New Lessons for May 2024

New Tunes, Lessons, and Techniques from Peghead Nation instructors.

By: Dan Gabel

May 1, 2024

Peghead Nation instructors have released hours of new instruction in their courses, and here are the tunes and lessons we’ve just published for May 2024. Join us in any course and get your first month free. Just use promo code Learn24 at checkout!

GUITAR COURSES

Bluegrass Guitar Fingerboard Mastery with Stash Wyslouch

Little Cabin Home on the Hill This break to “Little Cabin Home on the Hill” is in the key of A and includes the melody played in pattern 2E, octave displacement, a Dmaj7 arpeggio, a melodic fragment played on the low E string, and more.

Maybelle Carter-Style Guitar with Cathy Fink

Coal Miner’s Blues Maybelle’s lead on “Coal Miner’s Blues” is an amazing confluence of early country music and blues. Unusually for Maybelle, it’s in the key of G (without a capo), with G, G7, C, and D chords.

Irish Flatpicking Guitar with Flynn Cohen

This Is My Love, Do You Like Her? “This Is My Love, Do You Like Her?” is a slide in the key of A minor. Slides are in 12/8 time and have more of a quarter/eighth feel than jigs.

Western Swing Guitar with Matt Munisteri

Big Beaver “Big Beaver” is an instrumental that the Bob Wills band recorded in 1940 and also for the Tiffany Transcriptions in the mid ‘40s. You’ll learn a three-part harmony originally played by guitar, mandolin, and steel guitar.

MANDOLIN COURSES

Swing and Jazz Mandolin with Joe K. Walsh

Learn to play swing and jazz melodies and classic solos from jazz legends like Lester Young, Miles Davis, and Django Reinhardt, as well as swing mandolinists like Tiny Moore and Jethro Burns. For each song, you’ll learn the melody and a solo, along with tips on technique, phrasing, and improvisation.

Bye Bye Blackbird The jazz standard “Bye Bye Blackbird” became popular with jazz musicians in the 1950s. You’ll learn the basic melody and chords as well as the way saxophonist Ben Webster phrased the melody on his recording with Oscar Peterson.

Monroe-Style Mandolin with Mike Compton

Little Maggie Bill Monroe’s solo on the 1961 recording of “Little Maggie” is in the key of B, but Bill uses a lot of open strings without regard for the key, with some open D and G strings. The solo is played in fifth position with a lot of closed-chord arpeggios.

Gypsy Jazz Mandolin Essentials with Aaron Weinstein

Learn to play swing and jazz mandolin from scratch, with a step-by-step method for learning swing chord voicings, as well as simple, swingin’, melody-based solos for some of the most popular songs in the jazz and swing repertoire. Designed for newcomers to playing jazz and swing.

Sweet Georgia Brown “Sweet Georgia Brown” was written in 1925 and became one of the most popular jazz standards. Aaron shows you the chords and gives you a melody-based solo to play.

Old-Time Mandolin with John Reischman

Wild Rose of the Mountain “Wild Rose of the Mountain” is a medium-tempo crooked fiddle tune in the key of A that comes from Kentucky fiddler J.P. Fraley.

The Advancing Mandolinist with Joe K. Walsh

Jenny and the Dulac “Jenny and the Dulac” is a beautiful tune written by mandolinist Andrew Marlin. The first part is in the key of D minor and the B part has a similar melody but in the key of D major.

Brazilian Choro Mandolin with Ian Coury

O Vôo da Mosca “O Vôo da Mosca” (“The Flight of the Fly”) was written by Jacob do Bandolim and is one of the most challenging choros because of its constant eighth notes. It’s a waltz in the key of G and has three parts.

Chord Melody Mandolin with Aaron Weinstein

Tangerine “Tangerine” was written by Victor Schertzinger and Johnny Mercer in 1941 and quickly became a jazz standard. It was written for the movie The Fleet’s In, and became a hit for Jimmy Dorsey and His Orchestra.

Octave Mandolin with Joe K. Walsh

Greenwood Mandolinist John Reischman’s tune “Greenwood,” which he recorded on “Up in the Woods,” makes a great octave mandolin tune. It’s a loping, medium-tempo, two-part tune in the key of D.

BANJO COURSES

Old-Time Banjo with Bruce Molsky

Sourwood Mountain Bruce’s version of the square dance tune “Sourwood Mountain” comes from the playing of Glen Smith, who recorded it on a fretless banjo in eBEBE tuning, which puts it in the key of E.

FIDDLE COURSES

Western Swing Fiddle with Chad Manning

Just Because “Just Because” is a song from the late 1920s that soon became a favorite of western swing bands. You’ll learn the melody in the key of Bb as well as a solo from Johnny Gimble’s recording of “Just Because.”

Old-Time Fiddle with Bruce Molsky

Arkansas Traveler “Arkansas Traveler” is one of the most popular old-time fiddle tunes. Bruce’s version is influenced by Wade Ward and Glen Smith, who start on the high part, although most people start on the low part.

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.