Hours of New Lessons Just Added for December!

By: Dan Gabel

December 1, 2020

NEW LESSONS JUST ADDED TO THE STRING SCHOOL!

Each month, our instructors add new tunes, in-depth technique lessons, and play-along tracks to many of our courses. Check out this month’s additions below, and sign up for any new course with promo code “Play20” and get your first month free!

GUITAR COURSES

Advanced Flatpicking Guitar with Scott Nygaard

Diminished Arpeggios and Scales | Scott shows you a couple of convenient positions on the top four strings you can use to play diminished arpeggios and scales, and gives you examples of how diminished chords and scales are used.

Roots of Jazz Guitar with Matt Munisteri

“It’s Only a Paper Moon” Chord Melody | Learn Matt’s chord melody arrangement of “It’s Only a Paper Moon,” with variations that include triplet licks inspired by Dick McDonough and a series of contrapuntal two-note chords.

Irish Backup Guitar with Flynn Cohen

Rhythmic Patterns for Polkas, Hornpipes, and Slides | Flynn introduces you to common accompaniment patterns for polkas, hornpipes, and slides, and shows you chord progressions for “Britches Full of Stitches,” “The Blackbird Hornpipe,” and “The Star Above the Garter.”

MANDOLIN COURSES

Bluegrass Mandolin Jam Favorites with Joe K. Walsh

Stony Point | Joe learned the old-time fiddle tune “Stony Point” from Tony Rice’s Manzanita album. It’s in the key of G, with the first part primarily in E minor.

Theory for Mandolin and Fiddle with Chad Manning

Two-Note Chord Comping | Chad shows you how to use double stops on the bottom two strings to accompany (“comp”) songs, using the chord progression for “All of Me.”

Intermediate Bluegrass Mandolin with Sharon Gilchrist

Farewell to Trion | “Farewell to Trion” is a three-part old-time fiddle tune in the key of C written by fiddler Joe Blaylock. The melody covers two octaves, moving between open position and the closed position with your index finger at the first fret.

Monroe-Style Mandolin with Mike Compton

Roanoke | In his 1954 recording of “Roanoke” Bill Monroe only played the intro and A parts of “Roanoke,” so Mike includes a transcription of a solo Monroe played on a 1960s live recording that includes both parts.

The Advancing Mandolinist with Joe K. Walsh

Pigeon Roost | “Pigeon Roost” is a David Grisman tune that comes from the recording Bluegrass Reunion. It’s a good way to learn some of Grisman’s more accessible bluegrass vocabulary.

Melodic Mandolin Tunes with John Reischman

The Girl Who Broke My Heart | “The Girl Who Broke My Heart” is a traditional Irish tune in the key of G that John recorded on The Harmonic Tone Revealers. It’s in the key of G but has a lot of F naturals, so it has a G Mixolydian sound.

Irish Mandolin with Marla Fibish

The Humours of Tulla | “The Humours of Tulla” / “The Skylark” / “Roaring Mary” is one of the classic sets and is associated with the great accordion player Joe Cooley. In this lesson, Marla shows you the first tune in the set “The Humours of Tulla,” a D major reel.

Chord Melody Mandolin with Aaron Weinstein

Misty | Aaron’s arrangement of the jazz standard “Misty” is a bit different than the other arrangements you’ve learned. In this case, Aaron plays the entire arrangement rubato: out of time or without an obvious pulse.

Bluegrass Mandolin Fingerboard Method with Sharon Gilchrist

Banks of the Ohio | Learn a solo in the key of F to the folk and bluegrass classic “Banks of the Ohio” that was played by Ricky Skaggs on Tony Rice’s first Rounder record. The solo features triplet-based tremolo on double stops.

BANJO COURSES

Bluegrass Banjo with Bill Evans

Rebecca | The bluegrass jam classic “Rebecca” was written by mandolinist Herschel Sizemore. Bill’s arrangement was inspired by the playing of the great banjo player Jim Mills.

Clawhammer Banjo with Evie Ladin

Song Accompaniment Variations | Evie gives you ideas for varying your song accompaniment, including adding drop-thumbing, hammer-ons, pull-offs, I-skips, and more to the basic bum-ditty pattern.

Contemporary Bluegrass Banjo with Wes Corbett

Mary Evelyn | An original tune from Wes’s new solo album, “Mary Evelyn” is in the key of E major and combines melodic and single-string styles as well as roll patterns, in particular a t-i-m-t-i-t-m-i pattern.

FIDDLE COURSES

Beginning/Intermediate Fiddle with Chad Manning

Dark Hollow | The song “Dark Hollow” is a bluegrass standard that is often played in the key of C. In this lesson, you’ll learn a solo based on the melody that includes double stops and bluesy slides in C.

Bluegrass Fiddle with Chad Manning

Bluegrass Backup Lick Series, Part 1 | In this first in a series of backup fiddle lessons, you’ll learn two series of bluesy licks that you can use in your bluegrass backup playing.

Old-Time Fiddle with Bruce Molsky

Booth | There are a couple of sources for the fiddle tune “Booth” (also called “Booth Shot Lincoln”), but the one you’ll learn here comes from western North Carolina fiddler Marcus Martin, who played “Booth” in GDGD tuning.

BASS COURSES

Bass with Zoe Guigueno

Using the Bow | In this lesson on using the bow, Zoe explains the differences in the two kinds of bass bows, German and French, and talks about bow pressure, rosin, tuning with a bow, the position of the bow on the string, and more.

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.