Mastering Bluegrass Flatpicking

Genre and Style Guitar Course from Tyler Grant

Want to take your Bluegrass Flatpicking style to the next level? This series complements Tyler’s Bluegrass Flatpicking Method series on JamPlay. Tune-up your guitar, grab your pick and let’s move forward with your Bluegrass Flatpicking.

30 Lessons

Complete course with step-by-step lessons and practice examples.

Multi-Camera

Course filmed with 6 cameras for the perfect angles.

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Tabs & Info

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Included

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Full Course Breakdown

Bluegrass music is thriving today thanks to young Flatpicking Guitarists like Billy Strings, Molly Tuttle and Bryan Sutton, building on the foundation of legends such as Doc Watson, Clarence White, Dan Crary and Tony Rice. Bluegrass players love to jam, and there are jams of all levels in every town in the US and many other countries. The influence of this music is widespread in folk culture and mainstream media. From the simplest fiddle tunes to the flashiest breaks, this style is nothing but fun.

1

Series Introduction

Tyler gives you a rundown of what you can expect in this advanced bluegrass course.

4:02 Runtime

0.0 Difficulty

2

C Major Scale Workout & Tricks

The C major scale is a staple of Bluegrass music. Lean the scale in and out with the exercizes and tricks that Tyler teaches you in this course.

45:23 Runtime

2.5 Difficulty

3

C Major Songs And Tunes by Ear

Bluegrass is a folk tradition, meaning songs usually get passed on by ear. In this lesson, Tyler teaches you methods to learn songs and recognize chords by ear.

29:03 Runtime

2.5 Difficulty

4

“Unclouded Day” in the Melody/Strum Style of Maybelle Carter

Further your bluegrass vocabulary by learning this classic C Major song in the style of Maybelle Carter.

31:17 Runtime

2.5 Difficulty

5

Intro to Crosspicking

Crosspicking is an advanced, harp like style of playing that is key to developing a well-rounded bluegrass style. Tyler takes you deep in to crosspicking with several exercises aimed at building your chops.

44:49 Runtime

2.5 Difficulty

6

Crosspicking “Unclouded Day”

Climb higher in your crosspicking journey with this song in the style of George Shuffler of the Stanley Brothers. Tyler will show you multiple examples with lots of cross picking challenges take you further.

33:48 Runtime

2.5 Difficulty

7

“John Henry” in the Flatpicking Style of Don Reno

As our last C major lesson we have a classic song that you might recognize, with a nod to the great Don Reno.

29:47 Runtime

2.5 Difficulty

View this Lesson
8

G Major Scale Workout & Tricks

Now we're going to move on to G major scales and exercises. Tyler has a bunch of great G major workouts for you to tackle next in your bluegrass journey.

50:28 Runtime

2.5 Difficulty

9

Wreck Of The Old 97 - Melody/Strum & Crosspicking

Let's take apart this classic G major song and study it's melody, then try it in the crosspicking style we learned earlier.

50:35 Runtime

2.5 Difficulty

10

Guitar Break - Wreck Of the Old 97 - Style of Doc Watson

Now that we have this one under our fingers, let's modify it to play in the style of the great Doc Watson.

25:00 Runtime

2.5 Difficulty

11

Paddy On The Turnpike - style of Clarence White

Here is another jaunty tune to round out our focus on the key of G. Don't forget the tag at the end!

58:23 Runtime

2.5 Difficulty

12

D Major Scale Workout & Tricks

Let's start working on the key of D, with another bunch of exercises to practice scales and tricks.

42:24 Runtime

2.5 Difficulty

13

Old Folks At Home - Melody/Strum & Crosspicking

Sometimes called "Swanee River," this song is a great way to work on our D major chops. Let's start by learning the melody strum and crosspicking arrangements.

59:05 Runtime

2.5 Difficulty

14

Guitar Break - Old Folks At Home - Style of Tony Rice

Now let's take this song further by trying a D Major guitar break in the style of the master guitar picker Tony Rice.

22:03 Runtime

2.5 Difficulty

15

Chinquapin Hunting - style of Dan Crary

Tyler gives you one last D major song to work out in this lesson. Take it for a ride in the lead sheet then try it out in the style of Dan Crary.

53:02 Runtime

2.5 Difficulty

16

A Major Scale Workout & Tricks

Look out! Here comes A major to challenge your fingers. Tyler takes you through a challenging series of exercises in this key to get you going.

42:48 Runtime

2.5 Difficulty

17

Don’t Let The Deal Go Down

Here is another classic bluegrass tune to test your skills, this time the deal is going down in A. Let's get to it.

29:54 Runtime

2.5 Difficulty

18

Guitar Break - Don’t Let The Deal Go Down - Style of Tyler Grant

Digging deeper in to the deal! Here Tyler is going to show you a guitar break that will push your further in your A key journey.

19:52 Runtime

2.5 Difficulty

19

Fire On The Mountain - Style of Norman Blake

For our last A major tune, we're going to light a fire! Try this one out in the styl of the great Norman Blake.

45:08 Runtime

2.5 Difficulty

20

Good Morning Mister Railroad Man

Often bluegrassers will capo their guitar up to fret 4 and play in the key of E as if it were C. Let's work on that now with another classic song.

50:57 Runtime

2.5 Difficulty

21

Guitar Break - Good Morning Mister Railroad Man - Style of Tyler Grant

As with prevous tunes, we are now going to take "Railroad Man" and work it up in to a guitar break. This time Tyler is going to show you how he would do it. Again, this is playing C at capo position 4.

35:56 Runtime

2.5 Difficulty

22

Fisher’s Hornpipe

Here is another tune capo'd up to E, the jaunty Fisher's hornpipe!

32:40 Runtime

2.5 Difficulty

23

Cross-String Exercises (Floaties)

Let's work some more on your cross string chops! Go ahead and give these floaties a try!

29:29 Runtime

3.0 Difficulty

24

St. Anne’s Reel - Cross-String Arrangement

Now we're going to really put those harp-like floaties to use in the cross-string arrangement of "St. Anne's Reel."

71:02 Runtime

3.0 Difficulty

25

Licks & Useful Vocabulary - Key of C

C is a very common bluegrass key and shape, so we will spend some additional time becoming familiar with some of the tricks and relationships inherent in this scale.

16:01 Runtime

2.5 Difficulty

26

Blues in C - Guitar Solo

Blues is also an important part of guitar vocabulary. For this lesson we will focus on Blues stylings in the context of Bluegrass, using a guitar solo in C as our template.

31:45 Runtime

2.5 Difficulty

27

Take This Hammer (G position, capo 4)

Now we're going to try capoing up to position 4 to play in the key of B as if it were the key of G. We will use the classic song "Take This Hammer" to work this up.

24:51 Runtime

0.0 Difficulty

28

Guitar Break - Take This Hammer - style of Dan Tyminski

Now Tyler is going to channel Dan Tyminski in exploring "Take This Hammer" even further. This time with a flashy guitar break.

22:10 Runtime

3.0 Difficulty

29

Speed Training - Old Joe Clark

Speed is key in the style of bluegrass. Tyler is going to use this classic song to teach you about ramping up your speed chops, and he will introduce you to his personal speed-building technique, velocitation.

34:46 Runtime

3.5 Difficulty

30

Pick It - Style of Tyler Grant

For our last lesson, Tyler is going to show you one of his tunes. Can you play it as fast as Tyler?

15:18 Runtime

3.5 Difficulty

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  • Fort Collins, CO
  • Playing since 1980
  • 461 lessons at JamPlay


Reviews & Feedback 94/100 with 98 ratings
green dolphin

A great piece of music explained in depth. I want to learn this!

Odile

Great lesson! Great teacher!

skiplee7

Great Teacher

SeasideJimmy

I like the purchase option on the lessons rather than a subscription. I like Tyler's teaching style. Very clear and concise. I would love a course on Tony Rice alone. I am partial to the Bluesy Bluegrass Style. I would also very much love to

mottministries

love this lesson on ear training

brianblaser

Many reps make u the best

bosharbuilders

Tyler is a very good teacher. He stays on the level that YOU are on. And he doesn't try to bring you up to his level, he comes down to yours.

PJ-Pete

Tyler is the Maestro!