New Lessons, Tunes, and Techniques to Kick Off Your Year

Peghead Nation instructors have great lessons to get your musical year going!

By: Dan Gabel

January 3, 2025

Peghead Nation instructors have released hours of new instruction in their courses, and here are the tunes and lessons we’ve just published for January 2025. Join us in any course and get your first month free. Just use promo code Learn25 at checkout!

GUITAR COURSES

Contemporary Flatpicking Guitar with Grant Gordy

Quarter-Note Triplets and “Lady Be Good” Grant talks about the difference between quarter notes and quarter-note triplets and looks at different ways to pick triplets. He also shows you how to use quarter-note triplets to play the melody to “Lady Be Good.”

Irish Flatpicking Guitar with Flynn Cohen

The Floating Crowbar “The Floating Crowbar” was written by accordionist Finbarr Dwyer. The version Flynn teaches you comes from guitarist Arty McGlynn, who played it with a capo at the third fret, putting it in the key of F, although it’s usually played in D.

Western Swing Guitar with Matt Munisteri

Goin’ Away Party Cindy Walker’s “Goin’ Away Party” is a highlight of Bob Wills’ For the Last Time. Matt shows you some of the things Eldon Shamblin played during his backup on that recording, including some clear Eddie Lang influences.

MANDOLIN COURSES

Intermediate Bluegrass Mandolin with Sharon Gilchrist

Shady Grove “Shady Grove” is a classic American folk song that likely originated in the 1800s. There are numerous versions, but Sharon teaches you a version of “Shady Grove” in the key of D minor that is similar to the way Jerry Garcia and David Grisman, Tony Rice, and others have played it.

Weekly Mandolin Workout with Ethan Setiawan

Scales Up the Neck Ethan shows you how to play scales in different places on the neck. You’ll learn four different closed scale positions, a two-octave, closed-position major scale, and how to play “Billy in the Lowground” in a closed position.

Swing and Jazz Mandolin with Joe K. Walsh

When I Grow Too Old to Dream “When I Grow Too Old to Dream” was originally written in 3/4 time, but jazz musicians usually play it in a medium-tempo 4/4. You’ll learn the melody and chords as well as a solo from clarinetist Evan Christopher.

Monroe-Style Mandolin with Mike Compton

Old Joe Clark In his solo for the 1961 recording of “Old Joe Clark,” Bill Monroe takes his cue from the device he used in “John Hardy”: holding down the D note on the A string at the fifth fret through the most recognizable melodic sequence of the first part.

Gypsy Jazz Mandolin Essentials with Aaron Weinstein

On the Sunny Side of the Street “On the Sunny Side of the Street” was written in 1930 by Jimmy McHugh and Dorothy Fields, and has been recorded by innumerable musicians, including Django Reinhardt, Louis Armstrong, and Frank Sinatra.

Old-Time Mandolin with John Reischman

Leather Britches “Leather Britches” is a popular fiddle tune in bluegrass, old-time, and contest fiddling circles. John’s version is a great pick exercise with continuous eighth notes in the A part and a syncopation that starts the B part.

The Advancing Mandolinist with Joe K. Walsh

Port Tobacco “Port Tobacco” was written by bluegrass guitar legend Tony Rice and recorded on his 1986 album Me and My Guitar. Although it was written for the guitar, the melody to “Port Tobacco” lays out well on the mandolin.

Chord Melody Mandolin with Aaron Weinstein

“Satin Doll” Etude Aaron’s etude on the Duke Ellington classic “Satin Doll” starts with some rhythmic motifs using standard chord shapes and pinky notes and then uses more elaborate single-note lines in the bridge.

Octave Mandolin with Joe K. Walsh

Kitchen Floor Waltz “Kitchen Floor Waltz” comes from banjoist/songwriter Danny Barnes and was recorded on his Dirt on the Angel album. It’s a beautiful, simple waltz in the key of G that lays out well on the octave mandolin.

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

Folk and Bluegrass Songs with Lauren Rioux

Learn to craft your own fiddle solos to folk and bluegrass songs by creating melodic and rhythmic interest using pickups, double stops, licks, and fills. You’ll work through each song in multiple keys so you can become comfortable with transposition on the fly, a crucial component for successful jamming.

“Don’t This Road Look Rough and Rocky” Lauren uses the Flatt and Scruggs song “Don’t This Road Look Rough and Rocky” to show you how to play fills between vocal phrases. You’ll learn the melody and fills in the keys of D and C.

Western Swing Fiddle with Chad Manning

Maiden’s Prayer Bob Wills transformed “Maiden’s Prayer,” originally a mid-nineteenth century piano piece, into a fiddle tune. Chad shows you the melody with double stops and gives you advice on improvising with double stops.

Old-Time Fiddle with Bruce Molsky

Little Billy Wilson “Little Billy Wilson” is a great three-part dance tune that first appeared on a recording by Texas fiddler Eck Robertson called “Brilliancy Medley”, which contains two of the three parts of “Little Billy Wilson.

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.