Of all the styles of folk guitar, the most familiar is known by a variety of names, such as Carter Family Style, The Church Lick (Woody Guthrie), The Country Lick, or just plain Flat-Pickin’. Whatever its name, though, the foot-tapping boom-chicka, boom-chicka rhythm is as ubiquitous as country music itself; it was played by cowboy balladeers, old-time southern mountaineers, Gene Autry, Woody Guthrie, Hank Williams, The Carter Family . . . well, the list could go on and on. More recently, the art of country flat-picking has been raised to a higher level of virtuosity and skill by pickers such as Doc Watson, Clarence White, and the great Nashville studio musicians. Flat-picking can be as simple or as complicated as you want to make it, and that is what this book is all about. Flat-Pick Country Guitar starts with the simplest strums, and gradually introduces techniques such as bass runs, hammer-ons, and pull-offs, preparing the student for more advanced techniques and at the same time teaching him some fine traditional country songs. Before he is halfway through this book, he will be playing melody breaks with chord accompaniment, and by the time he works his way through to the end he will be playing fiddle tunes, hoedowns, bluegrass licks, fancy cross-picking, and some more modern string-bending techniques known as “The Nashville Sound.” This book is a first of its kind to focus on the whole range of styles that go by the name Flat-picking. Though this book includes a variety of instrumental runs, breaks, and solos, its main emphasis is on flat-picking as an accompaniment—within a string band, bluegrass ensemble, or country rock group, or behind a vocalist (with or without a back-up guitar).

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.

Learn from transcriptions in the styles of Clarence White, Dan Crary, Charlie Waller, Peter Rowan and others. Over 30 tunes in tablature and music notation, plus photos.

Commonly referred to as the rhythm guitarist's bible, this innovative book is a system of guitar chord formation which maximizes power voicing while minimizing left-hand movement! Originally written by Mel Bay in 1947, this landmark publication was reissued in its original typesetting in 1973 to become the definitive text on jazz chords in private teaching studios and university jazz guitar departments around the globe. Mr. Bay's practical, analytical approach to the fingerboard produced this comprehensive system for learning full-sounding orchestral jazz guitar chords.

A beginner's guide to playing country guitar with Levi Clay

In this new DVD/book/CD set Brad Davis teaches you how to add the blues to your flatpicking repertoire and how to introduce the blues feel to the flatpicking tunes you already know. In this comprehensive course you will learn the scales, rhythm styles, and chord progressions which define the blues, standard blues licks and phrases, and blues styles of players like Robert Johnson, Eric Clapton, and Stevie Ray Vaughn. Brad even demonstrates how to play Bill Monroes bluesy mandolin licks on the guitar. Elements of the blues can be found in all forms of American musicfrom bluegrass, to folk, to rock. On the DVD Brad demonstrates how to play several different arrangements of 12-bar blues rhythm and then shows you how to utilize the blues scales to improvise over the chord progression. This is done in a step-by-step easy to follow method through a variety of written examples in the book and opportunities for you to practice with the practice tracks on the audio CD. The audio CD also contains ear training lessons in the context of the blues! The goal of this book/DVD/CD set is not only to show you the elements of the blues, but to teach you how to be an improvisational player in the context of the blues so that you can jump into any blues jam and hold your own. Additionally, Brad teaches bluesy arrangements of a number of standard flatpicking fiddle tunes (Nine Pound Hammer, Lonesome Road Blues, Salt Creek, John Hardy). If you are tired of playing the same old deedle-deedle-deedle arrangements of fiddle tunes on the guitar, this course will help get you out of that rut! Duration: 81 minutes

(Musicians Institute Press). Navigate the guitar neck better than ever before with this easy-to-use book! Designed from Musicians Institute core curriculum programs, it covers essential concepts for players of every level, acoustic or electric. A hands-on guide to theory, it will help you learn to build any scale or chord on your own and unleash creativity. No music reading is required.