The First Jam series was created to give children and beginners of all ages a book of simple, common tunes to learn. These are standard "Jam" tunes in the Bluegrass/Old Time music styles. All the books in this series are written in the same keys; they can all be played together without any problems. So get your friends or family who play guitar, mandolin, banjo, ukulele, dulcimer or Dobro together, grab these books and start jamming.Improvisation – Another idea behind writing the First Jam series was to provide a number of tunes that were easy to learn, but that are also a great to begin working on improvising. Each books offer the melody for that particular instrument as well as back-up chords for another instrument to accompany you. Each song is represented in Tab, notation and chord symbols. the accompanying CD has two tracks for each song. the first playing the song with the melody line, the second track offers just the backup so you can play the melody over it or even improvise. Tunes include: Cripple Creek, Old Joe Clark, Will the Circle Be Unbroken and many more.

The clearest, most complete book on the market showing the secrets of playing bluegrass lead guitar and is the followup course to the Acoustic Guitar Primer Book. Includes exciting, accurate arrangements to popular songs and is written in both tablature and standard music notation. There are 29 breaks for 12 songs, and each break is played both slow and fast on the CD. The book features bluegrass songs that utilize several different chords and keys.

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.•

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.

(Fake Book). This collection gathers more than 300 bluegrass favorites presented in the straightforward Real Book format favored by musicians including lyrics where applicable: Alabama Jubilee * Ballad of Jed Clampett * Bill Cheatham * Blue Ridge Mountain Blues * Bury Me Beneath the Willow * Dixie Hoedown * Down to the River to Pray * Foggy Mountain Top * Highway 40 Blues * How Mountain Girls Can Love * I'm Goin' Back to Old Kentucky * John Henry * Keep on the Sunny Side * The Long Black Veil * My Rose of Old Kentucky * Old Train * Pretty Polly * Rocky Top * Sally Goodin * Shady Grove * Wabash Cannonball * Wayfaring Stranger * Wildwood Flower * The Wreck of the Old '97 * and hundreds more!

(Guitar Collection). If you've been looking to learn some great flatpicking solos, this book will give you a great place to start! It includes 50 popular bluegrass songs (with lyrics!) and fiddle tunes, each written in standard notation and tab. Historical information and performance notes are also included for each of the easy-to-play arrangements. Songs include: Arkansas Traveler * Ballad of Jed Clampett * Bill Cheatham * Blue Moon of Kentucky * Bury Me Beneath the Willow * Cripple Creek * I Am a Man of Constant Sorrow * I'll Fly Away * Long Journey Home * Molly and Tenbrooks * Old Joe Clark * The Red Haired Boy * Rocky Top * Salt Creek * Salty Dog Blues * Sitting on Top of the World * Turkey in the Straw * Wabash Cannonball * Wayfaring Stranger * Will the Circle Be Unbroken * Wreck of the Old 97 * You Don't Know My Mind * and more!