Hours of New Lessons for December 2021

Watch video examples from some of the latest lessons from Peghead Nation’s Instructrors!

By: Dan Gabel

December 1, 2021

Peghead Nation instructors have released hours of new instruction in their courses, and here are the tunes and lessons we’ve just published for December 2021. Join us in any course and get your first month free. Just use promo code Learn21 at checkout!

GUITAR COURSES

Roots of Jazz Guitar with Matt Munisteri

Sunday The song “Sunday” was made famous among jazz musicians through Bix Beiderbecke’s 1926 recording with the Jean Goldkette Orchestra. In this lesson, you’ll learn to accompany the vocal and play a chord melody version of the melody in the key of C.

Irish Backup Guitar with Flynn Cohen

Molly Bawn “Molly Bawn” is a traditional reel often played in the key of E minor, but in this lesson Flynn shows you an arrangement of the tune in C minor, played with the capo at the third fret using A minor chord shapes in dropped-D tuning.

Alternate Tunings Fingerstyle Guitar with Doug Young

Intro to DADGAD Doug introduces you to DADGAD tuning, gives you a capsule history of the tuning, shows you how to get into DADGAD, and demonstrates some of the common chord shapes in DADGAD.

Cross-String Harp Effect Doug shows you one of the signature sounds of DADGAD: a harp-like effect created by playing scales across the strings. You’ll learn the Irish melody “Three Lovely Lassies from Kimmage” as well Doug’s composition “Cross String.”

MANDOLIN COURSES

Bluegrass Mandolin Jam Favorites with Joe K. Walsh

Monroe’s Hornpipe “Monroe’s Hornpipe” comes from (no surprise) Bill Monroe. There are a lot of versions, but Joe shows you Matt Flinner’s version, recorded on Phillips, Grier, Flinner.

Monroe-Style Mandolin with Mike Compton

I Saw the Light Bill Monroe recorded Hank Williams’s “I Saw the Light” in 1958 at a gospel session without fiddles or banjos. Monroe’s first solo uses his gospel vocabulary in B chop-chord position.

The Advancing Mandolinist with Joe K. Walsh

Innisfree Joe’s song “Innisfree” has a bluesy, medium-tempo, straight-eighths feel that is different from a bluegrass feel. Joe shows you how he plays the melody and some of the ways he embellishes it.

Melodic Mandolin Tunes with John Reischman

Cascadia “Cascadia” is one of John’s original fiddle tunes in the key of A minor. For the recording on his album New Time and Old Acoustic he arranged it as a new acoustic tune, with an open-sounding intro and a syncopated vamp as an interlude and outro.

Irish Mandolin with Marla Fibish

The Concert Reel (#2) The second “Concert Reel” in The Concert Reel Set is also known as “Callahan’s.” It’s in the key of G and is quite a finger exercise, with a lot of G arpeggios and lines climbing up the E string.

Chord Melody Mandolin with Aaron Weinstein

“Pennies from Heaven” Intros Aaron shows you four different intros to “Pennies from Heaven” in this lesson. Each intro takes a different approach: playing the last eight bars of the melody, using the chords of the last eight bars with a rhythmic figure, pedaling on a V7 chord, and more.

Octave Mandolin with Joe K. Walsh

Sliding Down “Sliding Down” was written by bassist/pianist Edgar Meyer. It’s a simple melody in the key of A and in 3/4 time, but the challenge is how to flesh out the melody with chord tones. Joe plays it with a capo on the second fret, using key-of-G fingerings.

BANJO COURSES

Bluegrass Banjo with Bill Evans

Joy to the World The holiday favorite “Joy to the World” works well on the banjo played bluegrass style in the key of G. Bill shows you how he has adapted it to the banjo using Scruggs-style rolls for some phrases and melodic style for others.

Contemporary Bluegrass Banjo with Wes Corbett

Gold Rush, Part 2 In Wes’s more advanced version of “Gold Rush,” you’ll learn the melody of the A part an octave higher, once again combining melodic and single-string style passages with Scruggs-style rolls.

Old-Time Banjo with Bruce Molsky

Cleveland’s March to the White House “Cleveland’s March to the White House” was popular among older players in Galax and Grayson and Carroll counties, Virginia. It’s in an unusual tuning: with the capo at the second fret, the tuning sounds as gEADE.

FIDDLE COURSES

Old-Time Fiddle with Bruce Molsky

The Devil’s Waltz “The Devil’s Waltz” comes from Canada and the Métis fiddle tradition, a beautiful confluence of French, Scottish, and First Nations music. It’s played in “the Devil’s tuning” (also known as Calico tuning and “Black Mountain Rag” tuning): AEAC#.

PLAY-ALONG RHYTHM TRACKS – Available to all subscribers. Guitar accompaniment video, downloadable audio, and chord charts for popular bluegrass, old-time, and roots tunes and songs.