Learn to improvise solos using the major an minor pentatonic (5-note) scales, even if you have never taken solos before. It's easier than you'd think when you know some of the tricks and shortcuts that seasoned players use. This course guides you through the basics into more modern, complex sounds in a fun, step-by-step manner. Familiar tunes such as "Blackberry Blossom", "Salty Dog", "Salt Creek and other standard bluegrass chord progressions are used to illustrate the ideas. Book has both standard notation and tablature.
Our Price $20.95
Bluegrass Up The Neck
43 Page Book / CD (75' 56")
Tired of just playing on the first 5 or 7 frets of the neck? Learn the neck and begin to play in the upper positions like the pros do! This course will teach you, in a step-by-step manner all you'll need to know to start playing bluegrass up the neck with moveable positions, even in such "difficult" positions such as Bb and B. Lots of bluesy Monroe-style "chop-shape" licks and example solos for tunes like "All The Good Times", "Stomp in E", "More Pretty Girls Than One", "Hot Corn, Cold Corn", "Lonesome Road Blues", "Bb Blues", "Little Maggie", and "Blues In A". (Standard notation and tablature).
Our Price $20.95
Hot Licks For Hot Picks (Book or CD)
45 Page Book (just reformatted to 8-1/2" x 11" size w/comb binding)/ CD (78' 25")
Here's a variety of ideas, techniques, and tunes for the more advanced picker. Includes crosspicking ("Old Joe Clark", "Red Haired Boy", "Sailor's Hornpipe (in Bb!)", right hand pick exercises, shifting exercises, steel guitar licks, solos in the styles of Clarence White ("9 Pound Hammer") and Scotty Stoneman ("Dixie", "Sally Goodin"). Even fingerpicking ("Mississippi Joe Clark", "Devil's Dream")! And there's even transcriptions of two Irish tunes ("Tom of the Hill", "Dwyer's Hornpipe") as played by Mick Moloney. (And this book was first published in 1981 before Irish music was "discovered".) Music is written in both standard notation and tablature.
Niles Hokkanen's Guide To Mandolin Chords (and how to use them)
A larger, easier-to-read, sized (5-1/2" x 8-1/2", comb bound) version of Niles' popular Pocket Guide To Mandolin Chords. Same content but with the addition of 2 pages on modal/power diads.
Our Price $8.00
Twin Mandolin Method
54 Page Book / 2 CDs (79' 32" & 77' 17")
Work out twin mandolin, twin fiddle, mandolin/fiddle, etc. harmonies and arrangements. This method will show you how to write tenor and baritone harmonies for any breakdown, reel, jig, hornpipe or even ensemble solos. Also explained are methods for working out countermelodies, inverted melodies, rhythmically displaced harmonies. Music theory is involved, but it's not some dull, academic variety; instead, all the concepts will be immediately applied to your own playing. You'll rework some of the same tunes ("Old Joe Clark", "Cripple Creek", "Red Haired Boy", "Devil's Dream" and "Blackberry Blossom") over and over, demonstrating the variety of arranging options that you'll be learning. Standard notation and tablature.
Price $25.95
This page was last updated: April 28, 2009
Hot Solos For Bluegrass Mandolin 48 Page Book / CD (79' 50")
"Too much theory - Give us hot tabs!" A lot of players prefer to learn their instrument in a non-theoretical way, as have many of the bluegrass greats. So, here are some hot, tasteful solos for 6 all-time parking lot favorites:
"Wabash Cannonball" (four solos in G; three solos in A)
"Cripple Creek" (Key of A, five solos)
"Shady Grove" (four solos in Dm, plus "Clawhammer" versions of the melody and harmony)
"John Hardy" (six choruses in the key of A)
"East Tennessee Blues" (aka "Texas Crapshooter"; six solos in C major including one crosspicked)
"In The Pines" (3/4 time; five solos in the key of E)
.....Plus..the basic melodies (and sometimes harmonies) for each of the tunes.
All the solos are different and range in difficulty level from "intermediate" through "advanced/professional". The solos also have a "connection" to the melody, something that is extremely important in the bluegrass idiom, regardless of how flashy the playing is. A solo for "John Hardy" should actually be a break for "John Hardy", not a random group of hot licks that happen to fit those particular chord changes!
Stylistic influences presented in the solos range from Bill Monroe (of course) to Scotty Stoneman and Buzz Busby, from Jesse McReynolds to Jethro Burns, and from Tony Rice to Stevie Ray Vaughn. You are guaranteed to expand your vocabulary! Presenting multiple solos for the same tunes shows you the various approaches than can be incorporated. Once you've learned the breaks presented in the book, you can begin mixing and matching the licks into your own solos. There are some occasional comments concerning the theory (scales being used, etc.), but the emphasis is on "hot tabs" and learning some licks and solos which will raise eyebrows at the next big jam session. The 48 page book comes with a 90 minute cassette. All the solos and melodies and melodies are presented (with accompaniment - complete stereo separation between lead and backup) at three tempos: very slow, medium, and up-to-speed. The slow speed is guaranteed to be slow enough to get the solo(s) into your head!
