An instruction guide to old-timey solo fingerpicking guitar. With transcriptions of the playing of Sam McGee, Dick Justice, Dan Everett and the South Georgia Hiballers, Lena Hughes and many others, made from the original recordings of the 20’s and 30’s. Complete instruction and notation in guitar tablature.

This book features 21 engaging public-domain and original melodies in standard notation and guitar tablature with first-verse lyrics, suggested accompaniment chords and online audio. Tips on reading tab and diagrams for frequently used chords are also provided. The tunes are arranged progressively from easy to harder, beginning with single-note melody arrangements but soon expanding with complete flatpicking guitar accompaniment— also written in both notation and tablature. As you progress through the book, you will notice more frequent occurrences of hammer-ons and pull-offs, plus a couple of melody/chord arrangements. Program notes document the many country and bluegrass artists who have recorded these songs. These melodies have clearly stood the test of time and will make a great addition to the novice country guitarist’s repertoire. Includes access to online audio.

This book and accompanying audio provide instruction and playable examples for guitarists looking to get into the sounds rooted in classic country music, as well asmore modern approaches to the genre. Rhythm playing is explored through shuffle patterns, travis picking and trucking riffs. Lead playing is approached through double stop licks, steel bends, and single note runs. Short examples are presented in each chapter and then combined in longer etudes with chord changes, ready for use in your own solos!

(Book). Journey through the career of musical giant, milestone guitarist, and recording innovator Les Paul, and marvel at the world of cutting-edge guitar design! This book, along with its companion book The Modern Era of the Les Paul Legacy 1968-2007 , emerged out of author Robb Lawrence's years of research, interviews, extensive vintage archives (including original Les Paul/Mary Ford articles, press photos, music and recordings), and gorgeous original photography. It's all here: the factory pictures, the designers, the electronics; the first experimtela "Log" and "Clunker" guitars, stories of the various Goldtops, the humbucking pickup evolution, and pages dedicated to the heralded '50s "Sunburst" Standard. Exclusive interviews with Les Paul, as well as Michael Bloomfield and Jeff Beck. A beautiful and insightful book on a legendary inventor, musician and his partnership with Gibson to make the world's most-cherished electric guitar.

This book is a love letter to the artists, scenes, and sounds defining North Carolina's extraordinary contributions to American popular music. David Menconi spent three decades immersed in the state's music, where traditions run deep but the energy expands in countless directions. Menconi shows how working-class roots and rebellion tie North Carolina's Piedmont blues, jazz, and bluegrass to beach music, rock, hip-hop, and more. From mill towns and mountain coves to college-town clubs and the stage of American Idol, Blind Boy Fuller and Doc Watson to Nina Simone and Superchunk, Step It Up and Go celebrates homegrown music just as essential to the state as barbecue and basketball. Spanning a century of history from the dawn of recorded music to the present, and with sidebars and photos that help reveal the many-splendored glory of North Carolina's sonic landscape, this is a must-read for every music lover.

Now for the first time, country music authority Charles K. Wolfe gathers together his profiles of 50 legends of country music, including Bill Monroe, Lefty Frizzell, and Kitty Wells.

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.