New Lessons Just Added to Peghead Nation for June

Kick-off your summer with new lessons, tunes, and techniques in our guitar, mandolin, fiddle, banjo, dobro, ukulele, and bass courses.

By: Dan Gabel

June 5, 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.

GUITAR COURSES

Advanced Flatpicking Guitar with Scott Nygaard

Little Liza Jane | Scott shows you how he arranges the fiddle tune “Little Liza Jane” as a solo guitar piece in dropped-D tuning by filling out the melody with bass notes, chord tones, and ringing open strings.

Roots of Jazz Guitar with Matt Munisteri

Chicken à la Swing: Carl Kress’s Part | In this lesson, you’ll learn Carl Kress’s guitar part to “Chicken à la Swing,” an accompaniment to Dick McDonough’s melody part, but not exactly a rhythm guitar part, as Kress plays bass lines and counter melodies as well as chords.

Irish Backup Guitar with Flynn Cohen

Movable Chord Shapes and Bass Lines | Flynn shows you how to use movable chord shapes to create bass lines, using the jig “The Connachtman’s Rambles” and the reel “The Otter’s Holt” as examples.

MANDOLIN COURSES

Bluegrass Mandolin Jam Favorites with Joe K. Walsh

Billy in the Lowground | The old-time fiddle tune “Billy in the Lowground” has long been a staple of bluegrass jams. It’s in the key of C with a distinctive A part and a B part that Joe plays in second position.

Theory for Mandolin and Fiddle with Chad Manning

Boogie-Woogie Lick in all Bluegrass Keys | Chad shows you a boogie-woogie lick in all the bluegrass keys, giving you different octave options and showing you how to play the lick with double stops.

Intermediate Bluegrass Mandolin with Sharon Gilchrist

“Forked Deer” Solo | Learn a solo for “Forked Deer” that Sharon created using many of the ideas she’s covered in the course, including arpeggios, double stops, licks from other solos, etc.

Monroe-Style Mandolin with Mike Compton

Close By | “Close By” is another of Bill Monroe’s 1954 recordings. It’s in the key of A, and Bill’s solo is mostly in closed positions, with a lot of tremolo and downstroke phrases, as well as a couple of triplets.

The Advancing Mandolinist with Joe K. Walsh

Peace | Sarah Jarosz’s beautiful instrumental “Peace,” which she recorded on her album Follow Me Down, makes for a great, contemplative solo mandolin piece.

Melodic Mandolin Tunes with John Reischman

Suzanne McGehee | “Suzanne McGehee” is a recent tune of John’s that he wrote while on tour in Ireland. It’s a fiddle tune that, appropriately enough, has a bit of an Irish flavor, with some triplet ornaments and minor chords.“Suzanne McGehee” is a recent tune of John’s that he wrote while on tour in Ireland. It’s a fiddle tune that, appropriately enough, has a bit of an Irish flavor, with some triplet ornaments and minor chords.

Irish Mandolin with Marla Fibish

Bill Malley’s Barn Dance | In this lesson, you’ll learn another barn dance, “Bill Malley’s Barn Dance,” which has a bit of a wistful quality compared to last month’s barn dance: “The Hills of Tara.”

Chord Melody Mandolin with Aaron Weinstein

I Know That You Know | Aaron’s arrangement of the jazz standard “I Know That You Know” takes a different approach to chord melody, arpeggiating the chords rather than playing block chords.

Bluegrass Mandolin Fingerboard Method with Sharon Gilchrist – NEW COURSE!

Long Journey Home | The bluegrass standard “Long Journey Home” comes from the Monroe Brothers. You’ll learn it in the key of G using the same shapes you’ve been using in the key of D.

BANJO COURSES

Bluegrass Banjo with Bill Evans

Pike County Breakdown | The banjo instrumental “Pike County Breakdown” is one of the first tunes Earl Scruggs recorded when he joined forces with Lester Flatt in 1950. You’ll learn two solos from the recording.

Clawhammer Banjo with Evie Ladin

Drop Thumb Workshop and Student Questions | In this recording of her Facebook Live workshop, Evie talks about drop thumbing and syncopation and answers student questions about banjo setup, movable chords, and more.

Contemporary Bluegrass Banjo with Wes Corbett

Alternative Rolls | Learn a couple of rolls that will be familiar to fans of Béla Fleck, Tony Trischka, Alison Brown, and other contemporary bluegrass banjo players: the bounce roll and the Shelton roll.

FIDDLE COURSES

Beginning/Intermediate Fiddle with Chad Manning

Don’t Give Your Heart to a Rambler | Learn a solo to the bluegrass song “Don’t Give Your Heart to a Rambler” that is based on fiddler Richard Greene’s solo on Tony Rice’s classic recording.

Bluegrass Fiddle with Chad Manning

Don’t Give Your Heart to a Rambler | Learn fiddler Richard Greene’s classic solo from Tony Rice’s recording of the bluegrass song “Don’t Give Your Heart to a Rambler.”

Old-Time Fiddle with Bruce Molsky

Old-Time Fiddle Workshop and Student Questions | In this recording of his Facebook Live workshop, Bruce plays some great tunes and answers student questions about bow patterns, how he learns fiddle tunes, and more.

DOBRO COURSES

Dobro Workshop with Mike Witcher

Minor Pentatonic Scale Licks | The minor pentatonic scale can be used to play in minor keys or give a bluesy sound to major keys. Mike shows you some great minor pentatonic licks used by Josh Graves and others.

BASS COURSES

Bass with Zoe Guigueno – NEW COURSE!

Nobody Knows What You Do | “Nobody Knows What You Do” comes from John Hartford and has a chromatic chord progression that is used in a lot of tunes. Zoe shows you a basic bass line and numerous variations.

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.