New Lessons! June 2024

New techniques, tunes, and lessons from Peghead Nation instructors

By: Dan Gabel

June 3, 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 June 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

Salty Dog Blues The bluegrass classic “Salty Dog Blues” has a circle-of-fifths chord progression (In G, it’s G–E–A–D–G), and Stash’s solo gives you lots of arpeggio practice on the E, A, D, and G chords.

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

Stack of Barley “Stack of Barley” is a traditional hornpipe in the key of G major. It’s played with a swing feel, and there are quite a few triplets but Flynn plays them all with slurs.

Western Swing Guitar with Matt Munisteri

Chicken in the Rough In this lesson, you’ll learn jazz and swing guitarist George Barnes’ version of the traditional fiddle tune “Chicken Reel,” which he recorded on the 1950s album Country Jazz and called “Chicken in the Rough.”

MANDOLIN COURSES

Weekly Mandolin Workout with Ethan Setiawan

In Weekly Mandolin Workout, Ethan Setiawan walks you through a series of workouts that will help you learn the fingerboard, strengthen and increase the dexterity of your fingers, expand your knowledge of chord and scale theory, and improve your picking and fretting techniques. He explores cross-picking, playing scales over chords, perfecting hammer-on and pull-off techniques, and much more, breaking up different mandolin concepts into bite-sized pieces that will help you steadily improve your playing. We are adding new lessons each month, so the course library continues to grow as you build your skills. The high-quality video includes multiple camera angles so you can see close-ups of both hands in action, and you get detailed notation, tab, and chord diagrams for each lesson.

Swing and Jazz Mandolin with Joe K. Walsh

“Bye Bye Blackbird” Sara Caswell Solo In this lesson, you’ll learn jazz violinist Sara Caswell’s solo on “Bye Bye Blackbird,” from her album But Beautiful. The solo is a great example of melodic development and playing the changes.

Monroe-Style Mandolin with Mike Compton

“Toy Heart” 1961 Bill Monroe’s November 9, 1961 recording of “Toy Heart” is quite a departure in key and style from his original recording in 1946. The blues is quoted more in this version, which is in the key of E, and flatted thirds abound.

Gypsy Jazz Mandolin Essentials with Aaron Weinstein

Undecided The swing classic “Undecided” was written in 1938 by Sid Robin and trumpeter Charlie Shavers. You’ll learn it in the key of Bb, and in addition to giving you a great solo to learn, Aaron shows you a couple of new chord voicings in Bb.

Old-Time Mandolin with John Reischman

Good Ax Elve John learned “Good Ax Elve” from fiddler Brad Leftwich, who got it from a book of Missouri fiddle tunes. A “helve” is an ax handle, which may explain the title. It sounds like it could be a version of “The Cuckoo’s Nest.”

The Advancing Mandolinist with Joe K. Walsh

“Lonesome Road Blues” Ronnie McCoury Solo In this lesson, you’ll learn a Ronnie McCoury solo on “Lonesome Road Blues.” The solo includes a lot of great bluegrass vocabulary that can be played at a fast tempo.

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

“Exactly Like You” Etude For this lesson, Aaron has created another etude for a song you’ve learned before: “Exactly Like You.” The etude is based on a riff that moves through the chord progression.

Octave Mandolin with Joe K. Walsh

Skyward “Skyward” was written by pianist Jed Wilson. It’s a simple tune in the key of F and it lays out well on the octave mandolin with a capo at the third fret. It’s also a fun tune to improvise on.

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

I’m Gonna Sit Right Down and Write Myself a Letter “I’m Gonna Sit Right Down and Write Myself a Letter” was made popular by Fats Waller’s recording. In this lesson, you’ll learn the melody as well as a solo inspired by Johnny Gimble.

Old-Time Fiddle with Bruce Molsky

Isambard’s Waltz Bruce wrote “Isambard’s Waltz” a few years ago and recorded it on Molsky’s Mountain Drifters. It’s in the key of A, played in AEAC# tuning (often called calico tuning or devil’s tuning or “Black Mountain Rag” tuning).

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.