniques seem beyond me. But I've only done that with songs that only have one person playing. I don't know anything except how to dork out and obsess over a song until I can play it. I can play Tony Rice - Church Street Blues, but not nearly as fast and clean as him. The toughest songs I can play note for note are probably: Right now, I'm mainly into finger picking. I want to understand how people can just come together and play bluegrass so fluently. I absolutely love how bluegrass sounds and I would love to experience being able to jam with people when I go to summer festivals and get togethers. I'm a pretty ok guitarist that's looking to play bluegrass.
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