Flatpicking Essentials Vol2

7/25/2019 Flatpicking Essentials Vol2

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/flatpicking-essentials-vol2 1/113tan6d

I

p

ppa

-00H

r

B


http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/flatpicking-essentials-vol2 2/113

Uolunrcr

ksrrMUHMTo$sbr

6td[erWgmrd|Bew

Wrlflen

y

FlstricHng

ultar

ryszine

Edltor

Dmillller



Teible

of

Conlenls

lnlroduct?on

Arrcnglng

Solos

for Voccl

ltrnes

(Ovendew)

Sfep One:

Selecf o Song

Slep

ltno: Flnd lhe Chords

Sfep Three Flnd lhe ftlelody ('ryou Ate ftly Sunshlne" Examples)

9fep

Four: Boslc Cartet Style

Sfep

Ffue

Slmpllfy

lhe

tlelody

('"You

Are ftly

Sunshlne"

Exomples)

Pso,ct?cing the

9feps;

"Wlll

The

Clrcle

Be Unbrokcn"

"Shetll

Be

Comlng

Around

lhe tlounfeilntt

lmprovlsoflon

"Nlne

Pound Hcmmcrtt

"Jesse

Jcrtnestt

"Red

Rfuer

Volleytt

"Old Joe Clorktt

Wgrllz Tlme

"Down

7n 4/r,e

olleytt

"Atnazlng

Grocett

Ptactice wlflr

Colfter

g$e

"Jimmy

Brown tlte Newsboy"

"Grcndfothef

s

Clocktt

"Old

Splnnlng

Wheel"

"Uncloudy

Doytt

"Home

Sweef

Homctt

"John

Hordytt

"John

Henty"

"Buffclo

Golstt

"lonegome

Road Bluestt

nWlldwood

Flowertt

"CtTpple

Crceld'

"Bonks

ol

the

Ohlott

"EsstYTsgZnTo

Bluestt

"Keep

On

The

Sunny Slde"

"Buty

lf,e

Beneoflr

lhe

Wlllodt

'sYellow

Rose of lexostt

Tremolo

"ltnlnkle,

flnlnkle Tremolott

Tremolo

Exerclse

'You

Ate

tly Sunshlnett Tremolo

t'Worded

tlon

Bluestt

Tremolo

"Buw

tle Bcneolh

l{r.e

Wlllodt lremolo

'You

Ate

tly Sunshfnett

Splced-up

Tremolo

"Boogle-Woog

le Bluestt

v

I

7

8

to

t5

l7

20

25

27

29

30

33

34

36

38

39

40

4l

42

44

46

4A

50

5l

52

53

li4

55

56

57

58

60

6r

62

62

63

64

65

66

67

68

Flatpicking Essentials Volume 2: Learning How

To

Solo,

Carter

Style

and

Beyond



Tcrble

l

Contents

con'tl

Double

9fope

6Bile

the Cobboge

Down"

Double

Slops

Findlng

Double

Sfops

ln

Chord

Shopes

"You

Arc

tly

Sunshinet

Double Stops

"Buflolo

Golstt

Double Sfops

ttGdpple Creektt Double Stops

"Wlldwood

FlowerD Double Sfops

"Worded

tlon

Bluestt

Double Sfops

"Elreets

ol

btedott

Double 9fops

Crosspicklng

Crossplcklng

Paflerns

Crossplcklng

Ererclse

"Banks

ol the Ohlo"

Crossplcklng

"Wildwood

Flowertt Crossplcklng

"Home

gweef

Homett Crossplcking

ttOh, Susonnott Crossplcklng

Allernofe Crossplckln

g

Palterns

Ploneer

Techniqucs

Summory

Nelghbodng

lfofes, Scale

R.uns,ond

Drones

Clarence

Whlfe

Ercerpf

"Solfy

Dog

Bluestt

Doc

Wofson Excetp|c

ond

Drone

9fdngs

"Shetll

Be

Comlng

Around

lhe tounfolntt

"Buffolo Geilstt

6Wobosh

Connonbolltt

"You

Are

tly

Sunshlnett

Llcks and

Sololng

C ond

G

Llcks

"Jimmy

Brown lhe Newsboytt

cfhe

Crowdod

Songtt

(Jllne

Pound

Hommertt

"Sforrns

Are

On

The

Ocesntt

"Old

Spinnlng

Wheel"

Flddfe

lbnes ond Canter Sfyle

"Ar{rcnscg

Trcvelertt

"Red

Wlngtt

looklng Forwand

69

69

70

7l

72

72

73

74

75

76

76

T7

7a

79

80

8l

82

83

84

84

85

86

87

88

89

90

92

93

94

95

96

97

98

ro2

t03

ro7

r08

Flatpicking

Essentials Volume 2:

Learning How

To

Solo, Carter

Style and

Beyond



lnt;oducflon

Welcome

to Flatpicking

Essentials,

Volume2:

Learning to

Solo-Carter

Style

and

Beyondl I hope

that

you

were

able

o

spend

a lot

of

time

practicing

he

bass uns,

ilI licks,

and

strum patterns

hat

you

were

presented

ith in

Volume

of this

course

ecause

ou

aregoing o use hemall here. I havealways hought

that f a

guitar

student ad a solid

foundation

n

playing

rhythm

and working with

bass

runs

and rhythm fill

licks,

that a very natural

progression

when

stepping

from rhythm playing

to

lead playing would

be the

Carter

style

of

lead

playing.

In

the Carterstyle

you

are

executing

he

same

ight and left

hand echniques hat

you

learned

and

practiced

n

Volume I when

you were

workingwith

bass

uns

andstrums.The only

difference

is

that

n

the

Carter

style he bass

uns

will

be

replaced

by

a

melody

ine.

So, f

you gained

a

good

evelof skill

andexperiencen

the

executionof bass

uns

and

strums

while working with

Volume

I

,

you

are ready to move

on

and

play

Carter

style ead.

But Carter style

lead

s

not where

his book

ends

Here n Volume 2 we are

going

to

gain

a

solid

lead

guitar

oundationwith

the Carter style,but then

we

are

going

to move

on from

there in an effort to add more

spice and interest

o

your

lead

guitar

work. At first

you

will learn

o

add

he techniques hat

you

learned n

Volume

-such

as

bass

uns,

ill licks, hammer-ons,

pulls, alternatestrum patterns,and slides-to basic

Carter style

arrangements.After

you

have

gained

a

good

feel

for using

those

echniques n

conjunction

with

Carter

style,

we will then

start

o add new

lead

guitar

echniques

neat

a

time.

The

first few

new techniques hat

you

will

learn-tremolo,

double

stops, and crosspicking-are

techniques

hat

were

developed n

roots,

bluegrass,

andearly country

music by the pioneers

of

lead

guitar

playing

n

those

genres.

After

you

havedigested

hose

techniques e will

move on

to

take

a look at some

of

the

techniques

hat

becamemore

prevalent

during

the

"heroes

ra."

These

echniques

nclude

he use

of

neighboring

otes, cale

uns,anddrones.Towards he

endof the

book

we will

also

start

o

look

at the

use

of

a

few common

latpicking

hrases,

r

licks,

and

how

you

might add

hose o

your

Carterstyle

solos

n order o

develop more diverse

nd

nteresting

rrangements.

As

with

the

material n

Volume

I

,

I

strongly suggest

that

you

work

to

come

up

with your

own

arrangements

and

your

own

way

of using

the

techniques

hat

I have

presented

ere.

The

more

time

that

you

spend rying

to

develop

your

own

uniqueand creative

ways

to

use

all

of the

techniques

hat I

present n

this

volume, the

easier t is

going

to

be for

you

to learnhow to arrang

your

own

solos

and

mprovise.

On thenextpage will begin o ayouta step-by-ste

method

that

is

designed o

teach

you

how to arrang

your

own

solo

o

any

song

hat

you

may

hear withou

the

use

of

a book

magazine,

r

video.

That

might

seem

like

a monumentalask ight now,especially

f

you've

never

done

t

before. However,after working

with the

material

that is

presented

n this

volume I think tha

you

will feel differently.

You

will have the tools,

the

techniques,

method, nd

he

confidence.Good uck

If

you

have

any

questions

s

you

work through his

book,

please

eel

free o contact

me

at:

dan@flatpic

com.

Please

ut

"Flatpicking

Essentials"

n

the subjec

line

so hat can

easilv

dentifv

vour

email.

A

Note

on

the Arrangements in the Book:

In

arranging

he

guitar

solos

or certain sections

of

this

book

I

over-usedhe

new

technique hat is being

presented

n that

section n order to

give

you

more

practice

with

a

given

echnique.Those

olos

should

be

practiced

with

this

n

mind.

I

suggest

hat

you practic

the solos in the sectionson tremolo, double stops

and

crosspicking n order

to

get

a

good

feel for

thes

techniques,

ut

then

go

back

and earn

how

to

"mix

and

match" hese

echniques

hen

creating

your

own

alrangements,

s havedone

with

the solos

hat

appea

later

n the book.

Have

un

iv

Flatpicking

Essentials Volume 2: Learning How

To

Solo,

Carter

Style

and Beyon



Arrqnglng

solos

lot

vocal

rbnes

Guitar players

who

have

earned

o play

the

flatpick

style

usually

spend

the

majority

of

their

time

and

effort

learning

o

play

fiddle

tunes.

Many

times

this

learning

process

nvolves

memorizing

someone

lse,s

arrangement

rom

a

book,

magazine,

r

instructional

video. There s nothingwrong with that. It is a fine

way

to

build

a repertoire

of tunes

hat you

can play

at

your

local

am

session

r

festival,

or

with

u

pi.Kng

buddy

who

knows

the

same

unes.

However,

at

some

point

n

time

you

aregoing

o want

to

learn

how

to

solo

on

songs

hat

you

have

not

mem

orized,

ongs

hat you

can't

find

tab

for,

or

even

songs

hat

have

never

heard

before.

You

are going

to

learn

how

to

do

that

here.

Beginning

players

watch

more

advanced

ickers

at

a

am

sessions

ake

solos

on

song

after

song

hat

they

may

have

never

heard

before

and

wonder

..how

do

theydo that ?" The answer s that

hose

players

have

developed

skill

that you

too

can

develop

and

in

this

course

am

going

to

help

you

learn

how

to

develop

that

skill,

and

we

are

going

o

start

ight

away.

In

this

volume

of

the

Flatpicking

Essentials

course

we

will

focus

on

techniques

hat

will

help

you

build

your

own

solos

o

vocal

unes.

Then

n

the

next

volume

we

are

going

o

do

the

same

hing

with

fiddle

unes.

The

basic

steps

hat

we

will

follow

in

this

volume

are

as

ollows:

l)

Select

Song

2) LearntheChord

progression

3)

Learn

he

Basic

Melody

4)

Simplify

the

Melody

5)

Find

the

Carter

Style

Arrangement

6)

Embellish

he

Carter

Style

Arrangement

Before

we

get

into

any

examples,

et

me

talk

about

each

of

these

steps

n

more

detail

so

that

you

can

get

an

dea

about

how

this

process

works

before

we put

our

hands

on

the

guitar

and

start

o

practice

hese

steps.

Step -Setect a Song

while

this

step

s

the

obvious

place

o

start,

want

to

say

that

I feel

that

a very

important

element

of

this

first

step

o

consider

s

the

ype

of

song

hat

you

select,

especially

when

you

are

first

learning

o

create

your

own

guitar

solos

o

songs.

The

rule

of

thumb

in

this

regard

s

Keep

it

simple

In

fact,

that

rule

applies

o

everything

hat you

do.

Start

simply

and

slowly,

hen

gradually

move

forward.

If

you

bite

off

more

than

you

can

chew

at

first,

or

if you

try

to

tackle

somethine

hat

is

too

far

beyond

your

current

skill

level,

you

are goin

to

get

frustrated.

That

frustration

may

appear

righ

away

because

ou

will

not

feel

like

you

are

makin

enough

progress,

r

that

frustration

will

show

up

late

when

you

realize

hat

you

have

reached

a plateau

your playing due to the fact that you skipped

ove

some

mportant

undamentals

nd

have

holes

n you

knowledge

r

technical

kill.

These

oles

will

preve

you

from

moving

forward

unless

you

back

track

an

fill

them

in.

So,

my

advice

s

to

keep

t

simple

an

progress

orward

n

small

ncremental

teps.

Keeping

t

simple

n

regard

o selecting

song

mean

that

you

select

a

simple

song

hat

you

have

known

you

entire

ife.

You

may

feel

that you

are

above

nurser

rhymes

ike "Twinkle

Little

Star"

or

simple

old

,ong

like "You

Are

My sunshine,"however, his is the tvp

of

material

hat

you

should

ocus

on

in

the

beginnin

because

he

chord

progression

s

usually

simple,

h;

melody

s

simple,

t

is

a

melody

hat

you

can

sing,

and

is

a

melody

hat

you

have

probably

known

your

whole

life.

Also,

pick

a

song

hat

haswords

hatyou

know

by

heart.

To recap,

here

are

he guidelines

hat you

shoul

use

when

picking

a

new

song

o

use

when

learning

a

new

skill

or

technique

I

will

discuss

ach

of

these

i"p

briefly

n

this

section

and

hen

we

will

go

through

each

step

n greater

etail,

with

examples,

n

the

section

ha

follows):

1)

Pick

a

simple

song.

This

means

hat

the

song

has

a simple

hord

progression

nd

has

a

melody

hat

stay

in

the

ange

of

a major

scale

n

one

octave.

Songs

ike

"Twinkle

Little

Star"

and

"you

Are

My

Sunshine"

se

a

total

of three

chords I,

IV,

and

v).

They

also

each

contain

a

total

of

only

six

different

notes

and

all

of

those

notes

stay

n

the

range

of

one

octave

n

the

major

scale.

when

you

begin

o

learn

how

to

pick

out melodies

by

ear

on

your

guitar

you

are

going

to learn

how

to

do

it

faster

and

you

will

gain

more

confidence

n your

abilities

f you

only

have

six

notes

o

choose

rom

and

you

know

that

all

of

those

notes

eside

n

the

major

scale

n

one

octave.

If you

try

to pick

out

a

song

hat

has

a

more

complex

melody

before

ou

have

developed

your

ear

to

the

degree

hat you

can

find

that

melody

easily,

ou

aregoing

o

get

rustrated.

Flatpicking Essentials

Volume

2:

Learning

How

To

Solo,

Carter

Style

and,

Beyond





to memorize he

words

andsing

he song

while playing

through he

chord

progression.

he

more ime that

you

spend

singing he melody and

playing

the chords,

he

easier t is

going

to be for

you

to find the melody and

then arrange

our

solo.

Finding

the melody s

something hat

you

are

going

to

do by ear. If

you

have not

had much

practice,

or

success, ith

findingnotes n

your guitar

by ear,don't

worry. You aregoing o haveplentyof practice n this

volume

andwe

are

going

o

work

with simplemelodies

that will not

be difficult

to

find. By

the end of this

volumeyou

will have

developed degree f

confidence

in

your

ability to find melodies y

ear.

Once

you

find

the

basicmelody,

henextcritical step s

to work to

etch t

into

your

brain

and

under

your

fingers.

You want

to

work

with

that

melody

until

you

can

play

it

in

your

sleep,

while

you

talk with

other

people,

or

while

you

are watching

TV...youwant that melody o

become

secondnature

before

you

try to embellish t,

add o it, modify it,

or do anything

lse.

When I interviewed

RichardBennett or Flatpicking

Guitar

Magazine,

he

said

that

he

made

his students

play

only the melody

until

they

got

"melody

burnout."

I

totally agree with

this

idea.

The melody is the

launchingpoint

for all of

your

solo

arrangements nd

improvisations,

f

you

don't have

hat

melody

ngrained

into

your

"muscle

memory"

you

are nevitably

going

to

get

lost

during a solo

and

not

be able to find

your

way

back. The

better

you

know

that

melody,

he

more

confident ou aregoing o bewhenyou stepaway rom

it in a solo

or improvisationand

he easier t will be to

get

back to it if

you

get

lost. Tasteful

players

all say

"Melody

is King " and t

is true.

Many

students

will

complain

hat

ust

playing

he

simple

melody s boring

and hey will

want

to

move

on

once hey have

t

memortzed

n their head. But,

until it

is

memorized

n

your

muscles nd

down o

your

bones,

you

don't really have t

If

you

arebored

playing

he

melody of

one song over and over in

the samespot,

then

play

it

in a different

octave,at a different

place

on the fingerboard,

r in a different key. Play it in

al l

l2 keys

Justcontinue o

play

it

until

you

coulddo it

in

your

sleep. Then

you

will be ready o move

on and

add o it.

If

you

don't believeme,

take one song as an

experiment.

Choose nesong,learnts simplemelody

and

ust

play

thatmelody

overandover. Use t as

your

warm

up, use

that

melody

to

work

on other technical

aspects

f

your playing

ike

timing and one and note

clarity. Just

continue o

play

that

simple

melody to

that one song

over and

over for

five

to

ten minutes

everyday. Later,

when

you

start

working

on affanging

and mprovising

guarantee

hat

the song

you

worked

with

as

your

"simple

melody

song"

will

be the song

hat

is easiest

or

you

to

work with

in

termsof

creatingnew

arrangementsnd

mprovisations.

Once

you prove

hat

to

yourself,

you

too

will

be convinced

regarding he

"melody

burn out" method and

apply it to every new

song hatyou learn.

You may

be thinking,

"If

Dan is

suggesting

hat

I

play

just

the melody over and over before

I can

play

a more complex

arrangement,

hen what about these

guys

who

can learn a new song

n

a

jam

session nd

take a

phenomenal

olo

right away." Good

question

And my

answer s,

you

have

to

learn

to

walk

before

you

can earn o run. Those

guyshave

spentso

much

time learning

songs and

playing

them on

their

guitar

that they

are able to

process

a

melody and find it, and

embellishments, n their guitar right away. You will

eventually

get

there too. Taking

it

step-by-step

nd

working

slowly

through

these

steps n

the

beginning

is

the way

to

get

there.

Eventually

you

will

be able

o

process

he steps

aster

and fasterand

you

too

will

be

able o learn a

song and create

a solo

spontaneously

n

real

time. However, f

you

skip stepsor don't spend

enough ime with

eachstep,

t will be more difficult

for

you

to reach hat

final

goal.

A-Basic

Carter

Style

Arrangement

The flatpicking echnique hathascome o be known

as

"Carter

Style"

was

adapted

rom

the

playing

of

Mother

Maybelle

Carter.

Although Maybelle used

a

thumb

pick

on the downstrokes,

ollowed by a strum

with

her ingers,

he

general

echnique

s

easily

adapte

to the flatpick. The

technique

s exactly that same

as the bass-note/strumechnique hat

you

practice

extensively n

Volume

I

,

however,

we are

going

to

replace

he bass ine

with

a melody

ine. Therefore, he

Carter echnique

consistsof

playing

the melody note

on the lower registerstringsand insertinga rhythmic

strum

between melody notes

when

there

is adequat

space

time-wise)

o do so.

Maybelle

Carter

didn't

have a rhythm sectio

when

she

played

and sang with

her

sister Sarah

and

her brother-in-law

A.

P.

Carter.

So when she took a

guitar

solo, she had to keep a

rhythmic strummin

patterngoing

while she

played

the melody, otherwis

the overallsoundwould have ackeda

rhythmic

drive

and

would

have

sounded

oo sparse.

Flatpicking

Essentials

Volume 2: Learning How To

Solo,

Carter

Style

and Beyond



Audio Tra$ 1-03

C

Ex.

Ex.3

At the top of this

page

have written out three

line and hus

playing

hemelody

f the

song.

So,inone

examples rom the first line of the song

"Twinkle,

easystep,

you've

become soloist

The main

reaso

Twinkle, Little Star." Example I is the melody, that hadyou playso manybassline/strumxample

Example2 is a simplifiedmelody and Example

3 is

in

Volume I is so that

you

would

be

ready

or

Carte

the simplifiedmelody with rhythmic strums

nserted

style ead

playing.

My hope s that

you

will

find

Carte

betweenhe melodynotes.Takea look at Example3.

style

playing

obe

a

veryeasy ndnatural

way o

begin

Ifyou

play

through hese

our measures,

ou

will find

to

play

lead

solos

after

having

studied

assline/stru

thateven houghsomeof the

melody

noteshave

been

rhythmplaying

n Volume .

"removed,"

ou

still hear he melody

of

the song.You

Play

through

Example

above

again.

Then

play

also

get

a

fuller sound

han

ust

playing

hemelody ine

Example

.

Example sounds retty

plain

andsimple

of

Example

becausen

Example3

the chords

of the

It sounds

ike something

s lacking.Example sound

songare dentifiable nd hus

your

ear can ollow the

full and hythmic;and t soundsike

somethinghat

you

chord

progression

nd

you

alsohavea more

perceivable

could actuallyplayfor people ven f you don't hav

rhythmic movement. Also, if you

think about

t, I

anyoneaccompanying

ou

because

ou

havemelody

didn't really

"remove"

hemelodynotes n Example

chords, nda defined hythm.

becausehose otes recontainedn thechordal

trum.

In

Volume when

I talkedabout he

"history

of

They

ust

arenot

played

assinglenotes.Example

3 is

flatpicking"

said hat latpicking

was

anensemble

tyl

a simpleexample f what meanwhen say

"Carter

due o the act hat t wasdifficult o

provide

your

own

style."

accompaniment hile also

playing

ead ines. Fiddl

Having

tudied olume ofthis series,youhouldnow

tune latpicking, he way most

people earn t, doesn

be very amilizuwith

playing

bass ines n conjunction

sound oo

great

without a rhythm section.

Howeve

with rhythmic

strums.

The

only thing different

here s

Carter style

lead playing with a flatpick can soun

that we are substitutinghe bass ine with the melody

full and nteresting ecauset haschordsand

hythm

4

Flatpicking Essentials Volume 2: Learning How To

Solo,

Carter Style and

Beyon



When

I

interviewed

Charles

Sawtelle for Flatpicking

Guitar Magazine,hesaid,

"If

I'm

playing

around he

house,

or

playing

solo, I try to

play

something

hat

people

an relate

o

as

guitar

music. f

you

were

o

play

ten fiddle tunes or

your grandmother,

or example,by

the

third one she

would

be

falling

asleep.

The music

doesn't

make

any sense o them.

prefer

o

play

tunes

that are

guitar

like. So I

will

play

Carter

Family

tunes

like "Little Moses" or "Wildwood Flower," something

that

can

be understood.'d

play

some

kind

of tune hat

has hythmic

structure o it.

It is

cool to

play

that other

stuff f

you

have

a

band.But when

you

are

by

yourself,

it can

get

really

boring

or

everyone, eal

quick."

Therearemany reasons

o start earning

your

first solo

arrangement

f any une as

a

Carterstyle arrangement.

First,

t

is

usually

going

o be the simplestand easiest

arrangement

f that

une

hat

you

will

ever

earn. And

simple

s

always

good

when

you

are starting

anything

Next,

as

mentioned

bove, heCarterstylearrangement

sounds

uller

and more rhythmic when

you play

it in

a

solo setting. I don't know how many

times

've

been

with

friends

or

family

and hey've asked f I could

play

my

guitar

for

them.

When

all

I

knew was a bunch of

fiddle

unes

was very

reluctant

because

without back

up I knew it wouldn't

sound

ike

much. Now

when

people

skme

to

play

I

always follow two rules:

(l )

play

using

the

Carter

style technique,and

(2)

play

a

song

hat

hey

are

going

o know.

I learned he second ule from

experience.

f

you

choose o play a bluegrassstandardand the person

doesn'tknow

bluegrass

ou

don't

get quite

as

good

as

a

reaction

as

you

do when

you

play

something hat

they know

by heart. If they recognize t, they

usually

enjoy it more

because hey

have

a reference. This is

one

of the

reasons

hat

I

have selectedmany songs or

this

volume

hat

everybody

nows. I want

you

to

learn

songs hat

you

haveknown for

your

whole life

so that

you

know

the melody

nside

and

out,

and I also

want

you

to know thosesongs

o

hat

you

can

play

them and

your

non-bluegrassriends

and family

will

recognize

what

you

are

playing

Don't think thatbecause

ou

are

playing

a simpleold

song hat

t

is

going

o sounddull

and be boring o

play.

The

degree f dull andboring s

going

o

be

up to

you.

If

you've

everheardDavid

Grier ender

Michael

Row

Your Boat Ashore"

you'll

know what I mean. David

takes hat simple song and makes t

sound ncredibly

complex

asa solo

guitar

piecewhile

still

maintaining

solidmelody ine. That s what

you

are

going

o start o

learnhow to

do in this

volume

of the course. nd

whv

I've titled

it

"Carter

Style

and

Beyond." The

Carter

style s

ust

our starting

lace.

The next reasonwhy

Carter

style s a

good place

o

start

s

because

y

playing

he

Carter

style

arrangemen

over andover again,

ou

are

going

o

get

an

nnate ense

of

how

the

melody

and

chord

progression

work

and

sound ogether, oth mentallyand

physically.

You will

be hearingboth the melody and

he chord

progressio

in your head and executing hem togetherwith your

hands.

This will inform

your playing

and

give you

a

sense

f

how the melody

ays

on

the chord

progression

If

you

are

called

on

to

play

this song solo,

you

will

alreadyknow an arrangementhat

soundsbest n that

setting.

Then f

you

are

ater

calledupon

to take

solo

when

you

are

playing

with

other

musicians,

ou

will

be

able

o easilyadapt

o that situationand

play

a solo

that

is

appropriate o that setting.

Most of the solos

that

you

learn rom

tab

books

are

written

for the solois

who is

playing

with a band. If

you

copy and

memorrze

that arrangement,t is

not necessarily

oing

to sound

good

n a solo settingor

when

you

are

playing n

a duo

with a fiddle

player

or banjo

player.

By

learning

he

Carter style

arrangementirst

you

can build on that

as

a

foundationand have an

easier

ime coming up

with

variations.

Step5- Simplify

he Melody

This is anotherstep that

many

people

miss, or

don't think

much

about.

When

you

work

to

learn

he

melodyof a songyou will first sing he tuneand hen

find

those

notes

on the

guitar.

The notes

hat

you

find

on

your guitar

will

correspond

with

the

notes hat

you

are

singing. This

processgives you

the accurate nd

complete

melody

of

the song. However, f

you

study

those

notesand

pay

attention o

their

placement

n

the

song,

and

the meaning hey

give to

the

melodic ine

you

will

discover hat

some

of

thosemelody

notes

lay

more

of a defining

ole that

others.

We can call thes

notes

he

"stable"

melody notes.

In

other

words,

some

melody notesaremore important o defining he song

than others.

Many

times those

notes

hat are not so

important

are

melody

notes

hat

are

repeated r

note

that

transitionor lead o the stable

notes.

Usually the

most stable

notes

are

he notesof the

chord

(lst,

3rd

or 5th tones

of

the scale).

Notes

hat

may

not

be

so

important o the melody

are

sustaining

otes

notes

ha

repeat

he

previous

note),

ransition

otes

notes

utsid

the chord that are leading to chord

notes) or leadin

tones

the

7th

note

of the scale).

Remember,

hese

are

simply

ulesof thumb. There ancertainly e

stable,

r



Solo,

Carter

Style

and Beyond



defining

notes,

hat are

not in the chord.

However, t is

thosenot-so-stable

otes

hat

may be the

first

that

you

can

examine

and

decide

f

you

might be able

to leave

out

and still

have

he

melody

represented.

As an exampleof this concept,

ook

againat

the first

four

measuresof

"Twinkle,

Twinkle Little Star" that

I've

wrote out on

page

4. In the

first line, Example

l, I've

written the

melody as t is

sung. However,on

the secondine (Example2)I' ve simplified hemelody

by removing

the repeated

notes.

Play through both.

Although

the second ine

is not the exact

melody,

you

can

certainly still

reco

gnize

he song

even with about

half

of

the

melodynotes

missing.

Now

you

may be

wondering,

"Why

do I

want

to

simplify he

melody? I have

a

hardenough ime

filling

in those

gaps

between

melody

notes. Now

you

want

me

to

create

bigger

gaps "

Yes

First

of

all, learning

how

to recognize

which

of the

melody notes really

define he melodywill helpyou laterwhenyou start o

arrange

and

improvise because

ou will want

to

state

themelody

so

hat isteners an

ecosnize

he song,

bu t

you'll

also

want

to

leave

yourself

as much

room

for

your

own

unique,

creative

nterpretation s

possible.

That

may

be hard for

you

to

fathom

right now,

but

you'll

learn how

to

do that

in

this

book So,

earning

how

to identify and

use

he

fewest

number

of

notesof

the melody,

while

still strongly

defining the

melody,

will

serve

you

well

in that

regard.

Another

reason

hat

you

learn

how

to

simplify the

melody to a song has to do with tempo. If you find

yourself

n a

am

session

nd he musicians

re

playing

at a

tempo

hat s

beyond

your

skill level,even f

you

are

simply

playing

the melody and

not throwing in

other

embellishments,

hen

your

next step o

try in

an

effort

to

keep

up

is

to

simplify the

melody and only

play

the fewestnumberof

notes

possible.

f

you

area

beginnerand havenot

built

up

speedand

you

step nto

a

am

with a banjo

player

who

likes o

play

everything

in

overdrive, implify

your

melody,

play

essnotes, nd

you

may be

able

o

keep up.

We

will

talk about his

techniquemore n

Volume

3

when

we

address

laying

fast iddle

unes.

A

third

reason

hat

you want

to

learnhow to

identify

the most important melody

notes

s

to

leave

yourself

room

to

provideyour

own

rhythmic accompanimentf

you

are

playing

solo,

or

of

you

are

playing n

a

band hat

doesnot have a rhythm section.

We will be learning,

and

applying, his

skill right away

in this

volume

by

learning ow to

play

Carter

Style

eads.

Step

6-Embellish

Arrangement

The Carter

Style

Once

you

learn how

to

play

the basic

Carter

style

arrangement f a song

(Step

4),

the next

step

is

to

"supercharge

t"

a la

Norman

Blake or

David

Grier

Norman

and

David

are

both masters

at creating

a full

sounding

solo

flatpicking

guitar

arrangement.

n

this

volume

am

going

to

give you

tools and technique

that

you

can use to

supercharge

our

Carter

style

arrangement

o

hat

you

can

earn o develop

nterestin

solos o vocal songs hat

will

sound

ull without

rhythm

accompaniment. In

Volume

3,

when

we discus

instrumental unes

and

fiddle

tune

picking,

we

will

practice

echniqueshat

will

help

you

learn

how

to solo

when

you

are

with

a

band

and

don't

have

o

worry

abou

providingyour

own rhythm.

But

in

this volume

wan

you

to feel comfortable

n knowing that

you can

sound

good

all by

yourself.

Let's face t,

unless

ou are n a

band,you areprobablyplayingby yourselfmost of the

time.

So

why not

learn

how

to

develop

a full

sound n

that settingbefore earning

how

to

apply

he

technique

that sound

good

with the

full

band?

Unfortunately,most

flatpickers

earn

fiddle

tune

first.

As I

stated

n Volume

,

I

think

that s a backward

way

of learning. feel

hat f

you first earnhow

to solo

on

vocal

tunes

and learn

how

to

sound

good withou

accompaniment,hen t

will

be easy

o later earn

iddle

tune flatpicking and how

to

play in the

band

setting

One of the

hardest

hings

for flatpickers

who lear

fiddle tune flatpicking

first

to learn

is how to solo on

vocal

unes

because

hey

don't know

how to

fill in

the

longer

pauses

etween

melody notes)

and

o

learnhow

to

play

solo

guitar

(because

hey

haven't earned

how

to

provide

both melodic

and harmonic content

at

the

same

ime).

We'll

fix

that

here

because

e are

going

o

studyhow to solo

on

vocal songs

and

play

solo

guita

first,

hen

we will

take

a

look

at fiddle unes.

The techniques

hat

we

will study in this

volum

that we will add

to

the basic

Carter style

include

tremelo,double stops,crosspicking, sing scale un

and neighboringnotes, adding

bass runs,

varyin

strum

patterns,

nd

using

dronestrings.

Also,

as n

th

last

volume,

we

will

also

add

alternate

trum

pattern

hammer-ons,

ull-offs,

andslides.

Now

that

you

have an

dea

of

what

steps

we will

b

taking

o create o los n

this

volume,let's

go

ahead n

get

started

Flatpicking Essentials Volume 2: Learning How

To

Solo,

Carter

Style

and

Beyon



Step

One Selecl o

Song

As

I stated

previously,

whenever

you

are learning

something new,

start with the

simplest and

easiest

conceptor idea

and build slowly. If

you

alwayskeep

that

conceptasa rule

of

thumb,

hen

you

will continually

move orward

withouthaving

any

gaps

n

your

skill

or

knowledge.

Therefore,I

suggesthat

you

have

a

stable

of simple tunes

hat

you go

back

to anytime

you

are

trying

to

learn

a new concept

or

practice

an unfamiliar

technique.

Keeping

his

"Keep

It

Simple" concept n mind,

and

knowing

that steps

wo and hreeof

the

process

we

will

be

working

with

in this book are o first find

the chords

and

then

find

the melody,

our

goal

will be

to selecta

song

hat has

ust

2

or 3 chordsand

only a handful of

melody notes.

In order

o selecta song, suggest

hat

you go

back o

the simplest

ongs

ou

know. Those hat

you learned o sing back n kindergarden r elementary

school.

Start with something

ike

"Mary

Had

a Little

Lamb." That

song

only has2 chords

andonly 4 unique

melody

notes.

n the key

of

C

the

chordsare he

chord

and he V chord

(C

and

G).

The four

notesused n the

melody

are

C,

D, E,

and

G.

All four

of thosenotes

reside n

the range

of one octave

of the C major scale

(between

he

C

note

on the

3rd

fret

of the A string and

the

C

note

on the l st fret

of the B string).

fHint:

If

you

are

going

o

give

his

one

a ry

in

thekey

of C, start

with

the E note at the

2nd fret

of the

D

stringcorresponding

to the first word

of the lyrics:

"Mary."

Then proceed

from

there.l

Finding

the chord

progression

and

the

melody

for

a song

like

"Mary

Had

A Little

Lamb," is

going

to be far easier

han

if you

tried

to start

with

a song

like

"Blackberry

Blossom."

"Blackberry

Blossom"

has

more chords,more

melody notes,

has no words,

and

has a more

complex melody.

If

you

are new to

picking

out chord

progressions

nd melodic

ines by

ear,

chances re

that

"Blackberry

Blossom" s gong

o

frustrate ou and cause ou to think "I can't do this

This is

too

hard "

We

don't

want

that to happen,

o

start

simple.

Here s a list

of

a few

songs hat

you

will no

doubt

be familiar with.

All o f these ongs

avesix,

or

fewer,

melody

notes

and hree,

or

fewer,

chords.

I

)

When

he Saints

Go

Marching

n

2) London

Bridges

3) Shortnin'Bread

4) The Alphabet

Song

5) You Are

My Sunshine

Here s another

ist of songs hat

have

six, or

fewer

melodynotesand

3

or

fewer,

chords.

While themelody

notesof

these

songs

stay

within

the major scale,some

of the

notes

are ower

than he ow

root

note

meaning

that

if

you

are

in

the

key

of C,

some

of

the melody

noteswill

be

lower

in

pitch

than

the

C

note on the A

string. Give these

a try:

I

)

Farmer

n

the

Dell

2) Old MacDonald'sFarm

3)

Skip o My Lou

In th is volume

I've

providedyou

with songs

ha

are all

going

to be familiar

to most

people

and

fairly

easy to work with.

In addition to all

of

the songs

will

present

n

this volume,

here

is

a list of

40

othe

tunes

you

might want

to try

to

work with. Pick

one

a

day,or one a

week,

and see f

you

can find the chord

progression

nd melody

on

your guitar:

I

)

CamptownRaces

2)

'Round

the Mulberry Bush

3) Polly Put The

Kettle On

4) Twinke, Twinkle,

Little

Star

5)

JackAnd

Jill

6)

Pease

Porridge

Hot

l) YankeeDoodle

8)

ATisket,ATasket

9)

Frere

Jacques

l0) HappyBirthday

11) Merrily We Roll Along

12) Michael Row

Your Boat Ashore

13)

BicycleBuilt

for Two

14)

Good Night

Ladies

15) MarinesHymn

16) Dinah.

Blow

Your Horn

l7) Billy Boy

l8) SilentNight

19) Auld

Lang

Syne

20)

Pop

Goes he Weasel

2l) Beautiful

Brown

Eyes

22) My Bonnie

Lies

Over the Ocean

23)

Gold

Watch

and

Chain

24) I Ain't

Gonna

Work

Tomorrow

25) Go Tell Aunt

Rhody

26) I'll Fly

Away

21)

I

Saw he Light

28) Ashes

f Love

29)

Will

You Miss

Me

30)

Blue

Moon

of Kentucky

3l)

Angel

Band

Flatpicking

Essentials

Volume

2:

Learning

How To

SoIo, Carter

Style

and Beyond



32) Beautiful Dreamer

33)

Greensleeves

3a) My

Country

Tis of

Thee

35) Take

Me

Out To The

Ball Game

36)

On Top of Old

Smokey

31) Lavender'sBlue

38) Hard

Times

Come

Again No More

39)

Clementine

40) CocklesandMussels

Obviously, he ist could

go

on and

on

and

someof

thesewill

be

harder

han

others.

I

provide

this

list to

give

you

a

rough deaabout

he

kind

of tunes hat

you

want

o work

with

when

you

are irst

beginning o learn

the

process

f arranging

our

own solos.The main rule

of thumb

s

to start

simple.

If

you

think these ongs

or

too

simple, or

too dull, remember: There aren't

any

boring

songs,

ust

boring

arrangements

he

level

of

complexity,

iversity, ndexcitements your challenge

as

he arranger r improviser.

Step

One

and a Half:

that

describes

nd

gives

an exampleof the

process

of

picking

a key,singing

he une,

and

inding

he

chords

So,

n

just

a

minute 'll have

you

listen o Track

0l of

the audio

CD

that accompanieshis book

so

that I

can

give

you

anaudioexample

f

thechord inding

process

But first et

me

give

you

some

guidelines

hat

will

help

you

when

you

are

searching or thosechords.

Chord

progressions,

specially

ocal

songs,

have

certainpatterns hat are ypically followed. Onceyou

learn

he

general

uidelines

hat

hese

patterns

ollow, t

will

be easier

or you

to

figure

out

chord

progression

In an article written

for Flatpicking

Guitar

Magazine

back n July

of

1999,

oe

Carr

provided

a list

of seve

"General

Chord

Progression

ules." I'll reprint

hose

here or

your

convenience, nd

've added

n

eighth.

Joe's

General

Chord

Progression

Rules

1. Songsusuallystartand end on the I (one)chord. f

it's in

G,

the last chord

is

almostalwaysG.

The firs

chord

is

often

G too,

but there are

many

exceptions

For instance,

n the key

of G

the first

chord

of

"John

Beforewe moveon o the next

step,

n

ntermediary

Hardy"

s

C.

step

maybe

necessary.

tep wo assumes

hat

you

know

2. If

the astchord s I.

(which

t almostalwavs

s).

he

the words

and/ormelodyof the song. If

you

do

not

next o last

chord s mostoftena V chord. n ihe

key

of

know

the

words

and/ormelodyof the

song,

hen you

G,

D

or D7 is often he next o lastchord.

obviously re

going

o have o find hem

and

memorize

3. Many bluegrass

and

folk tunes

use

a I-IV-V

them before

you

can

find

the chords. You

probably

progression

hich,

in the key of G,

is

G, C,

and D.

already

now the majorityof the songs

hat

are

on the

Learn

he ,IV, V sequencen everykey

you play

n. A

list on theprevious age ndyouwill probablyalready largenumberof bluegrass ndold-timecountrysong

know

he

majority

of thesongs hat will be

presenting

use-these

hree hordJ n differentorders.

in this volume.

4. Many

oldermountain ongs avea single

rogressio

However,f you

do not,

you

should

always

esearch

for

the

verse

ndchorus

i.e.,..pig

n a

pen").

thesongand earn he yricsandmelody.

n the case f

5. If the verse ndchorusaredifferent rom

each

other

vocal unes,learningow

o

sing

hesong

will give

you

chances

re he chords

will

do something ew

at

the

an dea

of the simplemelody. However, nstrumental

beginningof the chorus. f

the

songhas

been

oping

tunes anbe trickierbecausef

you

hearsomeone lse

along n

G during

he verse, ook for a

C

(IV)

or D

(V)

play

the

une,

you

don't

know

for

sure f

he

or she s

to start he

chorus.

hese

are

not

he only

possibilitie

playing

he simplemelodyor embellishinghemelody.

but thev

are

verv

common.

I'll

discuss

what

to do in that instancewhen we

talk

f. tt ttr. progressionmoves o a major chord othe

about nstrumental umbersn

the next volume. For

than , IV,

or

V, try

II or

Vl.

In the

key

of G,

an A

(lI)

now,

et's ocuson simple

ocal

songs.

chord

sometimes howsup

(..Good-bye

Old

pal")

or

occasionally

n

E

(VI)

or E7

("Salty

Dog

Blues").

Sfep ftffO: Flnd llfe

ChOfdS

7_.Ifaminorchordappears,itwilloftenbea

III

minor, or a VI minor. In the key of

G,

theseareAm

Now

that

you

haveselected

a songand know how to

(II-)

as in the

"Beverly Hillbillies

Theme,"

a

Bm

(III-)

sing t,

the next step s to choosea key

and

then find

the

as in

"Dixie Hoedown"' or an Em

(VI-)

as in "Foggy

chords. The executionof

this

step s

easier o explain

Mountain

Breakdown'"

via audio

nstruction,so 've

put

a track

on the

audio

CD

8' Many

standard iddle tunes

will

go

to the

flat VII

chord.

In

the key of G, the flat VII chord is

the

F

chord

8

natpiching Essential.s olume

2: Learning How To Solo,Carter Style

and Beyon



Songs

ike

"Red

HairedBoy,"

"Paddy

on the

Turnpike,"

"June

Apple,"

"Salt

Creek,"

Old

Joe

Clark,"

and

"Big

Mon" include

he flat VII

chord n the

progression.

All

of

these

guidelines

ollow rules

of music theory,

however,

at this

point

in time in

the coursewe will not

delve

nto hose opics. 'll

save hat

discussionor later

when we

talk about hings ike

the

"Circle

of Fifths"

andcreating tensionand elease" n Volume4.

The illustration

below

is called a

"Chord

Ladder"

and

gives

a

visual

mage

o some

of the

guidelines

or

chord

progressions

uppercase

ndicates

major

chords,

lower

case

ndicates

minor

chords).The way

the adder

works

s

thateverything

lows from

top to bottom

once

you

move rom

the root chord

(I)

to the first chord that

follows

it in the

progression.

For instance,

f

you

are

in the key

of G, the next

chord s most

ikely

going

to

be a

C

chord

following

he ,IV,

V convention).

f the

progression oes

rom

G to

C, thenonce

he

progression

jumps

from the

G up to

the

C,

it will

then

most

likely

flow

down the

ladder. So,

the next

chord

is

probably

going

to be a

D

or

and

F

chord,

or

it

might flow all

the

way

back down

to G. So f

you

are rying

to flgure out

a chord

progression

nd

you

have

found

that the song

startswith

a G

chord and hen moves

o a

C

chord,

he

ladderwill

tell

you

that the next

chord

after

hat

C

will

most

ikely

by a

D

or a G,

or

possibly

an

F.

If

you

discover

hat

the

progression

tarts

with

a

G chord

and then moves

rom

G to

D

(which

again s

likely

due,

once

again, o

the I,

VI, V

rule),

then he

next

chord will

probably

be a

G chord.

If the

progression

tartsout

on

the

G chord

and

you

find

that he

C

chord

and he

D

chordsdon't sound ight

for

the second

hord

of

the

progression,

he

next chord

to try is the E

or Em chord

(next

one

up

the

rung rom

C). If thatworks, hen heprogression ill most ikely

move

back down

the ladder and thus

the

chord that

follows

the Em chord

can

be

the C,

A

or Am, the D, or

it

could

go

all the way

back down to the

G.

Each

ime

the

progression

ycles

back

down

to the root chord, t

will

them

pop

back

up

to

one of the higher chordson

the

adder

and cycle

back

down

to

the root,

eventually

stopping

on

the root

at the end

of

the song.

Here are

someexamples o look

at

that

all

follow

the

chord adder:

Blue

RidgeCabinHome: I-IV-V-I

Will

the

Circle

Be

Unbroken:

I-IV-I-V-I

Red Haired

Boy

(A

part):

I-IV-I-flatVII-I-IV-V-I

CherokeeShuffle

A

part):

-vi-IV-I-V-I

Dixie

Hoedown

B

part):

l-iii-IV-I-V-I

SaltyDog Blues:

-VI-II-V-I

Does

all

that

make sense? Do

you

see

how

the

progression

ikes

to cycle from

the

root

up the

ladde

and back

down the adder o

the

root? Try

someof the

TheChordLadder

Tension

, l : : l

jiiiii:

ti,:1,'

Resolution

Chord adder

for Key

of G


Volume

2: Learning

How To

Solo, Carter

Style

and Beyond

ChordLadder

for

Key

of

C

i i

or IV

ChordLadder

v

orbvu

AmorG

DmorF



songs

hat

you

alreadyknow

and seehow they flow on

the adder.

While the

guidelines

and

the

ladder

are

rules

that

can

easily be broken and hus

many songsdon't fit the

guidelines,

you

will find

that

most

songs

do follow

theseguidelines.

So,

keeping hem

in mind, listen

o

the first track of

the audio

CD and

I'll let

you

listen

o

how

you go

about

iguring out

the

chord

progression

o

a simplesong.

Sfep

Three Flnd

the

Melody

Now

that

you

haveselected song,you know

how

to sing t,

and have igured

out

the

chord

progression,

you

are ready

to find the

melody. While

using your

ear to find

the melody is,

in

a

sense,a fingerboard

hunting

expedition-"seek

and

you

shall ind"-there

are

guidelines

hat

you

can

use

so

that

your

hunting

is limited to a very small areaof the fingerboard, nd

the

best thing

to use as road

map

is

the major scale.

For

the

simple

songs hat we will

be working with

in

this

book,

you

can

expect

hat nearly

all of the

melody

notes

will

be

those

notes

hat

can be found n the major

scale

of

the key

that

you

have chosen.

Therefore, n

most

nstances,

ou

are

going

o

only have

o

hunt

n an

eight

note

neighborhood.

If

you

are working with

the

key of

C

and

you

know

the

C

major scale,

ou

are

going

o decrease

he amount

of

detectivework

that

you

will

have

o do

in

order o

find

the

melody.

The

relationship

between

he

pitch

of any two notes

n

a melody

s called

an

"interval."

Later

in the course will

dive more nto the theory of

the

various

ntervals,

but for

now simply

know

that

the musical

"distance"

betweenany

two

notes

n a

melody s

called

an

nterval.

As

your

ear

gains

skill at

identifying

hese

various

ntervals,

our

ability to

pick

out

melodieswill gradually

mprove.

Once again,

he

best way

for

me

to

show

you

how

to

find

a

melody

s for

you

to

hearme

do it, so he bulk

C

Sccrle:

lower

Ocfqve

1

of his

lesson

will

be explained n the

audio

CD,

Track

02. On

that track 'll

take

you

through

he

process

f

singing,

or

humming,

he

first

note

of the melody and

then inding t

on

your guitar.

But before

you play

tha

track, here

are a few

guidelines

egarding

melody

in

mind.

I

)

Melodies

usually

start on the I

st or 5th note

of

the

scale.Thereareexceptions,hemostcommonbeing he

3rd note

of the scale

you'll

remember rom

Volume

I

thatnotes

of

a major

chordare

he

I st, 3rd,and5th

note

of the scale).

So, f

you

are having rouble matchin

the note

on the

guitar

to the note

you

are singing, ry

one

of those hreenotes irst.

2)

Most

all

melodies

will end

on

the first

note

of the

scale

the

oot note).

In otherwords,

he

astnote

of the

melody

will

be he irst note

of the

scale.

3) Guideline

also

applies

when the chords

chang

The first note of a chord changewill probablybe the

I st

or 5th note n

the

scale

of

the

chord to which

you

are moving.

For instance,f

you

are

in

the

key of

C

and

you

aremoving

to an

F

chord,

he first ngte of tha

chord

change s

probably going

to

be an F note or a

C

note. If you

are moving to a

G chord,

he first melod

note

of

that chord change

will

either

be

G

note

or

a D

note. If

the irst not

n the

chord

change

s

not the

I

st o

5th,

your

next

guess

houldbe

the 3rd

note.

4) Most

melodies

ollow step-wisemotion,

which

means

heymove

up or

down

he scale

n

small

leaps

(alsocalledconjunctmotion)as opposed o lar-eeeap

(disjunct

motion)

that

jump

all over the

place.

The

next

note

n

a melody will

probably

only

be

one,

wo

three,

or

four

notes

way,

up

or down,

n

the scale.

The

exception

o this s

the

eap

of seven

notes

the

octav

leap).

You will

find

the octave eap used more

ofte

than

a leap

of

five

or

six

notes.

In

the

example n

the

audio

disc,I've used

he

son

"You

Are

My Sunshine"o demonstrateow

o

go abou

finding

a

melody o

a song

by

ear.

Listen

to

that

now

C Sceile Higher

Oclsve

-

t l

-

T

I

()

T

I

t

I

A

\_,

L

L

Ft

\,,

t

I

tr,

1 0

Flatpicking

Essentials

Volume 2: Learning

How

To

Solo, Carter Style and

Beyon



You

ke

ftly

9unshlne illelody

ln

C,

Lower

Regilslet

Audio Track 1-0

C

and hen ook

at

the

transcription

hat 've

provided

on

this

page.

Notice

that all

of the

notes

n this melody

are

notes

hat make

up the

first six notes

of

the

"lower

octave"

C

major

scale

(shown

at the

bottom

of the

previous

page).

If

you

analyze

his

melody,

you

will

see hat

t adheres

o all the

guidelines

hat are

printed

above. It

starts

on the root

note

and t

endson

the root

note.

The first

note

of every

chord change

s either

he

lst,3rd,

or 5th

note n the

scale

of that

chord. There

are no large

eaps

between

any

two

melody

notes.

So

for

this song

our

guidelines

old

true. That may no

alwaysbe

the case,

ut for most

simple

songs thin

you

will

find

that he

guidelines

hat

I've presented

or

both chords

andmelody

ineswill

hold true.

While

the eventual

goal

s to hear

he

chord

change

and the melody

ine

without

having to

think about he

guidelines,

ou

can ely

on

them

or now while

you

ar

working

o

develop

our

ear.

Flatpicking

Essentials

Volume

2:

Learning How To

Solo, Carter

Style and Beyond



Practice:

Now that

you've

learned

the

melody

to

"You

Are

My

Sunshine" n the key

of C, try to

memorize hat

melody by

playing

t

over and

over

again on

your guitar.

This would

be

a

good

time

to

get

out

that

metronome nd ap

your

foot

along

with it. There is a lot of empty spacebetween

some of those melody notes

and working with

empty spacewhile

the

metronome

s

ticking away

is a

very good

exercise.

You

need o work with

the

simplemelody

of

this song

until

your

start o reach

that

"melody

burnout"

stage.

You

want to be

able

to

watch

TV

or hold a conversationwith someone

while

playing

this melody. Try

to really

get

the

melody notes

and the melody's

timing solidly

lodged n

your

musclememory and

your

brain.

Homework:

Once

you've

learned ow

to

play he

melody to

"You

Are

My

Sunshine"

in

the key of C on the

ower register,

move the entire melody up an

octave

as shown

n

the tab at the top of

the

next

page.

Before

really

examining that tab ,

try

to

do

it by ear.

After

you've accomplishedhe higheroctave n thekey

of

C,

then move

on to

find the melody at the

ower

and higher

octave

n

the

key

of G

(you

canuse

he

scaleswritten

below as a

guide).

Next moveon to

the

key

of D, then

he

key

of

A. I've only

written

out one

octaveof of the

song n D, and I've

not

given

you

any help with the key of

A.

Learning o

play

a melody,by

ear,

n a number

of

different keys is a

great

ear

training

and retboard

familiarity

tool.

G 9cole

lower

Ocleive

1

G 9ccle Hlgher

Ocfcnre

D

Scerle

Hlgher

Ocfcrve

Audio Ttack

1-05

D

Scerle

lower

Oclcrve

A

Scale lower

Ocfeive

1

A

Sccrle

Higher

Ocfqve

a

I

L

t

I

w

I

A

\, \J L

Ft

/-

.t

E'

\J

L

t

I

* t r t l l

-

tr

a

t l

a - I

T

w

/- -

I

lJ

L

A

t

.L

L

Ft

L +

tr,

\J

L

t

I

t2

Flatpicking

Essentials

Volume 2: Learning

How

To


Beyond



1

U W

U \-'

l ) I r

)

I

t '

A ' a

t

Fi

tr

You

Are My

Sunshlne

ftlelody

ln

C,

Hlgher

Ocfeive

F

Audio

Track 1-06

Audio Track 1-06

C

C

You

Are

My

Sunshlne

Melody

ln

O, lowet

Octqve

I

Flatpicking

Essentials

Volume

2: Learning How To

Solo, Carter

Style and

Beyond

7

( )

-

J _ t l

I

I

) l l

t '

) t t l

a

a l

a

1 3

v v l

l - l

I



1

F

?

I

)

t r \ J

f " ^ - ) . . ^ -

I

lf

---

-TTz a l .

V V

a v .

Ft

tr,

t l

You

Ase

tly

gunshlne

ftlelody

ln

O,

Hlgher

Ocfave

Audio

Track

1-06

G

G

You Are My

Sunshlne

tlelody

ln

D

Audio

Track

l-06

G

D

D

7

?l

)

-r I

\ . . ^ -

I

)

a t w ;

t

1 3

It

W I w

V L

L L

tJ

1

f f r l

't

?

I

) ) )

A '

t

a

FT

U V L

T T

w w

V L A

E t t l

r t l

7

f l r L

T I D .

t r I

)

t l . \ - / a i

+ l J L + + w

1 3

l l t l

fl

T4

Flatpicking

Essentials Volume 2: Learning

How To

Solo, Carter Style

and

Beyon



More

Homework:

After you have

worked hrough he

process

f finding

the

chordsand

melody to

"You

Are My Sunshine"

n

four differentkeys

and at two different

octaves

n

each

of thosekeys,

you

should

be

pretty

familiar with that

melody.

Now

that

you

haveworked hrough he

process

with

this song,

pick

out

another ong rom the ist of

40

that

I

previouslypresented

nd

go

through the

whole

processagain(learningwords, chords,and melody).

Remember o

play

that melody so many times that

it

becomes

odged n

your

brainand

your

fingers.

If you

hink hat

you

are

getting

bored

playing

hesame

simple

thing over and over, try focusing on different

aspects

f

your

playing

every

ime

you go

through he

song. When

you

know a melodyso

well

that

you

don't

have

o think aboutwhere

your

fingers

are

going you

are

then eady o really

ocus

on

things ike timing, uning,

tone, note clarity,

economyof

motion, volume,

etc.

Listen

carefullywith full attention o eachnote. Does

the

note

sound n

tune? Are

you getting good

tone?

Are

you

playing

in

perfect

ime

with

the

metronome?

Does

your playing

soundconfident? Are

your

hands

relaxed? Is

your

movement

efficient?

Focus

closely

on a

different aspectof

your playing

every time

you

play

the melody

and

you

shouldnever

get

bored.

The

best

way

to improveall aspects

f

your playing

is to

play

something

hat is

simple,

play

it

slowly,

listen

carefully, and really

play

with full awareness

of everything hat

is

going

on. Most

students

re so

concernedwith rememberingwhere their fingers are

supposed

o be

going

hat hey arecompletelyunaware

of all

of thesubtle etails.By

the ime hey

haveworked

with

a song

ong

enough

o

really have

t

memoized,

they think they

are now ready for

the

next song and

they moveon o strugglewith

the

memorization

rocess

againwithout aking

enough ime

with

the first song o

really earnhow

to

play t well.

After

six

months,

or

a

year,

hey

know

how to

play

a dozensongs,

owever,

they can't

play

any

of them smoothlywith

good

ime or

tone.

The notes

soundmuffled and

hey

aren't clearly

delined

or

played

with

confidence.

If

you

don't thi nk that the above

describes

our

process

r

your

playing,

ry recording

ourself

and hen

re-evaluate. ecording ourself

anbe a very

humbling

experience. I

highly recommend t. If

you

record

yourself

and eel

as hough

you

have

great

iming and

tone,

good

or

you

However, f

you

feel like

you

do

fit

the

profile,

slow

down,

pay

attention, nd

get

back

to

basics.

By

the

way, if

you

feel like

you

do need

o work

on the basicsof timing, tone, uning,

echnique, tc.

I highly recommend

hat

you purchase

nd watch

Tim

Stafford's

instructional DVD

titled

Acoustic Guitar

Fundamentals.Even f

you've

been

playing

or

years

you

will

get

a

lot

out of this

DVD. Tim will teach

ou

about the things that

you

need o be

paying

attention

to, how to think about hem,andhow to

work on them.

The DVD is availableat www.flatpickingmercanti

com.

gfep

Four: Boslc

Corfet Style

Once

you get

he melodyof a song

irmly

implanted

n

your

brain, unning

down

your

arm o

your

ingers, nd

out he sound oleof

your

guitar-

with

good

one,

good

time, andconfidence it

is

ime o adda ittle

harmonic

and

rhythmic

contentby

filling

in any ime

gapswith

a

few extraquarternotesand/orstrums.Believe t or not,

it is that

simple o

have

a

guitar

solo hat eally

doesn'

sound oobad. Don't

believe

me? Turn o

he

next

page

and

play

through

he basicCarter stylearrangement

f

"You

Are

My Sunshine." f

you

havebecome

amiliar

with the melody

n the key of

C,

this should

be

easy

for

you.

Having finishedworking with

the content

of

Volume I

,

both the right and eft hand should

be very

accustomedo this

style

of

playing.

For this simple

Carter

style

arrangement

he rule

of thumb that I appliedwas

pretty

straight orward.

It

involved our

elements:

I

)

If therewas

a

quarter

note

left

it

alone.

2) If

there

was

a

quarter

note rest

on

a downbeat

first

or third beat), simply

addeda single

quarter ote

(as

in measures

,5 , J ,9 ,and

l l ) .

Theno te

choseo

use

was dentical

o the note hat appears n the

secon

beat

of

eachof thosemeasures.

3)

If there was

a half note on the downbeat

of any

measure

first

or third beat), I shorted hat

note

to a

quarter

note

and then

followed it

with

a

quarter

note

st rum measures,4,6, 10,12,14,15,& l6)

4)

If there

was

a whole note

on

the first beat

of

any

measure,I

hanged

hat

measureo

have

a

quarter ote

strum,

quarter

note,

strum

pattern

as

n

measure

).

Although he end result ollowed these our

rules

I

did

not

sit down and hink about he

rules. Having a

very good

command

of

the melody anda knowledge

of

bass

notes

andstrums rom

playing

hythm

as

outline

in Volume ),I simply

played

he

melodyand

put

n

a

strum

where felt like I

had

room

to do so.

Flatpicking

Essentials

Volume 2: Learning How To SoIo, Carter

Style

and

Beyond

1



You

Are

tly

gunshlne

Baslc

Ceifter

EtVle

n

C

Audio

Track

-07

With

practice,you

ill

beabletodothis

pontaneously Carter

tyle

solo.

This

song

s a

little

unique

n

that

as

well.

Howeuer,

ntil

youbecome

omfortable

ith

measures

,5,'7

9,

and

I

you have

hat

quarter

o

combining

a

melody

with strumming

n

"real

time,"

reston

he

irstbeat

of

the

measure

o deal

with'

Ason

you can

lllow

the

our

guidelines

nd

work

out each

that

s

ideal

or Carter

style

s

one

wheresome

of th

tune.

Eventually

ou wili

gain

he

experience

nd

skill

melody

notes

re

quarter otes

which

we eave

alon

to

do

it all sponianeously.

or they

are otherwise

alf

notes

or whole

notes

h

Most

simple

songs

hat

you

will encounter

will

landon

beats

ne

or

threeofeach

measure.

f there

a

be a

little

bit iasier

to deal

with than

"You

Are

My

rests,

hey

are

deally

half

note

ests

hat

all on

the

ir

Sunshine',

n

terms

of taking

hemelody

andcreating or third

beats

f

the

measure.

A song

hat

deally

i

16

Flatpicking

Essentials

Yolume

2: l*arning

How

To Solo,

carter

Style and Beyo



in this

way is

the song

Will

the

Circle

Be Unbroken."

If

you

will

skip ahead or

just

a

second

and

ook

at the

melody

or this song

on

page

20,

you

will see

what

'm

talking

about. This songhas

a sparsemelody and fits

all the criteria or

the deal

Carter

Style

song.

It is not

that a

song

ike

"You

Are

My Sunshine"

does

not

fit the

Carterstyle,because

ou

can

see

hat

t

doeson

the

previous

age.

However,when

we

have o

repeatquarternotesdue to the quarternote reston the

first beat

of

a

measure

or

chosesomeother option,

as

we discuss

n the next

section),t doesn't low

quite

so

well

and t

doesnot sound

as

ull. In

the

next

section

we'll

take

a

ook

at

how we

might alterthe

CarterStyle

version

of

"You

Are My

Sunshine" o

give

it a

fuller

sound, however,

first how

about a

little

Carter style

practice

with

your

guitar

and somehomework?

Sfep

Flve

SlmplZlZed

lelo

dV

Earlier

I talked

about simplifying the melody and

gave

some reasons

or learning

how to do it.

Now

we

are

going

to

practice

doing

it.

Searching

or those

notes n

a melody

hat are the

"stable"

notes-those

notes

hat define

he song and must

be either

presen

or

implied

in the

solo in order for the

song

to

be

recognizable-is

an

art

form.

Mastersof

this

art form

canmanipulate

melody

n dozens

of different

ways n

their arrangements

nd mprovisationsand

the song s

still always

ecognizable.

eal

pros

know

how

to do it

just

right

so

that the melody is

stated,

et

they alway

seem o

play

it differently

every time they render he

tune.

Unfortunately,

herearemany

amateur

hot

licks"

players,

who

do

just

the opposite. The

play

so many

licks that

the

melody

gets

otally lost. The

eventua

goal

s to learn

how

to

play

a solo that is

creative

and

exciting,yetstill maintains he melodyof the song.

Remember,

Melody is King

One

rule

of

thumb

to

follow

states

hat someonewalking

into the room n the

middle of

your

guitar

solo should

be

able

o

recognrz

the songafter

only listening

o

a coupleof bars.

If

you

are

so

far

away from

the

melody

that someonecan'

figure

out what

song

you

are

playing,

then

you

are

going

o lose

your

audience.

Of course,

ike

everythin

else hereare

exceptions

o the rule, especiallyn

jazz

but

we

are

not

there

yet

So

for

now,

keep

t all simpl

andkeep

he melody ecognizable.

Like

everything

else,

we

are

going

to

start with

the

easystuff. We

are

going

to manipulate he melod

the easiestway possible

and then eventually

work

up

to making

more

dramatic changes.

The

easiest

plac

to

start on

a song ike

"You

Are My Sunshine" s

to

simply

emove

he notes

hat are epeated nd hen

play

through t

and see f

you

can still recognrze he song

Remember,

e

arestripping t

down

in

order o build i

back up later.

But for

now,

going

through he

exercis

of learning

a melody

and

then stripping t down to its

defining lements ill be a valuable xercise henyou

begin to work

to

create

your

own

affangements n

improvisations

ater

n th is course.

Take

a look

at the

simplified melody for

"You

Are

My

Sunshine" hat

appears

on the

next

page.

Pla

through t

a few

times

and see

f

you

can recognize h

song. Although

we

haveremoved

a

number

of

note

the

song

s

still

recognizable

ecause

e

have

kept

h

notes

hat are

the most

stable and defining notes o

that melody.

If

you

look at all

of the open space ha

removing

hese otes

as eft for

us,

you

will recogniz

Practice:

Practice working with

the

arrangement

of

"You

Are My

Sunshine" that appears

on the

previous

age

until

you

can

play

t without ooking

at the

tab. After

you

have

done that,

then

try

to

figure

out

how

to apply the basic

Carter style

technique

o

the melodies

hat

you

practiced

n

the

previous

section or

"You

Are

My

Sunshine" n

the

key

of G and n the key

of D.

Playing

t in the key

of G is fairly easy. The key of D is a little tricker.

Homework:

Once

you've

learnedhow

to

play

the

Carter

style

arrangemento

"You

Are

My Sunshine"n

the keys of

C,

G, and

D,

go

back

o the songs hat

you

worked

o

find

the melodies

or in the asthomework

problem

and

try to

play

a

Carter

stylearrangement

or

those

songs.

The more practice hat you get picking out a

song, finding

the chord progression,

picking

out the melody,

and then

playing

a

Carter

style

arrangement,

he better

you

will

get

at

it

and

the

more natural

t will

become. This

entire

process

is very

good

training for

your

ear and for

forging

a connection

betweenwhat you

hear n

your

head

and

what

you

can

find

on

your guitar.

The

more

you

practice,

he easier t

gets

and

the

faster

you

will get

at finding

hosenoteson the

guitar.

Flatpicking

Essentials

Volume 2: Learning

How To Solo, Carter

Style and

Beyond



You

A;e

My

Sunshlne

9lmpl7lZed tlelody

that

we

now

have

a lot

of room

for interpretation

nd

creativity.

While

all

of this

openspacewill

strike

ear

in

the hearts

of some

because

hey are not

sure how

they will

be

able to fill

that spacewith

something

hat

is

going

o

sound nteresting

o

the

istener,

my

goal

n

this

course s

to

get you

to

the

point

where you

know

enough

ndhave

enough

xperience

illing

n

thatspace

that

you

will

look

at

this open

space s

a

good

hing.

C

AudioTrack 1-08

On the next page

have

aken he simplifiedmelody

shown

above

and nserted

Carter style strums.

If

you

play

through his

arrangement

ou

may notice

hat

here

are

more strums

and thus,

as a

whole,

a fuller sound

However,

ou

may also

notice hat f

you play

all of the

strums

exactly

he same

and as

you

were

aught

n the

first volume

of this series,

hat some

of those

prominen

melody

notes

hat

appearn

the

simplified

melodydon'

18

Flatpicking

Essentials

Volume 2: Learning

How

To


Beyond



You Are ty

Sunshlne Csl/ret 3$e

ln

G

(Added

Sfrummlng)

Audio Track

1-09

sound so

prominent

here because

hey are buried in a that strong sense

of

melody

that

we are looking for in

strum.

I

have indicated hese strums n the tab above this

Carterstyle arrangement.Takea isten to the audio

with

a'5" above he strum and I've

put

the strum tab CD and I will explain how this strum is executedand

numbers n a bold face font

to indicate that

you

may let

you

hear what it

sounds

ike. Then I will

play

the

want o

play

these trumsas

"accented

trum. tab that is shown

above so

you

can

hear he accente

If

you play

thesestrums with a little

more

precision

strum in context. Using the accented trum is

just

one

in the articulation of

each

note

of the strum and

play way

that

you

can remain

true

to

the

melody,

yet

add

the

strum with

a little bit more of a heavy hand, the some

additional flavor, or harmonic content, to

your

melody note will

pop

out and thus the

song

will retain

arrangement.

Flatpicking EssentialsVolume 2:

Learning How To Solo,Carter Styleand Beyond

1

C







Wlll

The

Clrcle

Be

Unbroken:

CorJer

fie

Key

of D

Audiorra

Wllf

the

Clrcle

Be

Unbroken:

CorJet

gtylc

Key

of

A

Audiorra

Flatpicking

Essentials

Volume

2:

Learning

How

lo

Soto,

Carter

Styte

and,

Beyond



Practice:

Now

that

you've played

"Will

The Circle

Be

Unbroken"

in

four

different

kevs. do the same

thing for

a

few new songs. Go through

he entire

process

of

picking

out

the

chords,

picking

out

the

melody,

and creating

your

own

simple

Carter

style arrangementn severaldifferentkeys. The

more

comfortable

you

become

with

this

process,

through

practice,

he easier

t will become

and he

better rained

your

ear

will

be and the better

you

will

get

to know how to

find

noteson

your guitar.

Homework:

Sit down

with

your guitar

at

least

5

to

10 minutes

per

day

and ry to find

the chordsand melody to any song

that comes

o

mind. It could be a theme or a TV

show, t

could be

a

ingle

for a TV commercial,t

couldbe

your

high school

ight

song,

our

avorite

show une,a bluegrass

ocal

hat

you

like to sing,

or a

Beatles

song.

Try

to

find

the

melody

of the

first song hat enters

our

head.

Some songs

will have a melody

hat

s more

challenginghanothers.

For now, f

you

ind

hata

melody has

you

stumped fter several ries,move

on to something lse hat

may

be easier o

find.

Don't allow

yourself

o

get

oo frustrated.During

this time, ust find melodies,don't worry about

strums r

Carter

style.This

s

ust

melody inding,

ear rainins ime.

Usc

Wheil You Alrecrdy Know

Now that

you

havesomeexperience orking with

a simple

Carter

style arrangement, ur

focus for

the

remainder

f this volume

will

be to

gradually

add new

techniques

o thosearrangements

n an effort to make

the

arrangements

ore varied and nteresting,

et

still

maintaina strongsense f melody.

The

first

thing

that

you

can do to

make

your

Carter

style affangementsmore nteresting

s

to use some of

the

techniques hat

you practiced

n

Volume

I

,

like

alternate trums,hammer-ons,

ull-offs,

slides,bass

runs, and fill

licks.

You alreadyknow how to use

them to spice

up

your

rhythm

playing,

so

why

not

use

hem o spiceup

your

Carterstyle

ead

playing

as

well? After

having

worked

with

these echniquesn

Volume ,

you

should

not have any

problem

adding

them

to

your

Carter

style affangements.

On the

pages

that follow

I'm providing

you with

the

melodies

and

arrangements f several unes

where I've employed

some of these

amiliar techniques.

Let's

look at each

of

theseexamplesand then

you

can work

to

come

up

with

arrangements f

your

own.

She'll Be

Coming

Around the

Mountain-

On thepage25 you will find the melodyand chord

changesor

"She'll

Be Coming

Around he

Mountain."

Like always, I recommend hat

you

try

to

figure out

the melody and chord changes

yourself before

you

look at

what

is

printed

on the

next

page. It'll

be

good

practice.

Then,

ust

for fun,

go

ahead nd

work

through

that

"melody

burnout"

phase.

Don't

just

memorize

he

melody in

your

head,

build that

"muscle

memory" to

the

point

where

you

can

play

the

songwithout hinking

aboutwhat

notes

come

next,

hey

ust

come.

Next, go aheadand figureout a simply Carterstyle

arrangement f

your

own for this song.

After

you've

done hat,

work

on

addingsomeof

thosealternatives

nd

embellishmentshat

you

worked o add o

your

rhythm

playing

n the

astvolume.

See

what

you

cancome

up

with

on

your

own before

you

look at what

've

done.

I

recommend hat

you

always ry to

figure

out

something

on

your

own before

you

look at what

I've written.

What

I've arrangedor

you

in this

course, r

whatTony

Rice, Doc

Watson,

David Grier,or

Bryan Sutton

have

arranged or their recordings

hould

only

be somethin

you use o learnnew techniques nd o getnew deas

If

you

memorize someone else's

arrangement,

recommend

ou

use hat to

gain

information,but

then

move away rom

that

exactarrangement

ssoonas

you

canby creating

variation

of

your

own.

I'll mentionherea

process

hat

feel ike

you

should

use or

the

remainder

of

this volume and

he remainde

of this course:

I

)

For any song that

is written in this book

the

first

thing

that

you

should do is try and

figure out

the

chords, melody and simple Carter

style

arrangeme

for

yourself

before

you

look at

what

I have

written.

2) Once

you

take a

look at

what

I

have written

study

it for

any new technique

or cool soundin

embellishment

hat

you'd

like to

learn. Play hrough

my

affangement. f

you

like

it and

want

to

memoriz

it,

go

aheadand do that, but

get

away from the tab

as

soon as

possible.

If

you've

worked with the

melody

and

Carter

style arrangement ufficiently,

you

should

be able to

get

my

affangements

off

the

paper" in

a

matter

of

ten to fifteen minutes.or

less.

2

Flatpicking

Essentials Volume

2: Learning How To

Solo,

Carter

Style

and Beyond



3) After

you

can

play

hrough

my

affangement

ithout

looking

at

the tab,

work

to change

my

affangement

y

adding

arious

embellishments

nd echniques

f

your

own.

You

don't have

to

make

drastic

changes

ight

away.

Change

ust

one

or

two

measures.

Add a

bass

run

here,

add

a hammer-on

here,

etc.

Start

o make

t

something

f

your

own

as soon

as

you

can.

In

the

pages

hat

remain

n

this volume

'm

going

to be providing you with fairly straight-forward

affangements

of

simple

vocal

songs.

If you

work

through

ll

of the

stepshat

have

outlined, ou

will

no t

only

endup

adding

all

of

these

ongs

o

your

repertoire,

you

will also

end up with

your

own

arrangements

f

these

ongs

and

gain

a lot

of confidence

n

your

ability

to

move

orward

and

make

up

your

own

arrangements

to any

song.

OK,

now

that 've

said

hat, et'sget

back

on

track

and

take

a look

at my

anangement

or

"She'll

Be

Coming

Around

he

Mountain"

on page

26.

I've not

printed

ou t

the

"simplify

the melody"

step

separately,

owever,

have

printed

hose

stable

notes"

n bold

print.

Again,

it would

be

a

good

exercise

f

you

could work

out

the

simplified

melody

on

your

own

before

you

look at

my

arrangement.

Here

is

a

quick

synopsis

of

what

I've

done

o the

melody

of

"She'll

Be

Coming

Around

the

Mountain":

l)

In measure

wo, I've

added

wo

hammer-ons

nd

two

strums.

These

hanges

on't

really

have

an aftect

the

melody.

In

the simplified

melody

there

are

two

"stable"notes n this measure-the C note on beat I

and

the

C

note

on

beat

3.

The

hammer-on

hits

that

second

C

note

a eighth

note

early,

but it is

still

ringing

as

you

strum

on

beat 4

and thus

still

presents

he

ear

with

the

melody

at

the right

time.

2) In

measure

our

I have

modified

he melody

a little

on

beats

3

and 4.

However,

remember

hat

when

we

simplified

he

melody

t

opened

up

that

second

beat or

some

modification

without

affecting

any of

the stable

notes

hat

are

defining

our melody

and

making

he

song

recognizable.

3) In

measure

I

simply

added

a

strum.

4)

In measure

6 I've

added

a hammer-on

and

two

strums.

Again,

he

stable

ote

on

beat4

hasbeen

hifted

forward

a

beat,

however,

t is still

ringing

on

beat

4

and

thus

mplies

he

melody

note here.

5) In

measures

and

9

there

was

a ot

of

open

space

o

I

executed

n

base

un that

moves

down

the

G arpeggio

and

nserted

trums

etween

he

bass

otes.

You earned

this

kind

of

run

in Volume

.

a fuller

strum

so

hat he

melody

notes

are

picked

up in

the

chord.

7)

In

measure

2I

added

strum

and

alsoadded

he

C

noteon

beat4 for

flavor

and

nterest.

have

gone

away

from

the

melody

by

hitting

that note,

but

I don't

think

that

I

took

away

rom

the

overall low

of

the

song,

and

throwing

in

an

unexpected

ote here

and

there

makes

the

istener's

ar

perk

up.

By this

ime

in the

song

we

haveplayedenoughof the solidmelodynotes hat the

listener

s

very

aware

of the

song

and s

thinking

of the

melody

n their

mind

as

you

play.

Throwing

in a note

that

momentarily

akes

them

away

from

the

flow

of

anticipated

otes

hat the

listener

s

predicting

n

their

mind

addsa

bit

of flavor

and

excitement.

8)

In

measure

4,

did

a

similar

hing

o

what

did in

measure

2,l

added

a short

bass

un

that

didn't really

agree

with

the

melody,

but

led

up to the

first

note in

measure

15.

It

is

a

small

diversion rom

the

melody

but then get right back o it to finishout thesong,so

I

think t works.

Although

I've

analyzed

my

arrangement

or

you

here,

did

not

sit

down

and

hink

about

each

measur

before I

played

it.

I

played

the

song

off

the

top

of

my head,

he way

if felt

right for

me,

and then later

I

analyzed

what

had

done.

If

you

can

do it that way,

think

that s

the

best way

to

arrange

ecause

he music

is

then

coming

from your

heart

and

your

gut

and not

your

brain.

Sometimes,

f you

are

stuck

or

don't

have

experience ith improvisation,henyou may have o

take

it

one

measure

t a

time and

come

up

with

your

arrangement

hat way,

and

hat s OK.

However,

ou r

true

goal

n

this

course

s

learning

ow

to

improvise.

When

beginners

o

to

a

jam

session

nd

they see

experienced

layers

at the

am,

or

professional

layers

on stage,

ake

solo

aftersolo

and

play

t

differently

every

time,

and

play

solos

on

songs

hat hey

may have

neve

heard

before,

he ypical

reaction

s

"Wow,

how

do

they

do

that?"

To

a

beginner

his

canseem

ike

a

complete

and otal

mystery-almost

ike

magic. But you too can

get

here

and

f

you'd

like

to

get

here,

encourage ou

to start

working

at

it right

now. Don't

wait

until

you

think

that

you

are

"good

enough"

because

y

then it

will

be

too ate.

If

you

start

ight

now, you

can

get

t.

Before

we

move

on to

the next

song, et

me

talk

for

just

a little

bit

about

his

mysterious

hing

called

"improvisation."

Work

through

"She'll

Be

Coming

Around

the Mountain"

irst

and

hen 'll

meet

vou

on

the other

side

of that

song).

6) Measure

0

is like measure

6, however,I

haveadded

24

Fbtpicking

Essentials

Volume

2: Learning

How

To Soto,Carter

Styleand,Beyond



thetll Be

Comlng

Around lhe tlounfaln:

tlelody

Shc'l l be com

-

ins around he

around the around the

Audio Track L-12

she' l l she'11

Flatpicking

Essentials


Solo,

Carter

Style and Beyond



the'll

Be

Comlng Around the tlounfeiln:

Colttec $tyle

Audio Track

1-13

26


Volume

2: Learning How To

Solo,

Carter

Style and

Beyond



Improvlsotlon

"Improvisation"

n music

is

basically he art of

composing

music

"in

the

moment." It is

the

act

of

spontaneously

rranginga

guitar

solo based

on

your

feeling

n that

"moment"

and/or

your

reaction o what

the

other

musicians

re

doing.

Most beginner's

hink

"Thatsounds rettyadvanced.cou dnever o hat. 'm

just

a

beginner."

Right You

are

a

beginner,

o

you

need

to

begin

ight

now also

being

a beginning

mproviser

If all you

play

on

your guitar

ight

now

are

hose hings

that

you've

memor\zed rom

tab or been aughtby

your

teacher,

hen

you

are

going

o

have

a hard ime breaking

out

of

that

"memorize

and

regurgitate" ut later. The

longer you

stay with

memorizedsolos hat are based

on someone

lse's

arrangement,

he

harder

t is

going

to be

for

you

to

eventually

breakaway

and

create

your

own

solos.

What 'm going o encourageou odo n thisvolume,

and

hroughout

his

course,s to always

work

to come

up with

your

own arrangements. ince

we

are

starting

with

simple

deas

and hen

moving

forward

gradually,

I have

confidence

hat

you

can do it. The

process

hat

you

are

learning

here s

going

to help. The stepsof

learning

he

chords,

learning the melody, learning

a

simple

Carter style arrangement,

earning how

to

simplify the

melody,and hen

earninghow

to add

your

own

echniques ndembellishmentsn order o comeup

with

an

nteresting rrangement

on

your

own )

is how

you

start

moving

owards his

dea

of

improvisation.

If you

go

through he steps 've

outline

aboveenough

times,with

enoughdifferent ongs,n enoughdifferent

keys,

you will

start

o be able to execute hose

steps

at

a faster and

faster

pace.

The

processwill

become

natural

o

you

and

you

will eventually tart o be able

to

execute hem

spontaneously

nd n the moment. It

is

ust

ike driving a car. The

first

ime

you

drovea car

you

had o think

aboutall

of

the steps ne-by-one,

ow

you

ust

get

n

and

drive without

eallyhaving

o think

about t.

My definition

of

improvisation

tated

hat it was

"composition

n the

moment." What

you

are

going

o

work

on

n

this

course

s

arrangement

ndcomposition

of

songs

starting with

the melody and then

moving

towards adding

a

number

of techniques hat

will

embellish

hat melody. At

first

every step may take

a

little

while.

As

you get

better, he amountof

time

it

takes

you

to

accomplish

achstepwill shorten. As

time

-qoes

y,

believe

t

or not,

you

will

get

o

that

place

where

all of

the

steps

will

occur

at once,

pontaneousl

and in

the

moment.

But first

work each step

one-by-

one,without

skipping

steps.You

will get

here.

So,

getting

back to

what

I

was talking

about n

my

analysis

f

"She'11

e

Coming

Around he

Mountain."

When

I arranged

hat

solo, I

did it

"in

the

moment."

I

picked

up my

guitar,

decided hat

I

would

play

this

song

n the

key

of C

and I

just

started

laying.

At

the

time it wasa song hat had neverplayedbefore. The

arrangement

ou

see

on the

previous

page

came

out

spontaneously.

didn't

have o think about

t. It

just

happened. t is

not a

very

complex

affangement,

ut

your

arrangements nd mprovisations on't

have o be

complex.

Start simple,but start

For every

song hat

is

presented

n this book I want

you

to come

up

with

your

own arrangement, don't

want

you

to

memorize

and

copy mine and staywith

my

affangement.

You

can

learn

mine, but then change t.

And

as

statedbefore

the

changes on't have o be

radical.

Just

change

t a

little.

Then the next

ime

you

play

t, change

t

a

little

more.

Then a little more. Prettysoon,

you'll

have

a

variety

of

arrangements

nd

hey

will

all

be

your

own.

David

Grier is one of the

most

creative

latpicking

guitar

players

n

the

world. He can

play

one song

and

come

up with

a seemingly

endless

number of

variations.

People

are amazed

at his inventivenes

and versatility.

How

did he

get

to

where he is today?

When I

interviewed David he told me

that

when he

was

a

young

kid

he

would

sit down

and

igure

out

an

arrangementor a song and thenplay it for his father

His father would

say,

That's

great

David

Now

go

back

and see f

you

can figure out another

way

to

play

that

song." David wasencouraged,rom a

very young

age,

o continually hink about

new ways to

play

the

same

songs. I

want

to encourage

ou

to do

the sam

thing.

You can earnmy version, ut hensit down

and

figure

out

another vay

o

play

it based n the tools

and

techniques

hat

you

have earned.

One more

thought

and then

I'll

step off of

my

improvisation

oapbox. I

think

that most

people

are

afraid

o come

up

with their

own

arrangements nd

are

afraid

o improvise

becausehey are

afraid hat hey

will

"get

it wrong,"

or

"make

a mistake."

You

need o

ge

beyond

hat. You

need

o be OK

with

steppingoutsid

your

comfortzone. 've heardDan

Crary

saysomethin

like,

"The

people

who are he bestat

mprovisation

r

thosewho arenot

afraid

o improvise."

That

is

exactl

right

So, n the remainder

f this

like you

to do. Once

you

learn

course, ere

s

what

'd

the chords,

he melody

2


Volume 2:

Learning How To

Solo,

Carter

Style

and

Beyond



anda simple

Carter

style

solo, startmessing

with

it

in

real ime. Play

through t

and

begin

adding

a hammer-

on here,

a

slide

there,a

bass

un,

and alternate

strum

pattern,

tc.

Do

it

"in

the moment." Don't

worry about

making

mistakes. 'll be

showing

you

a

variety

of

new

techniquesn

this

volume

ike tremolo,double

stops,

cross

picking,

neighboring otes,and scale uns.

As

you

learneach

new

technique,

dd it to

your

"bag

of

tricks." Go backandplay "She'll Be ComingAround

the Mountain"

and

"You

Are

My

Sunshine"and

"Will

The

Circle

Be

Unbroken" againand try

to use

he

new

techniques.Play

the

songover and

over

and ry to see

if

you

can come

up

with

something

a little

different

each

ime.

If you

stumble,

hen

go

back,

slow things

down,

and

take your

time

arranging

something.

But

alwaysspenda little

bit of time trying

new

things

in

the moment"

everyday.

If

you

start doing that

right

now

you

will

eventually

get

o

that

placewhere

you

are

the

person

everyone t

the

am

sessions looking at and

saying

How

does

he

(or

she)

do

that "

Now

let'smoveon

Let's

ake

a

ook

at

a

few

more

songs. 'm

not

going

to

analyze

hem

n

as much

detail

as

I did for

"She'll

Be

Coming Around the

Mountain." I'm

going

to let

you

do

the

analysis

f each

song. want

you

to

try the

songon

your

own

and

hen ook at what I did

with

the

song.But

please

ry

it

on

your

own first,

going

hrough

eachof the steps,and then look at mine. Below I'll

simply

state what

I'm

trying to demonstrate

n my

arrangements

f eachof thesesongs.

Nine Pound

Hammer-

"Nine

Pound

Hammer" s

shownon

the

next

page.

I

wanted

o

use

his

song

becauset is

popular,

pen

o

a

lot of variation

nd nterpretation,

nd t

is

the irst

song

in this

book that

has

a few

eighth

notes n the melody

(measures

and

7).

In

my

arrangement wanted

o

maintain

hoseeighth

note

melody

runs,

plus

I

wanted

to

add

somehammer-ons. ull-offs,

and

slides.

Plus

throw n a nice ittle G lick

at heend.

which

you

should

recognize

rom Volume

I .

Jesse ames

For

his song

tried

o

throw n bassnotes

where might

have

therwise electedo

strum.

You'll rememberrom

Volume

that here

were

some

arrangements

f

our G,

C,

D rhythm

where

we

made

iberal

use

of strums

and

others

where

selectedo

use

more

bass

uns.

You

can

do the same hing

with leadarrangements. ometime

they soundnice with strumsand other

imes

applying

more

bass

unssounds

ood.

Red River

Valley

-

Here s an arrangement

f

"Red

River

Valley."

Instead

of

providing

a separateab

or

the

melodyby

itself,I've

indicated

he melodynotes

n

bold.

In this arrangemen

I stuck with a simpleCarterstyle solo that is based

on the

melody,

but

I've

also added

n

some

alternat

strumming

patterns

during a couple

of

the

long

voca

pauses.

I also

used hat bass

un in G that

descend

down the G arpeggio n measure .

It's

the

sameone

I

used

n measure

of

"She'll

Be

Coming

Around he

Mountain" and measure of

"Jesse

ames."

I

gues

like

that one

Old

Joe

Clark-

"Old

Joe

Clark"

s a vocalsong hat

s

often

also

played

as a

"fiddle

tune" instrumental. Fiddle

arrangemen

tend o

be

full

of eighth

note unsandcanbe difficult to

play

on

the

guitar,

specially

t

high empos.However

if

you

are n a fiddle

une

am,

do

not

feel

as f

you

have

to

play

so

many

notes

If

you

look at the basic

melody

for

"Old

Joe

Clark"

you

can see hat

here

are

no eighth

notes n the melody.

Most flatpickerswho learn

this

song will learn

someone's iddle

tune style arrangement

without firs

learnin-e

he basic melody.

One of

the

problems

hey

run into with that approachs that f they get in a am

and

the other musiciansare

playing

at a fast

tempo

thencan't

keep

up. Learning fiddle

une

solo

s grea

however, f

you

learn he basicmelody irst,

you

can

go

back to

it

if

you

find

you

are

n a

situation

where

the empo s

ust

too

fast

o

play your

eighth note

iddle

style

arrangement.

When

you play

ust

the

melody

you

arecutting he numberof notes hat

you

have o

play

in

half My motto s:

"If

the empo

s high-simpl ify "

I

chose o use

"Old

Joe

Clark"

as

an

example

here

because wanted o

use

t to

demonstrate

nother

way

of adding hordal trums

o

a melody

ine

that

s

a ittle

different han the standard

Carter

style. If

you

take

a

look

at my arrangement

f

"Old

JoeClark"

you

will

se

that

I've kept

all of the melodynotes,but

inserted n

eighthnoteup-strum

n-between

hem. This techniqu

adds a drone soundingharmoniccomponent.

It

is a

very

simple

way

to fill up space

when

your melod

notes

are

quarter

notes.

Flatpicking


How To

Solo,

Carter Style and

Beyond



Nine

Pound Homrneft MelodV

Audio Track

1-14

Nine Pound Homrner:

Canlet Sfle

wffi Embelllshmenls

Audio

Track 1-14

Flatpicking

Essentials Volume 2:

Learning

How To Solo, Carter

Style

and

Beyon.d

2



Jesse

Jeimes:

tlelody

AudioTrack 1-1

Flatpicking

Essentials

Volume

2: Learning

How To

Solo,

Carter

Styte

and Beyond



Jesse

Jeimess MelodV

(contf)

C

Jesse

Jamess

Cs;ter

Stvle

Plus

Beiss

R.uns

Audio Track

l-15

3

Flatpicking

Essentials

Volume

2: Learning

How To

Solo, Carter

Style and Beyond



Jesse

Jeimes:

Cglfte?

Style

(con

l,

Flatpicking

Essentials

Volume

2: Learning

How

To

Solo, Carter

Style and

Beyond



Red

RlYerVclleyz

Cafte?

gtylew?th

Sfrum

Vcrdaflons

Audio

Track

l-16

3

Come

and

Flatpicking

Essentials

Volume

2:

Learning

How To

Solo,

Carter

Stvte

and Beyond,



Old Joe Clar{r:

tlelody

Audio

Track

1-17

34


Volume

2:

Learning

How To

Solo,

Carter Style and

Beyond



Old

Joe

Clodc

Wlflr

Added

Up

gfroke

gfrummlng

Audio

Track

1-

Flatpicking Essentialsvolume 2: Learning

How

To

soio,

carter

style

and,

Beyon,d.

.J O



The

Wllrltzz

3/,4

Tlme

Waltz

time or 314

ime,

is

something hat

we

did

not

cover

in the last

volume. I

felt

that we had

our

plate ull

with the

bass

uns and fill licks in 414 ime

and

I wanted

you

to

stay

focused

on that. However,

now that

you

have

spent

plenty

of time

practicing

he

material n Volume I

,

I think

you

are ready o

handle

a changeof time signature. f you havebeenplaying

the

guitar

for any length of time,

you

have

probably

run

into

songs or instrumental unes

that

are

played

in

314

ime.

It

is a

popular

ime signaturen European

and

American

music. However, f

you

havenot had a

chance

o

play

a

song n

waltz

ime, his section

will

be

your

introduction

o

waltz time

and

you

will have

he

opportunity o

practice

a coupleof

waltz

time

songs

n

the Carterstyle.

Let's startby

giving

you

anexperiential nderstanding

of 314 time. Listen to the audio track of

"Waltz

Exercise

"

and

then

pick

up

your guitar

and

play

that

exerciseas

shown

on

the following

page.

The first

thing

you

notice s

that

n

waltz

time

there

are 3 beats

per

measurenstead

of

4 beats

per

measure.You will

no

doubt

recognize

his

timing if

you

ever had o

learn

how

to

danceback n elementary chooland he eacher

counted .2.3.

-

1.2.3. . . .as

ou

awkwardly

tepped

around

he room.

If

you

ever

ind

that

you

can't

getyour

mind

working

in the 314

meter, imply

play

hrougha

progression

ike

that in Waltz Exercise I in order to get that groove n

your head,

and then aunch

nto the song. Give that a

try

with

the

first

arrangement f

"Down

in the

Valley"

that

I have

provided

on

the

page

hat

appears fter

he

waltz

exercises.

Play

Waltz Exercise

a few times

through,

then

the last time through, substitute he

pick

up measure

of

"Down

in the

Valley"

for the

last

measure

f

Waltz

Exercise

.

The

first affangement f

"Down

in

the

Valley" is a

very

simply

melody-based

Carter

style arrangement.You will

notice hat

I have

put

the

melody notes n a bold font. If

you

can

play

Waltz Exercise

I

,

you

should not have any

problem

with that

first

"Down

in the Valley" arrangement.

After you have

spent

some ime working with Waltz

Exercise

and the first arrangement f

"Down

in

the

Valley," move on

to

try Waltz Exercise2

as shownon

the

next

page.

n

thisexercise

've

thrown n a ew

more

quarter

notesand

someeighth

notes. f

you

arenot

able

to

get

a feel

for

the

timing by reading he

tab,

refer

o

the

audio

racks. After

working

with

Waltz

Exercise ,

try

the

secondarrangement

f

"Down

in

the

Valley."

In

this affangement added

a few

base

uns and

a few

quarter

notes

o help

spice

up

the arrangement.

f

you

can

play

through he secondarrangement

f

"Down

in

the

Valley" without

much trouble,

then

go

aheadand

try

to

play

the

arrangement

f

"Amazing

Grace"

hat

s

on

the

page

hat follows

"Down

in the

Valley."

Now take a

look

at the

"Waltz

Lick" that

I have

provided

on the next

page.

Remember ack

n

Volume

I whenwe worked o developall of thosevariousbass

lines?

You can do the exact

same

hing

n3l4 time.

In

the first

measure'm

using

a

two-note

chromatic

walk

up

that moves rom G to D.

At

the

end of

the

secon

measure

'm

using

hatF#

leading

one

o move

rom D

back

o

G. At

the

end

of measurehree

'm

playrnga3l4

version

of a simple

G

run. After

you havehad

a chanc

to

play

through

he

WaltzLick

and

have

a

good

eel for

it,

takea

ook

at the

"Waltz

Lick

with

Triplets".

In

this

example

you'll

see hat I've

extended he

chromati

walk

up in measure . In order to extendthis

walk

up, I've made

t an eighth

note

"triplet."

In

executin

an

eighth

note

triplet, the

three notesof the

triplet are

given

he

same

ime.value

s wo

eighth

notes.

Listen

to the

audio rack

to

get

a feel for this timing.

I've

added

another riplet in measure hree.

The

notes

of

this

triplet shouldbe familiar to

you from Volume

I as

well

becausehey outlinea

G major arpeggio.

Practice:

Play through Waltz Exercises

and2

with

a metronome nti l

you

have

a

sood

feel

for waltz time

rhythm. Then

practice

playing

both

arrangements

of

"Down

in

the

Valley" and

the

arrangement

f

"Amazing

Grace" hat are

provided.

Homework:

After

working with the

"WaltzLick"

and

the

"Waltz

Lick

with

Triplets,"

try to apply some of the other bass

runs hatvou

learned

n Volume to

314 rme. Work

with

a l,

VI,

V chord

progressron

as

you

did n Volume

,

however,his ime

do

t in

waltz time.

After working with

waltz

time

rhythm for a

while,

try

picking

out the

chordsand melody

for

other

waltz

ime

songs

nd

comeup

with

your own

Carter

style

arrangements.

Try

it

with

something

like

"Blue

Moon of Kentucky."


Volume

2:

Learning How

To

Solo, Carter Style

and

Beyon



Wsltz Ererclse

I

Wlrltz Exerclse 2

Wolltz Llck

wlfh tr.irplets

l : l



Solo,Carter

Style and

Beyond

Audio Track

1-18

r 1

q

t



Down

7n tlte

Volley:

Cs;let

ttyle

Hang

your

head

o

Audio

Tiack

l-19

hear

the wind

blow

Down

ln

ffie

Volley:

Cefiet

$fle wltlr

Added

Brrss

Runs

Flatpicking

Essentials

Volume

2:

Learning

How To

Solo, Carter

Style

and, Beyond



Amozilng

Grace:

Cq;let Style

Cutting Off

the Strum: A

Note on

Measure 8:

In

measure8

of

this arrangement've used a

technique hat we have not

discussedhus

far in this

course. Instead

of

playing

a

quarter

note

strum on the

lastbeat

of this

measure,

played

an eighth

note

strum

followedby aneighthnote est. The difference etween

the two is that f I had

of

played

a

quarter

note strum

would have

allowed

he strum o

ring for

a

quarter

note.

Insteadwhat I

did, for effect, s

play

the strumand hen

I immediately ightened

he

pressure

of my

left

hand

on

the strings

so that they still contacted he strings,

G

AudioTtack

1-20

G7

ng

Grace.

- how

sweet

the

s6unfl,- That

but the stringswere

no longer

pressed

gainst

he

fret

What

this does s mute,or cut off

the

ringing soundof

the strum.

If

you

listen

carefully

o the

audio

CD

you

will

hear

he effect.

This is another ool

that

you

can

use o add

nterest

o

vour

strumming.

G

n o - w I

am

found.

Was

blind,

-

bu

-

t now- I

3


Volume 2: Learning

How

To Solo, Carter Style and

Beyond



PtqctTce

wiflr

Csrte;

StYle

Before

we move

on

to

take

a

ook at

a

new

echniques,

I

want

you

to

first

work

to

build

up

your

Carter

style

song

repertoire.

In

order

o

help

you

with

that

I have

provided

you

with simple

Carter

style

arrangements

for

16

new songs.

You should

already

be

familiar

with

most, f not all, of these ongs.Here s the ist:

I

)

Jimmy

Brown

the

Newsboy

(Key

of C)

2)

Grandfather's

Clock

(KeY

of C)

3)

Old

Spinning

Wheel

(KeY

of C)

4) Uncloudy

Day

(Key

of C)

5)

Home

Sweet

Home

(KeY

of C)

6)

John

Hardy

(Key

of

G)

7)

John

Henry

(Key

of G)

8)

Buffalo

Gals

(Key

of C)

9)

Lonesome

Road

Blues

KeY

of

G)

10) Wildwood Flower(KeYof C)

I

I

)

Cripple

Creek

KeY

of

G)

12)

Banks

of

the

Ohio

(KeY

of

C)

l3)

East

Virginia

Blues

KeY

of

C)

14)

Keep

on

the

SunnY

Side

KeY

of

C)

15)

Bury

Me

Beneath

he

Willow

(Key

of

C)

l6)

Yellow

Rose

of

Texas

KeY

of

C)

As

I

have

stated

everal

imes

previously,

t

would

be

best

or

you to

work

to find

all

of

the

chords,

melodies,

and

Carter

style

affangements

f

these

ongs

y

yourself

before

you look

at

my

alrangements.

've

included

he

keys

that

I

used

so

that

you can

try

them

in

the

same

keys f you'd like.

I

know

that

t

will be

a lot

of

work

to

come

up

with

your own

anangements

f

all

of

these

songs,

owever,

oing hrough

steps

through

5

with

all

l6

of

these

ongs

hould

eally

help

you build

your

confidence,

nd

speed,

n

creating

your own

Carter

Style

arrangements.

Once

you

have

earned

hese

6

songs,

ombined

with

the

nine

songs

we have

worked

with

already

n

this

book,

you will

have a

repertoire

of

25

son,es

n

Carter

tyle

I suggest

hat

you

really

get

o

know

these

songs

well because

will

be

using

variations

f

many

of thesesongs o demonstratehe new techniqueshat

I

will introduce

n

the

remainder

f this

book.

We

will

also

use

some

of

these

songs

when

we

work

with

more

advanced

echniques

and

arrangements

ater

in

this

course.

So,

if

you

learn

a

basic

affangements

ow

it

will help

you later.

Good

uck

40

Ftatpicking

Essentials

Volume

2: Learning

How

To

Solo, Carter Style and Beyo



Jlmmy

Browntlte

Newsboy:

Csrtet

ttyle

Every body

knows

hat I'm

the Newsboy

of the

got

no hat

Audio Ttack

1-21

on

my hcad

no

up

-

on my feet.

Flatpicking

Essentials

Volume 2:

Learning

How

To

Solo, Carter

Style and. Beyond,

4



Grandtstherts

Clock

Cantet

Etyle

Audio

Track 1-22

My-

It was

grand

tall

Vears-

on

the

floor.

pen

-

ny

-

weight

more.

clock- was

half

-

than

large-

old

-

the

him

It was

boueht- on the

42


Volume 2:

Learning How To

Solo,

Carter

Style

and

Beyond





Old Spinnlng

Wheel:

Colrtet

Etyle

wheel-

ol d

dreams go,

maid

Audio

TFack

1-2

44

Flatpicking

Essentials

Volume

2: Learning

How To

Solo, Carter

Style and Beyond



Old Splnnlng

Wheel:

Colrter

Style

(con't,

and Low" an old-

dreams-

of

or ,

4

Flatpicking

Essentials

Volume 2: Learning How

To

Solo,

Carter

Style and Beyond



Uncfoudy

Dcy:

Colrtel'

Etyle

Oh,

they

me

of

home-

where no

storm-

Audio

Track

1-2

home-

yond-

Oh, they

me

of an

hey

cloud

ed

46

Flatpicking

Essentials

Volume 2:

Learning

How

To

Solo, Carter

Style and Beyond



Uncloudy

Doy:

Csftet

ghyle

(con't,

day,

cloud

-

ed

4

Flatpicking


How To

Solo,

Carter

Style

and Beyon.d



Home

9weef Hofnet

Cqtter

ttyle

Audio TFack 1-25

Which seek

48

Flatpicking

Essentials

Volume 2: Learning

How To

Solo,

Carter

Style

and Beyond



Home

gweef

Homes

Csfter

Stvae

con'0,

4

Flatpicking

Essentials

Volume 2: Learning

How To

Solo, Carter

Style and Beyond





John

Henrlr:

Cqrtet

Style

ham mer and

a

me,-

Lord.-

Lord- that- Ham-mer-

Audio

Trackl-27

Ham-mcr-

wil l be

the

death o[

f

lc

Flatpiclzing

Essentials


Solo,

Carter

Style

and Beyond

be the death ol

me-



Bufleilo

Gols:

Cqrte;

Etyle

Audio

Track

1-2

Gals,

won't you

come

out tonight

And

dance

light

of

the moon.

As

Gals,won't you

52

Flatpicking

Essentials

Volume 2:

Learning

How To

Solo, Carter

Styte and Beyond



lonesorne

Road Blues:

Csrtet Sfie

Pqrtleil Chords:

So ar have

been

sing ull chordal trumswhenever

I

have

nserteda

strum.

Coming up on the

page

after

next I

provideyou

with

a higher

octavearrangement

of

"Cripple

Creek" hatuses wo note

partial

chords".

When you play

Carter style arrangements nd the

melody

moves

up to the

G or

B strings,

hese wo

note

chordswill

help

you

maintain

he

full

sound. These

two note

"chords"

are also

called

double

stops."We

Audio Track

1-29

G

will

work

with

them extensively

ater

on

and hey will

be explained

n

more

detail

Their use n

"Cripple

Creek"

will be a first

to the

use

of

these

double

stops."

in this book

at that ime

introductio

golng

Flatpicking

Essentials

Volume

2:

Learning How

To Solo,

Carter

Style and

Beyond

a



Wlldwood

Floweft

Colrte;

Etyle

Audio

Ttack 1-30

gles and

and the

black

SO

54

Flatpicking

Essentials

Volume 2: Learning How To Solo, Carter Style

and Beyon



crlpple

creek:

Cg,fter

stvler

lower

Reglstes

up

Cripple

Creek,

my

brit

-

ches

Cripple

Crcek,

Cripple

Crcck

run

knees

some

I

Up

old

CrippleCreek o have

Cripple

Creek

as

Cripple

Creek

o

have

some

Cripple

Creek

o

see

my

run

whirl

Crlpple C;eek: Upper R.egZslet


Volume

2:

Learning

Hou,

To

Solo,

Carter

Style

and, Beyond,



ol

rhe

ohlo:

cglrtet

t*yle

Audio

Track

l'32

bout-

our-

wed

-

ding

it o

Ftatpiching

Essentials

Volume

2:

Learning How To Solo'Carter Styteand Bey



Eelsf

Vlrglnlo

Blues:

Coftet ttyle

Audio

Track 1-33

R.epe

led

EZghlh N

ofes:

When you work

through he

arrangement

f

"Banks

of the

Ohio" on the

previous age,

ou

will notice

hat

I've inserted ome

wo-noteduration

epeated

ighth

notephrases

ere

and

here. When the majority

of the

song s

based

on

quarter

note timing, these

epeated

eighthnotesadd

a ittle

lavor

o the

mix. We

will

work

with

this

concept

n

much

more

detail

when

we

address

playing

remolos ater n this book.

5

Flatpicking

Essentials Volume 2: Learning How To

Solo,

Carter

Style and

Beyond



Keep

On

The

Sunny

9lde Colrtet

Etyle

Audio Track l-34

bright,-

Flatpicking

Essentials

Volume

2:

Learning

How To

Solo,

Carter Style

and

Beyond



Keep

On

The

Sunny

glde

Col;le?

Style

(con't}^

Keep-

Keep-

5

Flatpicking

Essentials Volume

2: Learning How To

Solo,

Carter

Style and

Beyond



Bury

ille

Beneaflr

lhe Wlllow:

Colcle;

ttyle

Audio Tiack 1-35

h ,

v

wil l

m e - b - e

know

wh

-

crc

- n e

I

ath-

60

Flatpicking

Essentials

Volume

2: Learning

How

To

Solo, Carter

Style and

Beyond





Tremolo

OK, now

that

you

have

worked with

a number

of

Carter style

arrangements some

simple

and

othersaddinghammer-ons,

lides,

pull-offs,

and

bass

runs- it

is time to

start earning ome

new techniques.

Following

our chronological

evelopment

f the

style

of

flatpicking,

he next

echnique'd like

to add o

your

"bag of tricks" is the tremolo. Many of the early lead

guitarplayers

n country

music

borrowed

his

echnique

from mandolin

players,

n fact,

George

Shuffler calls

this technique

he

"quick-wrist

mandolin

style." The

technique

s very

straight-forward

nd nvolves

illing

up the holes

betweenmelody

notesby

simply repeating

a melody

note, n

eighth

note

repetition,

until the

you

reach

he next melody

note.

Below I've

tabbed

ou t

a

purely

tremolo

arrangement

f the first four

bars

of

"Twinkle,

Twinkle,

Little

Star" to demonstrate

he

technique. Of course,using he technique his much

sounds

ery

monotonous,

owever,

ou

get

the idea.

If

you'll

look back

and he

previous age,

ou

will

see

that n my

arrangement

f

"Yellow

Rose

of Texas"

put

a

few

two-note

remolos n

the

arrangement

measures

5 6, and

9).

That

will

give

you

an idea

of

how

the

technique

an be

usedsparingly.

I

haveprovided

a couple

of

more

examplesn

this

section

hat utilize

the echnique

o

varying

degrees

o

that

you

can have

some

practice

with

it. But first,

ake

a

look

at

he remolo

exercise

n the

nextpage.

This

is

a warm-upexercise hat you can use o get your right

handaccustom

o

playing

epetitive

ighthnotes.

Set

your

metronome

n a slow tempo

and

play

alongwith

the click. The

"X"

figure n

the

notation

means

hat

you

are

muting he

strings uring

his exercise.

Simply

placeyour

left hand

acrosshe

strings

o

hat he

strings

aremuted.

Practicing

ight hand

exercises ith

muted

strings

helps

you

focus

completely

on

the

right

hand

without

eft hand

distraction.

Itdnkle, Itrinkle, Tremolo

As

you

can

see,

you

are

working

a

pattern

rom the

low E string

o thehigh E

string.

Onceyou reach heend

of the exercise

sshown

measure24)

ontinue

laying

the

pattern

until

you

reach

he

low E

string

again,and

then

you

can move

back in the

other

direction. Star

at a

slow

tempo

and then

gradually

work

your

way up

to faster

empos. There

are severalvariationson this

theme

hat

you

could createon

your

own.

The

pattern

I've shown s eight notes epeated,umping o thenext

string with

four,

then the next string with four.

As

a

variation,

ou

couldcut that n half

and

play

our notes

on

the

first

string,

ump

to the next

string

and

play

two

notes,

hen

he next string or

two notes, tc. This

kind

of

exercise helps improve right

hand accuracy and

dexterity.

Give it a try

After

you

have worked

with the

tremolo exercise

turn the

page

and

play

through he

four

arrangemen

that have

provided

n this

section.The

irst s

a remolo

versionof

"You

Are My Sunshine." follow thatwith

a tremolo

version

of

"Worried

Man Blues,"

which

usessome onger

remolo uns. Next I've arranged

tremolo version

of

"Bury

Me Beneath

he

Willow"

tha

is

based on

a recording

of this tune by the Delmore

Brothers

(they

called

the song

"Bury

Me

Under

the

Weeping

Willow"). It

is not an exact

ranscription,

ut

it

is similar.

The Delmore's,

and other

performers

of

their

era,

used

his technique xtensively.

Since

his

technique s

very

straight-forward, think

that

you

should

have

a

good

understanding f it after working

with just a coupleof songs.

After

"Bury

Me Beneath

heWillow" I've

provided

a variation

of

"You

Are My

Sunshine" hat include

"neighboring

notes"

to

help

spice up the tremolo

technique.

Wewill

talk moreabout

neighboring

otes

later,

but as

the name mplies, they

are

notes

hat are

one half step

up

or down from the melody note. Take

a

look

at the second ariation

f

"You

Are

My

Sunshine

and

you'll

get

a feel or

this echnique.

G

Audio

Track

2-01

C

Flatpicking

Essentials

Volume 2:

Learning How

To Solo, Carter

Style

and

Beyond



Tremolo Exerclse

LJ I-] L.J L]

LJ

LJ

I.] t.J

9

/ \ / \

/ \ a \

/ \

/ \ / \ z \

/\ /\ /\ /\ z \ ^ \ / \ a \

Flatpicking



Beyond



You

Are My

Sunshlne Slmple

Tremolo

Style

Verslon

Audio Track

2-02

64


Volume

2:

Learning How

To

Solo,

Carter Style and

Beyon





Bury

tle Benestltthe

Wlllow:

Tremolo

ttyle

Nelghbodng

Nofes:

Hanging

around

on any

given

note

oo long

can

sound a

bit repetitive.

One

way

to vary

the

tremolo

technique

s

to toggle back

and forth

on neighboring

notes nsteadof repeatinghe samenoteover andover

again.

A neighboring

ote s, as

he name

suggests,

note

hat s

ust

one half

step,or one ret,

away from

a

melody note.

Checkout measure wo

of

"You

Are

My

Sunshine"

n the next

page.

Instead

f repeating

he

E

note,

as did in the ast

arrangement,

alternated

he E

note

with an

E flat

note.

I

alsoaddeda neighboring

ote

hammer-on

n measure

ight and

a chromaticwalk-up

in

measuresen and

ifteen.

Audio Ttack

2-04

C

You will

notice

hat n

this arrangement alsospice

things

up a bit

by moving

he remolonotearoundmore

as in

measure

ix. In that measure played

wo-not

tremoloswhile following the outline of the F chord

There

are

many

variousways

that

you

can

modify

the

tremolo

to spice

up

your

solo

arrangements. hey

are

fairly

simple o add

betweenmelody notesand

easy

o

execute.

As

an exercise,

o

back o the

previous

ection

f

the

book

and

ake

some

of

those

Carter

style arrangemen

and

spice hem

up

with

a few tremoloshere and

here

Have

un with

it

66

Flatpicking

Essentials

Volume 2:

Learning How

To

Solo,

Carter

Style and

Beyond



You

Are

ftly

gunshlne

Splced-Upftemolo

Verslon

Audio Track

2-05

6

Flatpicking


Solo, Carter

Style

and Beyond



ALatlle Boogle-Woogle

In

the first section

of

Volume

I

,

when

I discussed

the history

of

flatpicking, talked

about he

short

ived

"boogie-woogie"

ra

n

countrymusic.

During

he

ate

40s andearly 50s

"boogie"

tunes

became

opular

and

actually

played

a role in

the

development

f

rock and

roll. The technique

sed

o

play

boogie-woogieunes

on heguitar nvolves oth he remoloandneighboring

note echniqueshat we

have beenworking

on

in this

section,

o et's

give

t

a

try.

I've arranged

tune

called

"Boogie-Woogie

Blues"

that

is similar n

structure

o

a

lot

of the

boogiesongs

of the

early 50s. I'm using

the same

2-bar

blues template hat

you

worked with

in Volume

and

you

will notice hat

'm alsousine

he

Boogle-Woogle

Blues

G

arpeggio

bass

ines

that

we worked with

in Volume I .

So

the structure

f

the song

should

be familiar

to

you,

now we

just

add the

tremolo

and

neighboring

notes

concepts

o

the

bass

inesand

you've got

your

boogie

woogie

Play

hrough

he abbelow.

You'll notice hat n

some

phrases'm using he tremolo repeating otes)and n

other

places

like

measures

our

andsix),I'm using

he

neighboring otes.

You can use

either alternativel

Have un with

this and hen f

you

feel nspired,

hrow

a little booeie ine nto

someof

vour

arransements

Audio Track

2-06

t-J

ls

Vol

8

Flatpicking Essentia

ume

2: Learning

How

To Solo, Carter Style

and

Beyond



Double

Sfops

The next

technique hat

we

are

going

to

work with

is the

"double

stop." The term

came

rom

the

idea

of

fretting

(or

"stopping")

two

notes at

the

same

ime.

Basically,

hat

is

all

there

s

to

the technique.

nstead

of

playing

ust

one

note,

you

play

wo

notes

at he same

time.

Usually,

and

or

the majority

of

examples

hown

in this volume, he two notes hat you play are aken

from

the

notes

of

the

chord

you

are

playing

at the

given

time.

The arrangement

f

"Bile

The

Cabbage

Down"

shown below

demonstrateshe

use of double stops.

You will notice that

for

each

phrase

of

the song

I'm

holding

down

two

notes

of

the

chord.

For

the G chord

I'm

using the

"F

shape"

G

chord

at

the

third

fret

(see

diagramon

the next

page).

For

the C

chord

'm using

the

"A

shape"

C

chord

at the third fret

(see

diagram

on

thenextpage).For the D chord 'm using he standard

D

shape. n

the astmeasure move o

two

open

notes

in

the

G

chord.

"Bile

the

Cabbage own" is

one

of the

tunes n the

beginner iddler's epertoire

hat

hey

will

first

use o explore he deaof

playing

double

stops.

If

you'll

take

a

look at

the

diagrams

shown on the

next page

you'll

see

that I've

put

together

variou

double

stop

notes hat

can be

used with

the

various

chord

shapes. I've

simply laid

out the chord shap

and

sequentially

played

notes that are

on adjacen

strings. For now,

hat

s

all

you

have o do

to execut

a double stop.

When

you

play

the

melody note

also

strike

hroughan

adjacent

ote n the

samechord.

The

technique llows wo noteso ring outandgivesa ulle

sound

o

the arrangement.

There are many

ways

to

get

creativewith

double

stops

using

slides and passing

notes when

moving

from

one

chord

to

the other. We will

explore

variou

examples f those echniquesn

this

course. For

now

in order

o

famili

arrze

ourself

with

the use of

double

stops,playhe

unes

hat

are

abbed ut

on

he

ollowing

pages

and

get

a feel

for

how to use

double stops

n

the

arrangements

f

simple

songs.

Audio

Track

2-07

Turn

th em- hoc -ca kes - r ound-

fsys Thc-

Blle

The

CerbbageDown: Double

Slop Sfyle

Bi le

them- Cab-baee-

down-

D

sing

Flatpiching

Essentials Volume 2: Learning How

To

Solo,

Carter

Style

and Beyond





You

Are

ftly

$unshlne Double

Sfop

Sfi/e

Audio Track

2-09

Flatpicking

Essentials

Volume

2: Learning

How To

Solo,

Carter

Style

and, Beyond.

7



Buffolo Gcls:

Double

Sfop Sfyle

Audio

Track

2-10

Crlpple C;eek3 Wlfh Double Sfops

Flatpicking Essentials Volume 2: Learning How To Solo, Carter Style

and

Beyond





Worrled

tlon

Blues:

Colfier

Stvle

qnd

Double

Sfops

Audio

Track

2-1

74

Flatpicking

Essentials

Volume

2:

Learning How To

Solo,

Carter

Style

and

Beyon



$fueets

of

loredo:

Wlflr Double

gfops

As

I-

walk-ed

of

Lo

Audio Track2-14

I-

walk-ed

LJ

G

rvrappcd

n

they-gunned

hi m

l

Flatpicking

Essentials

Volume

2:

Learning

How To

SoIo, Carter Style and

Beyond



Crossplcklng

"Crosspicking"

is a

guitar

technique

that was

popularizedby

GeorgeShuffler n

the

ate

1950s

when

he was playing

with the Stanley

Brothers.

Regarding

his

use

of

the

technique,

Georgesaid,

Back

then

al l

there was

on

lead

guitar

was

Maybelle

Carter and

Merle

Travis,

and neither

one

of

those

styles it what

the Stanleys

sang.They

sang

those

slow,

mournful

mountain

ongswith long

dwells at

the

end of a line.

That

crosspicking

oll filled

in when

they stopped o

swallow

and

get

their breath.

Little

single

string stuff

just

wouldn't

fill

it in. The

crosspicking oll

would

make t

full and

solid."

The

basic

echnique

onsists

f

holding

a chord

shape

and

hen

rolling,"

similar

o a banjo roll,

across

hree

consecutive

trings.The first

figure

below

on this

page

depicts

he basic

crosspicking

pattern

played

across

mutedG, B, and high E strings. Muting the strings

helps

you

focus

on

the

right

hand

echnique.

You'll

notice

hat

've indicated

wo

different

ight

hand

picking

patterns.

The

first is

the

pattern

used

by

GeorgeShuffler

and

others who

have

played

with

Ralph

Stanley's

Clinch Mountain

Boys,

ncluding

he

current

uitarplayer

James lan

Shelton.

This

"down-

down-up"

pattern

gives

crosspicking

certain eel that

George elt fit

the Stanleysound.

The

second

pattern

is

the standard lternating

ick pattern

hat

you

learned

in Volume

1. I suggest

ou

try

both

and

see

which

one

feels

best o

you.

One s not

"better"

than

he

other.

Below

the

muted

stringexercise

ou

will

see 've

provided

he same ight hand

pattern

while

holding a

C

chord

with

the eft hand.

On

he

op of

thenext

page

've

provideda C chordcrosspicking xercisehatexpand

the

pattern,

n threestring sets,

across

ll

six strings. f

you

are not familiar with

the crosspicking echnique

or

feel

as though

you

need some

practice

with it,

I

suggest hat

you work

with

theseexerciseswhile

your

metronome s

clicking at a fairly slow tempo.

At the

bottom of the

next

page

I've

provided

a

comparison

f the first few

barsof

"Wildwood

Flower"

played

irstinthe

Carter tyleandthen

nthe

crosspickin

style.

The

crosspicking

oll simply

replaces

he Carte

stylestrums. f you'll play throughboth of these ines

you

can

get

a

feel

for how the crosspicking

echniqu

provides

a fuller

sound.

You'll

notice hat

the

roll is

adjusted

o

adapt o the changingmelody ine. In the

secondmeasure

he melody

is

on the G

string,

so

the

roll moves

across he

G,

B

and high E

strings.

Then

when

the melody moves o

the

D

string n the second

measure,he roll moves

o the D,

G,

andB

strings.

tlufed

Stu?ng

Crossplcklng

Exerclse

Pattern 1:

Pattern

2:

FI

TV

FIVT

V

FI

|r

V

FI

T

FI

tl

l..l

F

n

V

|l

|l

fl

tt

|l

V

V

||

|l

V

fl

ft

V

FI

T

Y

F

FI

FI

T

FI

V

V

FI

ft

V

F

n

tl

|t

-

V

V

V

V

V

V

V

V

Audio Track 2-15

aslc

Crosspickin

g

Poltletn

Flatpicking

Essentials

Volume 2: Learning

How

To

Solo, Carter

Style and

Beyond





Bonks

oi

the

Ohlo: Crossplcklng

Audio

Track 2-16

78

Flatpicking

Essentials Volume

2: Learning

How

To

Solo,

Carter

Style

and

Beyond



Wlldwood

Flower:

Crossplcklng

Audio TFack 2-17

7

Flatpicking

Essentials

Volume

2: Learning How To

Solo,

Carter

Style

and

Beyond



Home

Sweef

Horne

Crossplcklng

Audio Track 2-18

Flatpicking

Essentials

Volume 2:

Learning How To

Solo,

Carter

Style

and

Beyon





Ohr

gusonncs

Grosspfcki

ng(conrf)

Altenqte

crosspicrri

ng

P.,tterns

while

the

standard

forward

roll"

crosspicking

l;:ffi llilj

described

or

you

r

he

eginningf hii

h

t1d,.

r

"

;#lTJ.fJj,

#.nn

T:HST

lg'

f

he

songs

n

this

secrion

i",

r

didn,t

arways

tay

with

lff

3ffi1il1t,

sometim;;;""

ight

ruul

o

modiry

we

i,,

l;",#Jll#"fl?

nl,:in:*:;

l?

C

different

ight

hand

roting

patterns,

ncludingparterhat roll acrossmore

than

hr..

strings.

rn

order

to

ive

you

a

head

start

on

a

coupre

of

these

arterna

atterns,

f've

provided

two

beltw_Ur,

,"verse

rol

nd

the

alternating

rot

Try

the

muteo

string

exercis

ith

these

wo

rort.

After

you

g.,

a good

eer

or

thes

wo

rolls'

hord

down

u

c

.ho.d

and

practice

hese

ors

ff;:*

all

six

strings

as

you

did

earlier

with

th.

for*urd

Reverse

Rolf

lternating

Roll

F at pic king

E

s

s

e

nt

ia

ls

Volume

2:

Learning

How

To

Solo,

Carter

Style

ancl

Beyoncl





Nelghbodng

Nofes,

Scnles

Runs,

ond

Drones

In

this section we are

going

to take a look at

neighboring

notes, scale runs, and

the use of drone

notes.

You had

a brief

introduction

to

neighboring

notes

n the tremolo

section and

we

also

used

them

on

the

boogie-woogie

une.

If

you

need

o,

look

back

at the arrangement f "You Are My Sunshine" n the

tremolo

section o refresh

your

memory. Also

take a

look at

the

"Boogie-Woogie

lues."

Neighboring

notes

end o spiceup an arrangement

because hey

provide

"tension."

Because

you

are

moving

ust

a half

note away rom a melody note,

or a

scale ote,

ou

aremost ikely

going

o

be

playing

a note

that

s

not in the

scaleand thus t'Just

doesn'tsound

quite

right."

But

that

s

OK if the tension s followed

by

"release."

The

tension

provides

he listener's

ear

with something

hat is not

expectedbecause heir

ear

expectso hear melody,or at leasta note hatnaturally

fits

with

the melody

(notes

of the scale). When

an

unexpected ote

reaches he listener's

ear t causes

he

"tension,"

but then if

you

follow the

unexpected ote

with a

melodic note,

or

phrase,

he ension s

"released"

and he

istener elaxes

gain.

Scale uns,

as

this

name mplies,

are simply runs

that

move

up

or down the musical

scale.

The

notes

don't necessarilv

eed

o stav n an exactascending

r

descending

rder, hey can be mixed up

in

sequence

However,

hey

generally

move in one direction

or the

other,or move n one directionand hen back the other

way.

Takea look at the

"Clarence

White Excerpt" shown

at the bottomof thispage.This is a phrase rom oneof

Clarence's olos

or

the

song

Shuckin'the

Corn."

In

this

phrase

Clarenceusesboth neighboringnotes and

scale

uns.

In measure

wo

he

toggles back and

forth

between he

A

note

and the A# note on the B string

He is

playing

against G chord. The A note s

in

the

G scale, ut

the

A# note

s

not.

The toggling back

and

forth on those

wo

notesprovides

a

bit of that tension

and release. n

the third measure

Clarence

executesa

scale

un,

walking

up the G scale

playing

D, E,

F'#,

G,

A,

and

B. Thenhe

starts ackdown the scale,

laying

the A and G notes. In measure our Clarencedoes

somethingeally

cool,whichhedid a

ot.

He used

wha

I would call

a

"neighboring

note

phrase,"

meaninghe

took he

phrase

efined

by the

ast our notes

of

measur

3

and moved

hat

whole phrase

up a

half

step.

This is

a reallynice

rick and f

you

listenclosely o

Clarenc

White's

playing

you

will notice

that

he liked to use

this technique.

You'll

also

notice n this

excerpt

ha

Clarence

uses

anotherscale un in measures ive and

Audio

Ttack

2-20

trsnsctZbed by

Sleve

PollTet

leirence Whlfe Exce?pt (from 3'ghucklnt the Corntt):

G


Volume

2: Learning How To

Solo, Carter Style

and Beyond



"Seiltv

Dog Bluestt

using

Cleirence Whlte

Llck

six to help

him move rom

the D

chord

o the G chord.

Just or fun,

I've arranged

solo

to the verse

of

"Salty

Dog Blues"

using

Clarence's

neighboring

phrase" dea so you can see t in context. In measure

3 I walk

up the A scale, hen

insert

Clarence's

hrase

in measure

.

In

this section 've

arranged

coupleof

other

unes hat will

give

you

some

practice

with

the

more

conventional

se

of neighboring

otes, ut keep

the

idea

of the

"neighboring

hrase"

n mind

because

we will

explore

that again n later

volumes

of

this

course.

On

the top of

the next

page

've

provided

a

couple

more

examples

f scale uns

aken

rom

a transcription

of a

Doc

Watson

solo

to the

song

"Beaumont

Rag."

Doc is

the first

acoustic

uitar

player

who really

used

a lot

of scale uns

n both his

rhythm

accompaniment

and his

solos.

In the first

exampleDoc repeats

he

same

C scale ick

two times n

a

row.

He first

moves

down

the

C

arpeggio

G

to

E to

C)

and

hen moves

up

the

C scale

going

from

C, to D, to E,

to

F,

to G, to A.

Then

he moves

back

down the

C

arpeggio,

using

the

G and

E notes

o connect

back to the root

C, and then

he moves

back up the same

scale, his

time ending

on

theG note. This

is

a nice ittle

phrase

hat its

perfectly

Audio

Track

2-20

Standin'

on the corner with

the

low-down

blues. - great-

big-hole-in

the bottom-of my

shoes,-

A

in

the context

of the

tune.

The

secondexample s a

descendingun n

C,

but

you'll

notice hat t

does

not

go

directly

down

the

C scale.

The

descending

art

of the

run movesdown theC scale rom B, to A, to G, to F, o

E,

to

D,

but

then nstead

of

resolving

o the root

C

afte

the

D note,

Doc throws

in the A

and

B

notes o throw

in

a very

short ascending

un

before

esolving

o the

C

note.

Combining

pieces

f scalesn

various

ascendin

and descending

equences

nd

combinations

s

an ar

that

you

will

want

to

study and master n flatpicking

Doc is

the first

master

of this techniqueand everyon

who has

followed

after him

uses

scale runs in thei

flatpicking.

'm

merely ntroducing

hisconcept o

you

here n

this

book. We will

explore t in more depth n

future

volumes.

By

the time

you

complete olume 6

you

should

be

very

adept at creatingand

using

you

own scale

uns.

To

give you

a little bit

of

practic

with neighboring

otes

and scale uns, 've arrange

a version

of

"She'll

be

Coming

Around he Mountain

in

this section

hat

makesuse

of these wo technique

Play

through

his arrangement

nd

you'll

begin

to

ge

an dea

of how to

addneishboring otes

and scale

un

to

your

solos.

8

Flatpicking

Essentials

Volume

2: Learning How To

Solo, Carter

Style and Beyond







Buffolo

Gqls:

Uslng Drone

Slfings Tnlhe B

gecflon

Audio Track2-23

LJ

G

88

Flatpicking

Essentials

Volume 2:

Learning How

To

Solo, Carter

Style

and Beyond



Wobeish

Cannonboll

From

thc

creat-

At-lan-tic-

Audio'frack2-24

fic shore-

The

LJI

++

+l

green-

old- flow

-

to the south- down-

hand-some-

ular-

comb

Flatpicking



Beyond



You

Are ftly

Sunshlne Slmple

Embelllshmenfs

ln

C

Audio TFack 2-25

90


Volume 2:

Learning How To


Beyond



You

Are My

Sunshlne

Anolhet Veidclllon

ln

C

Audio T)ack2-25

9

Flatpicking

Essentials


To

Solo, Carter

Style and Beyond



Llcks

e:nd

Sololng

Licks

are basically

amiliar,

or

sometimes

liche,

phrases

hat

you

insert nto

your

musicalarrangements.

Hopefully you will

learn to tastefully insert

them

at appropriate

moments and

not

overuse hem.'

The

dictionarydefines liche as

"a

phrase

r

word

that

has

lost ts

original

effectiveness

r

power

from overuse."

The same an

be

rue

of

musical

hrases.

f

you

overuse

them, hey

will loose heir

power

or

effectiveness.

f

you

always keep he

words

"melody

is

king"

in

your

consciousness

hen

arrangingsolos

or

improvising,

then

you

can

avoid

becominga

"lick

player."

A lick

player

s

someone

who

simply nserts string

of

memorized licks

over

chord

changes

with

little

or

no regard

for melody. It

would be analogous o

someone

alking

to

you

in conversation nd

stringing

together bunch of cliche

phrases.They wouldn't

be

sayinganything hatyou could understand r haveany

meaning.A well

placed

amiliar

phrase

r

saying

n

a

conversation

an

have

power

and

meaning,

owever,f

it is

overused

r

used n conjunction

with

other

phrases

with

no apparent

connection

between hem

(meaning

a fluid stream

of

thought or

subject n

conversation,

or

a melody

ine

in

music), hen nothing s

being

said

that

s

of

interest

o the audience.

When

azz

player's

talk aboutsomeone's

olo hey

will

praise ood

players

by saying

he

was really saying

something"

and

they

will critique

bad

players

by stating,

he

wasn't

saying

anything."

In

a musicalarrangement

he

melody and he

yrics

define

our

subject, he

icks

and

phrases ou

inseft

are

your personal

houghts

on that subject. Think

about

that

when you

are

affanging

your

solos.

If

you

are

simply stringing ogether icks,

hen

you

really are

not

addressing

he subject

at hand. If

you

are stating he

melody

and

nserting

your

own

licks and

phrasesn

a

way

that keeps

he

melody recognizable nd

maintains

the feeling

of the

song

hat

s conveyed n the

melody

and lyrics, then you are "saying something"and you

arecontributing o the musicalconversation.

All that o say hat icks

can

be

good

ools,but

f they

are overused,

or

used nappropriately,hen they

can

annoy

your

audience

nd

the musicians

who

you

are

performing

with. Before

we

move

on

I'd

like

to

quote

Charles

Sawtelleon

the

topic of creatingsolos

on the

guitar.

Charles

aid:

"l

think

about

going

to record

a

words

are.I want

92

what

the

song s about.

f I

am

song,

want

to

know what

the

to

know

what

he

sons

s about.

A lot

of

times

you

will hear

a sad song

played

in bluegrass nd

the instrumentsare

not

paying

attention o the

words."

"Sometimes

when

I

am teaching

students,

will hear this

real

azzy

banjo

chorus on

a sad

song ike

"Memories

of Mother and

Dad." I'll

ask,

"Well,

what is this song

about?"They

say,

"I

don't know."

I

say,

"Have

you

ever

listened

to the words?"They'll say, No." This is a really

sad song

about a

guy

losing

his

mom

and

dad

and it is a true

story

about

Bill Monroe's

father

and mother.

t contains

he line,

"There

is a

little

lonesome

graveyard,

on these

tomb stones

t

does

say,

on mother's

gone

but

not

forgotten'

on

dad's

we'll

meetagainsomeday.'

If

you

go

to

Rosine,Kentucky,

o the

family

graveyard,

heir

tombstones re

here

and that

s what they say.

t

is heavy."

"A

lot of times

people

are

not aware

what

the

song s

about. try

to think what he song

s about

and what

t

is

saying

and how

can

he

guitar

keep

saying t

without

nterrupting he flow."

"I

also ry

to

be conscious f

what the other

instruments

re

doing. If

the

banjo

ust

did this

real

hot lick

thing,

I

will

either take

up

where

he left

off

and

keep

he hot lick

going,

or

I will

make t

different

so that it will stand out a

little

bit andmake t

more

nterestingo

the

audience.

try really

hard

o

sound

good

even

hough

don't

always ucceed. ut my goal s to try to playstuff

that sounds

ood,

s

a little different,

and

gets

he

message cross."

"I

also ell

my

students

hat

f

they

work

out

a

really

difficult

break

hat can

be

played no faster

than I 15 beatsper minute and hen

get

on

stage

and he banjo

playergets

excited

and

rips it off

at

130,

don't try to

take

hat breakbecause

hey are

going

to

flop.

People

out

in the audience

ren't

going

to say,

He

almost

pulled

it

off."

They are

going

o

say,

He

doesn't ound

ery

good."

Bu t

if

he

plays

something impler

hat he can

play,

then the audience s

going

to think it

was

pretty

good.

try

hard

o

be really aware

of

that.

f there

was

a solo

hat might usually rosspick,

won't

always

do

it

that

way if

the

tempo

is

too

fast

on stage.

've

got

a

limit

to the

speed hat

I can

crosspick

nd

I

know what it

is.

I

would rather

sound

good

han

ry to

go

for

the

hot

lick."

"When

I am

improvising

try to

play

a

solo

that sounds

ood.

try to

get

good

tone. think

Flatpicking

Essentials

Volume

2: Learning How To

Solo,

Carter Style and

Beyon



about

he

chords

and

the tempo.

'll also

hink,

"Well,

did

I

play

this

ick in the

ast ive

songs?"

If so, I'll

try

something

else.

try not

to

repeat

licks. also

ry to

be

conscious

f where

he capo

is,

meaning

hat f

we

play

a few

songs

n a

row

in

D, I

might

play

one

of

them

in open

D and

then

the

next

in C

position with the

capo

at

the

second

ret

in order o

provide some

variety.

So I

am conscious f that stuff. can't alwayspull off

a

perfect

solo,

but

I

try

my best."

I think

that

f

you

keep he

melody

out

front,

if

you

keep

he

yrics

n mind,

f

you

listen o

what the other

playersare

doing, and

you

do

not continually

repeat

yourself,

then

using

familiar

licks can

work

out for

you. We are

going

to

talk

more about

licks

in

the

next

volumewhen

we

discuss

iddle tunes,

hen again

in

volume

5,

which covers he

stylistic

latpicking

of

variousguitar heroes. n that volume

we

will

present

C

Lick 1

C Lick

3

C Lick 5

C Lick 7

G

Lick

1

the heroes'

signature

icks and

phrases,

hose

hat

help

define heir

style.

So hroughout

his

course

we

will

be

adding o

your

"lick

library"

and

recommend

hat

you

startcollecting

a bunch

of

licks

that

you like.

Just

use

them sparingly

nd

you'll

be

fine.

At the

bottom

of

this

page 've

presented even

icks

in

C

and

a couple

n

G.

Of

course,

all of

the

C

licks

can be transposed

o

other

keys

and I

suggest

hat

you

do that as an exercise. n fact, as an exampleof that I

made G

lick

2

the

exact

same

ick as C

lick 7

so

that

you

can

seehow one

ick can

it in

different

keys.

The

first four C

licks are

simple,

short

ill licks

that

you

canuse o

fill

up space

etween

melody

notes.

The

first hree

can

either

stay

n C

by

resolving

o

the

C

note

on the

A

string,or

they

can

move

to G

by

resolving

on

the open

G note

on

the G string.

Try them

both

ways.

The fourth C

lick can stay

n C

or

it can

move

o

D

by

resolving

on the open

D note

on

the

D string.

Try

this

one

both

ways

as

well'

Audio rackz-

C

Lick

4

G

Lick

2

C

Lick

2

C

Lick

6

Flatpicking

Essentials

Volume

2: Learning

How

To Solo, Carter

Style

and

Beyond



The

next

three

C

licks are onger

icks that

represent

typical

phrases

hat latpickersike to use. I've

shown

them

here

because 've

inserted

hem

in

some of

the

arrangements

hat appear

on

the

pages

hat

follow

in

this section.The first G

lick

is

one of those

handy

G fill

licks

that

you

will heara lot in

bluegrass, o

I

thought

I'd

throw

that

one out there for

you

to try. As I

said

before, he second

G

lick is

simply a repeat

of C Lick

7. but in thekey of G. I don't want o overwhelm ou

with licks

or

phrases

n

this volume

because

we

will

have

plenty

of time

to

explore icks

in

future volumes.

However, wanted

o

give you

a

brief

introduction

o

licks here n

this

volume

so that

you

could

begin

o

see

how they

areused o fill in

gaps

n

melody

ines.

Below, and n

the

pages

hat follow in thi s

section

I

have

arranged uitar

solos or

a

few

songsand I've

Jlmmy

Brownthe

Newsboy

tried

to

consciously

employ all

of the techniques

ha

we've

covered o ar

in

this course.

Wewill

start elow

with

"Jimmy

Brown heNewsboy.

You've worked with this

songearlier

n this

book,

but

here

've addeda

few

fills licks

(measures

and

16)

bass uns

measures

, 8,

9

and 14),a

neighboring

ote

phrase

measure

2) and various slidesand hammer

ons. You

will

notice hat 've maintained strong ens

of the melody and the affangementstill has a Carte

style flavor,

but

I've spiced t

up

here and there

with

the

other echniques.

You

may note hat he

fill licks

in

measures

and 6 are he

exactsame

ill lick. but

thev

are n

differentkeys.

Sometimes

sing

he

same

ill

lick

in

variousplace

in

a song can be

a

good

thing

if

you

do somethin

slightly different

with

it

each ime.

In the last volume

Audio Track2-27

Flatpicking

Essentials


Solo,

Carter Style

and

Beyon



The

Crowderd

Song

I

we

talked

about he idea

of

using

a

run

or

fill a

couple

of times o allow t

to sink

n

to

the

istener's

rain,

and

thenby

using t again,

ut changingt slightly

or taking

it in

a

new

direction

the

listener

has

both familiarity

and variety

in the

same arrangement.

f

you

take

a

look at the

arrangement

f

"The

Crawdad

Song"

that

I've

presented

bove,

ou'll

notice hat

use he exact

same il l l ick

in measures,6,

10,and 14,

however,n

measure

I resolve

o a D

note

n

a C chord; n measure

6I resolve

o a

G note and

a chord change

o

G; in

measure

0

I resolve

o an F

note and

a chord

change

to

F;

and

then n measure

14

I

play

the lick

over

a G

C

Audio

Track 2-2

chord,

play

the B note nstead

of the E

note

on the

as

beat, esolve

o a

C

note,and change o the

C

chord

So,although

use he ick 4 t imes n

a

l6 bar

solo,I'm

moving

in

a different direction each

time and

thus i

provides

both familiarity

and

variety

to the listener'

ear

and

(I

hope)

doesn'tsound

monotonous.

On the next

page

have

provided

another

solo

for

"The

Crawdad

Song."

This

one

moves farther

awa

from

the

melody

than

the arrangementabove. Both

of

thesesolos

are taken

rom a recording

of this son

that Brad Davis

and I made for

the

FGM

Record

project

called

Docfest. The

solo

that

appears

abov

we'll go-down

to

the

crawdad hole oh Hon

cy,

oh

Ba

bv- m inc. -

l6u_ ge t

Flatpicking

Essentials


To Solo, Carter

Style

and

Beyond

9



The

Crawdod Eong

2

Audio

Track

2-28

is

the

first

solo of the recording. The rule of thumb

when arrangingvarious

solos

n

the

same ecording

or

performance

f

a

song s that

the first instrument hat

takes soloshould

tay lose

o themelody

of

thesong,

but then

subsequent olos an

move

a

ittle fartheraway

since hat irst solo,and he

vocalist, as

setup a strong

sense

f the

melody

n the

listener's

ear.

I started

off

this solowith a long ick in C. The ick in measures

and3

waspresented

ew

pages

goas

C

Lick 5.

From

there I kept the arrangement

ather

sparse. I have

a

cool ittle

syncopated

ick in

measure

a

neighboring

note

ick in

measure

0, an

outline

of the

F arpeggio

in measure l, and hen

a

little

C

run at

the

end.

Even

though

strayedaway rom

playing

he exact

melody,

I think I kept

enoughof

it

in

tact

so that

the song is

recognizable.

On the next

page

've provided wo

variations

f

"Nine

Pound Hammer." In the

first I've used

a

few

licks,

but

otherwise 've kept

it

very

sparse.

In the

second

rrangement

've

thrown

n some rosspickin

a double stop,a

bend,

and

a

popular

D moving

to G

ending

phrase.

We

will

discuss

ends

n more

deta

later

n

the course.

To execute

his bendsimply

plac

your finger on the string and push t upwardalong he

fret

ust

atler

you pluck

he string.

I

end this section

with

two

famous

Carter

Family

tunes,

Storms

Are On the Ocean"

and

"Old

Spinnin

Wheel." With

"Storms

Are

On the

Ocean"

keep t

plain

and simple,mostly

employing

he use

of

doubl

stops

and crosspicking, ut

you' l l also ind

a coupl

dronesandsome remolo . With

"Old

Spinning

Wheel

I

get

a little more adventurous

y trying to

throw

a ittle

bit of

everything

n there.

96

Flatpicking Essentials Volume 2: Learning How To

Solo,

Carter Style

and Beyond



Nlne

Pound

Hammer I

Audio

Track

2-29

Audio

Track2-29

Nlne

Pound

Heimtne?

2

9

Flatpicking


How To

Solo,

Carter

Style

and

Beyond





Sforms

Are

On

The

Oceein

(contf)

I -

9

Flatpicking

Essentials

Volume

2: Learning

How To

Solo,

Carter

Style and Beyond



Old

Splnnlng

Wheel

Audio

Track 2-31

Flatpicking

Essentials

Volume 2: Learning

How To

Solo,

Carter Style

and Beyond





Flddle

lbnes

Fiddle

unes,

ndother nstrumental

unes, re

going

o

consume

ur

attention n the next volume

of

this series,

however,

wanted

o

give you

a

brief

ntroduction

ere

just

to demonstrate

hat

you

can still use

he Carterstyle

technique

n

your

fiddle

une

playing.

In fact,

all of the

steps

hat

you

have

used n

this

volume

o come

up

with

solos o vocal

unes an alsobe

applied

o

fiddle

unes.

Let's

take a look

at the song

"Arkansas

Traveler."

Like

many

fiddle tunes

that are

typically

played

as

instrumental

umbers,

Arkansas

Traveler"

does

have

words.

If

you

are

earning

a fiddle

une suggest

hat

you

search he internet

o find

out if there

are

words

to

the song,

knowing

the

words

will

help solidify

the

melody

n your

head. On

the

next page

've presented

the words

and

melody or

"Arkansas

Traveler."

The first

thing

you

may notice

s

that this melody

is more "dense" than the melodies hat we have been

working

with

so

far.

That is why

it makes

a

great

instrumental

une

on the fiddle.

However, f

you

will

work

through

he

"simplify

the melody"

step,

you

will

see

hat

you

can

create

enoughholes n

this melody

to

make

a nice

Carter style arrangement.

See he

Carter

style

arrangement

hat I

came

up with

on the

page

hat

follows

the melody

page.

You can

see hat I've

taken

out a lot

of the

melody notes n

order

to createspace

to

play

the

strums

and combine

them with quarter

notes,

owever,

f

you'll

play

through

he

Carterstyle

arrangement

think

you

will

easily recognize

the

melodv

of

"Arkansas

Traveler."

As

I mentioned

previously,

he

"learn

the melody"

and

"simplify

the melody" steps

an be very

helpful

in

manyways

andone

of

themhas

o

do with

am

sessio

tempo. If

you

have

earneda fancy arrangement

f a

tune that

you

can

play

in the

privacy

of

your

home

at

120

bpm

and

you

find

yourself

n a

jam

and

the

firs

person

kicks

of the

tune at

240

bp-,

you

are

not

going

to be able

to

play

the

fancy version

you

memorized

However,

f

you

have

earnedhemelody,

and

simplified

melody,

you

should

be

able

o handle he higher empos

without

rouble.

On the

page

hat

ollows the

Carter

style

arrangemen

of

"Arkansas

Traveler" 've

provided

a

more

single

note

style

solo. I start off

using a few

Carter

style

strums,

but them move

on to the singlenote stuff

tha

is more

indicative

of

fiddle

tune

guitar playing.

See

how fast you can play that arrangement, r one like

it that

you

may

alreadyknow, versus

he

Carter

style

arrangement.

think

that

you'll

agree

hat

t would

be

much easier

o

pull

of the

Carter

style

arrangement

very

high

empos.Plus, f

the empo

s

fast,

he

simple

arrangement ill

still sound ull

because

he

notes

will

be

coming

out so rapidly.

After

"Arkansas

Traveler"

leave

you

with a

simple

arrangement

f

"Red

Wing"

that

makes

use

of

double

stops n

the A

part

and

Carter

style

strumming

n

the

B

part.

Work

a bit with

"Arkansas

Traveler"

and

"Red

Wing,"

then see f

you

can apply all

of the

steps

ha

you

have

earned n

this

volume

o a few fiddle

tune

that

you

may already

now. Then

you

will be

ready

o

tackle

Volume

3

r02

Flatpicking

Essentials

Volume

2:

Learning

How

To

Solo,

Carter

Style

and

Beyond



Ar{<anser

Treivelen

Melody

Audio

Track2-32

door

And

L.]

LJ

C

f id

-

dler

wat-er-fall,

Flatpicking Essentials Volume

2: Learning How

To

Solo,

Carter

Style

and

Beyond

L-,J t-.]



Arlronsos

Trcrvele;z

Colftet

Etyle

Am

Audio

Track2-32

r04

Flatpicking

Essentials

Volume 2: Learning

How To

Solo,

Carter

Style

and Beyond



Ar{ronscrs Trclvele;

Audio

Track 2-33

t-J

C

Flatpicking

Essentials

Volume 2: Learning How To Solo, Carter

S4tle

and

Beyond

1



Red

Wlng

Audio

Track 2-34

maid

bold

sh y

sh y

maid-

Who

sang a

-

way,

old

But

brave and

gay

love song-gay

rode a way

she

whiled

away he

day

She

And now

bri-eht on

The breez-es

are

ty

Red-

Flatpicking

Essentials

Volume

2: Learning

How To

Solo, Carter

Style

and

Beyond



R.ed

Wlng

(con'f)

Flatpicking

Essentials

Volume 2: Learning

How To


Beyond

1



looklng Fotwatd

If

you

have

worked

to learn all of the tunes hat I

have

provided

n

this

book

you

now have

35

new

unes.

lf

you

havedone

as

have

suggested

nd ried o apply

the

steps

nd

echniques

ou

earned ere

o

some

of the

tunes

hat

I

have

not

presented,

hen

you

are

building

yourselfquite

a

good

repertoire,

nd

we

are

only on

Volume

2

By

the

time

you

finish

will Volume

3

you

will

probably

have

75 or 80 tunesunder

your

belt, and

if

you

worked

he

course

s have

suggested,

ou

will

havedeveloped

our

own arrangementsor

all of these

tunes Whenever

ou

develop

our

own arrangements,

instead

of memorizingsomeone lse'sarrangements,

you'll

find

that

those unes

stick

with

you

longer,

ou

are able

o create

variations

asier,

nd

you

are able

o

improvise

better. When the arrangement omes rom

your heart

and

your gut,

nsteadof a

printedpage

or a

video,you are alwaysable o put more of yourself n

the

solo

and

t

alwayshasmore eeling

andemotion.

There

are

studentswho

try

to copy Tony Rice

or

Clarence

White

or

Doc Watson,

but they never sound

exactly ike those

players.

When

you

copy or mimic

other

people,

there

is

always something

missing

because

he

solo

s not an expression

f

you.

The

solo

is

an expression f

you

trying

to copy someone lse'

expressionf

who

hey

are,

so

here

s always

omethin

lacking. It

is

great

o

learn

rom

everyone hat

you

can

but hen

move

away

rom

it.

If a ittle

piece

of

what you

learn

rom

those

other

players

comes

out

hereand here

in

your

playing,

hat

s

OK.

However, f you work

to

combineeverything

ou

learn rom all of

your

musica

influencesn

a

way

that s

new

and unique o

you,

hen

the result s

much more

soulful

and

the

audience

s

always

going

to feel that and

respond.

I know

that 've beat

his

horse

o

death

n this book

but

please

ake time to

come

up

with

your

own

way

of

playing

all

of

these

songs. If

you

start

with

the

chords

and melody and

then

move through the step

and

echniques

hat

I've

outlined n

this

book,

I

think

you

can

have great

success reating

your

own

way

of

playingall of these unes,andany other une hat you

may want

o

learn.

As

always,

f

you

have

any

questions

boutany

of the

material

hat s

presented

ere, eel

free to

email

me

at

[email protected].

lease

ut

"Flatpicking

Essential

in

thesubjectine so will be able

o

identifyyour

emai

in

my in-basket.

' l l

see

ou

n Volume3

Documents

Flatpicking Essentials Vol2