Post on 26-Feb-2018
7/25/2019 Flatpicking Essentials Vol2
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/flatpicking-essentials-vol2 1/113tan6d
I
p
ppa
-00H
r
B
7/25/2019 Flatpicking Essentials Vol2
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/flatpicking-essentials-vol2 2/113
Uolunrcr
ksrrMUHMTo$sbr
6td[erWgmrd|Bew
Wrlflen
y
FlstricHng
ultar
ryszine
Edltor
Dmillller
7/25/2019 Flatpicking Essentials Vol2
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/flatpicking-essentials-vol2 3/113
Teible
of
Conlenls
lnlroduct?on
Arrcnglng
Solos
for Voccl
ltrnes
(Ovendew)
Sfep One:
Selecf o Song
Slep
ltno: Flnd lhe Chords
Sfep Three Flnd lhe ftlelody ('ryou Ate ftly Sunshlne" Examples)
9fep
Four: Boslc Cartet Style
Sfep
Ffue
Slmpllfy
lhe
tlelody
('"You
Are ftly
Sunshlne"
Exomples)
Pso,ct?cing the
9feps;
"Wlll
The
Clrcle
Be Unbrokcn"
"Shetll
Be
Comlng
Around
lhe tlounfeilntt
lmprovlsoflon
"Nlne
Pound Hcmmcrtt
"Jesse
Jcrtnestt
"Red
Rfuer
Volleytt
"Old Joe Clorktt
Wgrllz Tlme
"Down
7n 4/r,e
olleytt
"Atnazlng
Grocett
Ptactice wlflr
Colfter
g$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
7/25/2019 Flatpicking Essentials Vol2
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/flatpicking-essentials-vol2 4/113
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
7/25/2019 Flatpicking Essentials Vol2
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/flatpicking-essentials-vol2 5/113
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
7/25/2019 Flatpicking Essentials Vol2
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/flatpicking-essentials-vol2 6/113
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
7/25/2019 Flatpicking Essentials Vol2
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/flatpicking-essentials-vol2 7/113
7/25/2019 Flatpicking Essentials Vol2
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/flatpicking-essentials-vol2 8/113
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
7/25/2019 Flatpicking Essentials Vol2
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/flatpicking-essentials-vol2 9/113
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
7/25/2019 Flatpicking Essentials Vol2
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/flatpicking-essentials-vol2 10/113
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
Flatpicking Essentials
Volume 2: Learning How To
Solo,
Carter
Style
and Beyond
7/25/2019 Flatpicking Essentials Vol2
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/flatpicking-essentials-vol2 11/113
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
7/25/2019 Flatpicking Essentials Vol2
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/flatpicking-essentials-vol2 12/113
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
7/25/2019 Flatpicking Essentials Vol2
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/flatpicking-essentials-vol2 13/113
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
7/25/2019 Flatpicking Essentials Vol2
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/flatpicking-essentials-vol2 14/113
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
Flatpicking Essentials
Volume
2: Learning
How To
Solo, Carter
Style
and Beyond
ChordLadder
for
Key
of
C
i i
or IV
ChordLadder
v
orbvu
AmorG
DmorF
7/25/2019 Flatpicking Essentials Vol2
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/flatpicking-essentials-vol2 15/113
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
7/25/2019 Flatpicking Essentials Vol2
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/flatpicking-essentials-vol2 16/113
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
7/25/2019 Flatpicking Essentials Vol2
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/flatpicking-essentials-vol2 17/113
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
Solo, Carter Style and
Beyond
7/25/2019 Flatpicking Essentials Vol2
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/flatpicking-essentials-vol2 18/113
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
7/25/2019 Flatpicking Essentials Vol2
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/flatpicking-essentials-vol2 19/113
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
7/25/2019 Flatpicking Essentials Vol2
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/flatpicking-essentials-vol2 20/113
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
7/25/2019 Flatpicking Essentials Vol2
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/flatpicking-essentials-vol2 21/113
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
7/25/2019 Flatpicking Essentials Vol2
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/flatpicking-essentials-vol2 22/113
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
7/25/2019 Flatpicking Essentials Vol2
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/flatpicking-essentials-vol2 23/113
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
Solo, Carter Style and
Beyond
7/25/2019 Flatpicking Essentials Vol2
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/flatpicking-essentials-vol2 24/113
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
7/25/2019 Flatpicking Essentials Vol2
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/flatpicking-essentials-vol2 25/113
7/25/2019 Flatpicking Essentials Vol2
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/flatpicking-essentials-vol2 26/113
7/25/2019 Flatpicking Essentials Vol2
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/flatpicking-essentials-vol2 27/113
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
7/25/2019 Flatpicking Essentials Vol2
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/flatpicking-essentials-vol2 28/113
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
7/25/2019 Flatpicking Essentials Vol2
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/flatpicking-essentials-vol2 29/113
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
7/25/2019 Flatpicking Essentials Vol2
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/flatpicking-essentials-vol2 30/113
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
Volume 2: Learning How To
Solo,
Carter
Style and Beyond
7/25/2019 Flatpicking Essentials Vol2
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/flatpicking-essentials-vol2 31/113
the'll
Be
Comlng Around the tlounfeiln:
Colttec $tyle
Audio Track
1-13
26
Flatpicking Essentials
Volume
2: Learning How To
Solo,
Carter
Style and
Beyond
7/25/2019 Flatpicking Essentials Vol2
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/flatpicking-essentials-vol2 32/113
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
Flatpicking Essentials
Volume 2:
Learning How To
Solo,
Carter
Style
and
Beyond
7/25/2019 Flatpicking Essentials Vol2
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/flatpicking-essentials-vol2 33/113
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
Essentials Volume 2: Learning
How To
Solo,
Carter Style and
Beyond
7/25/2019 Flatpicking Essentials Vol2
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/flatpicking-essentials-vol2 34/113
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
7/25/2019 Flatpicking Essentials Vol2
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/flatpicking-essentials-vol2 35/113
Jesse
Jeimes:
tlelody
AudioTrack 1-1
Flatpicking
Essentials
Volume
2: Learning
How To
Solo,
Carter
Styte
and Beyond
7/25/2019 Flatpicking Essentials Vol2
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/flatpicking-essentials-vol2 36/113
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
7/25/2019 Flatpicking Essentials Vol2
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/flatpicking-essentials-vol2 37/113
Jesse
Jeimes:
Cglfte?
Style
(con
l,
Flatpicking
Essentials
Volume
2: Learning
How
To
Solo, Carter
Style and
Beyond
7/25/2019 Flatpicking Essentials Vol2
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/flatpicking-essentials-vol2 38/113
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,
7/25/2019 Flatpicking Essentials Vol2
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/flatpicking-essentials-vol2 39/113
Old Joe Clar{r:
tlelody
Audio
Track
1-17
34
Flatpicking Essentials
Volume
2:
Learning
How To
Solo,
Carter Style and
Beyond
7/25/2019 Flatpicking Essentials Vol2
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/flatpicking-essentials-vol2 40/113
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
7/25/2019 Flatpicking Essentials Vol2
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/flatpicking-essentials-vol2 41/113
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."
Flatpicking Essentials
Volume
2:
Learning How
To
Solo, Carter Style
and
Beyon
7/25/2019 Flatpicking Essentials Vol2
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/flatpicking-essentials-vol2 42/113
Wsltz Ererclse
I
Wlrltz Exerclse 2
Wolltz Llck
wlfh tr.irplets
l : l
Flatpicking Essentials
Volume 2: Learning How To
Solo,Carter
Style and
Beyond
Audio Track
1-18
r 1
q
t
7/25/2019 Flatpicking Essentials Vol2
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/flatpicking-essentials-vol2 43/113
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
7/25/2019 Flatpicking Essentials Vol2
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/flatpicking-essentials-vol2 44/113
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
Flatpicking Essentials
Volume 2: Learning
How
To Solo, Carter Style and
Beyond
7/25/2019 Flatpicking Essentials Vol2
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/flatpicking-essentials-vol2 45/113
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
7/25/2019 Flatpicking Essentials Vol2
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/flatpicking-essentials-vol2 46/113
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
7/25/2019 Flatpicking Essentials Vol2
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/flatpicking-essentials-vol2 47/113
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
Flatpicking Essentials
Volume 2:
Learning How To
Solo,
Carter
Style
and
Beyond
7/25/2019 Flatpicking Essentials Vol2
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/flatpicking-essentials-vol2 48/113
7/25/2019 Flatpicking Essentials Vol2
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/flatpicking-essentials-vol2 49/113
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
7/25/2019 Flatpicking Essentials Vol2
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/flatpicking-essentials-vol2 50/113
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
7/25/2019 Flatpicking Essentials Vol2
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/flatpicking-essentials-vol2 51/113
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
7/25/2019 Flatpicking Essentials Vol2
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/flatpicking-essentials-vol2 52/113
Uncloudy
Doy:
Csftet
ghyle
(con't,
day,
cloud
-
ed
4
Flatpicking
Essentials Volume 2: Learning
How To
Solo,
Carter
Style
and Beyon.d
7/25/2019 Flatpicking Essentials Vol2
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/flatpicking-essentials-vol2 53/113
Home
9weef Hofnet
Cqtter
ttyle
Audio TFack 1-25
Which seek
48
Flatpicking
Essentials
Volume 2: Learning
How To
Solo,
Carter
Style
and Beyond
7/25/2019 Flatpicking Essentials Vol2
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/flatpicking-essentials-vol2 54/113
Home
gweef
Homes
Csfter
Stvae
con'0,
4
Flatpicking
Essentials
Volume 2: Learning
How To
Solo, Carter
Style and Beyond
7/25/2019 Flatpicking Essentials Vol2
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/flatpicking-essentials-vol2 55/113
7/25/2019 Flatpicking Essentials Vol2
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/flatpicking-essentials-vol2 56/113
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
Volume 2: Learning How To
Solo,
Carter
Style
and Beyond
be the death ol
me-
7/25/2019 Flatpicking Essentials Vol2
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/flatpicking-essentials-vol2 57/113
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
7/25/2019 Flatpicking Essentials Vol2
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/flatpicking-essentials-vol2 58/113
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
7/25/2019 Flatpicking Essentials Vol2
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/flatpicking-essentials-vol2 59/113
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
7/25/2019 Flatpicking Essentials Vol2
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/flatpicking-essentials-vol2 60/113
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
Flatpicking Essentials
Volume
2:
Learning
Hou,
To
Solo,
Carter
Style
and, Beyond,
7/25/2019 Flatpicking Essentials Vol2
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/flatpicking-essentials-vol2 61/113
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
7/25/2019 Flatpicking Essentials Vol2
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/flatpicking-essentials-vol2 62/113
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
7/25/2019 Flatpicking Essentials Vol2
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/flatpicking-essentials-vol2 63/113
Keep
On
The
Sunny
9lde Colrtet
Etyle
Audio Track l-34
bright,-
Flatpicking
Essentials
Volume
2:
Learning
How To
Solo,
Carter Style
and
Beyond
7/25/2019 Flatpicking Essentials Vol2
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/flatpicking-essentials-vol2 64/113
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
7/25/2019 Flatpicking Essentials Vol2
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/flatpicking-essentials-vol2 65/113
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
7/25/2019 Flatpicking Essentials Vol2
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/flatpicking-essentials-vol2 66/113
7/25/2019 Flatpicking Essentials Vol2
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/flatpicking-essentials-vol2 67/113
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
7/25/2019 Flatpicking Essentials Vol2
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/flatpicking-essentials-vol2 68/113
Tremolo Exerclse
LJ I-] L.J L]
LJ
LJ
I.] t.J
9
/ \ / \
/ \ a \
/ \
/ \ / \ z \
/\ /\ /\ /\ z \ ^ \ / \ a \
Flatpicking
Essentials Volume 2: Learning How To
Solo, Carter Style and
Beyond
7/25/2019 Flatpicking Essentials Vol2
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/flatpicking-essentials-vol2 69/113
You
Are My
Sunshlne Slmple
Tremolo
Style
Verslon
Audio Track
2-02
64
Flatpicking Essentials
Volume
2:
Learning How
To
Solo,
Carter Style and
Beyon
7/25/2019 Flatpicking Essentials Vol2
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/flatpicking-essentials-vol2 70/113
7/25/2019 Flatpicking Essentials Vol2
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/flatpicking-essentials-vol2 71/113
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
7/25/2019 Flatpicking Essentials Vol2
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/flatpicking-essentials-vol2 72/113
You
Are
ftly
gunshlne
Splced-Upftemolo
Verslon
Audio Track
2-05
6
Flatpicking
Essentials Volume 2: Learning How To
Solo, Carter
Style
and Beyond
7/25/2019 Flatpicking Essentials Vol2
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/flatpicking-essentials-vol2 73/113
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
7/25/2019 Flatpicking Essentials Vol2
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/flatpicking-essentials-vol2 74/113
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
7/25/2019 Flatpicking Essentials Vol2
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/flatpicking-essentials-vol2 75/113
7/25/2019 Flatpicking Essentials Vol2
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/flatpicking-essentials-vol2 76/113
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
7/25/2019 Flatpicking Essentials Vol2
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/flatpicking-essentials-vol2 77/113
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
7/25/2019 Flatpicking Essentials Vol2
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/flatpicking-essentials-vol2 78/113
7/25/2019 Flatpicking Essentials Vol2
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/flatpicking-essentials-vol2 79/113
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
7/25/2019 Flatpicking Essentials Vol2
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/flatpicking-essentials-vol2 80/113
$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
7/25/2019 Flatpicking Essentials Vol2
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/flatpicking-essentials-vol2 81/113
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
7/25/2019 Flatpicking Essentials Vol2
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/flatpicking-essentials-vol2 82/113
7/25/2019 Flatpicking Essentials Vol2
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/flatpicking-essentials-vol2 83/113
Bonks
oi
the
Ohlo: Crossplcklng
Audio
Track 2-16
78
Flatpicking
Essentials Volume
2: Learning
How
To
Solo,
Carter
Style
and
Beyond
7/25/2019 Flatpicking Essentials Vol2
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/flatpicking-essentials-vol2 84/113
Wlldwood
Flower:
Crossplcklng
Audio TFack 2-17
7
Flatpicking
Essentials
Volume
2: Learning How To
Solo,
Carter
Style
and
Beyond
7/25/2019 Flatpicking Essentials Vol2
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/flatpicking-essentials-vol2 85/113
Home
Sweef
Horne
Crossplcklng
Audio Track 2-18
Flatpicking
Essentials
Volume 2:
Learning How To
Solo,
Carter
Style
and
Beyon
7/25/2019 Flatpicking Essentials Vol2
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/flatpicking-essentials-vol2 86/113
7/25/2019 Flatpicking Essentials Vol2
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/flatpicking-essentials-vol2 87/113
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
7/25/2019 Flatpicking Essentials Vol2
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/flatpicking-essentials-vol2 88/113
7/25/2019 Flatpicking Essentials Vol2
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/flatpicking-essentials-vol2 89/113
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
Flatpicking Essentials
Volume
2: Learning How To
Solo, Carter Style
and Beyond
7/25/2019 Flatpicking Essentials Vol2
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/flatpicking-essentials-vol2 90/113
"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
7/25/2019 Flatpicking Essentials Vol2
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/flatpicking-essentials-vol2 91/113
7/25/2019 Flatpicking Essentials Vol2
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/flatpicking-essentials-vol2 92/113
7/25/2019 Flatpicking Essentials Vol2
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/flatpicking-essentials-vol2 93/113
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
7/25/2019 Flatpicking Essentials Vol2
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/flatpicking-essentials-vol2 94/113
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
Essentials Volume 2: Learning How To
Solo, Carter Style and
Beyond
7/25/2019 Flatpicking Essentials Vol2
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/flatpicking-essentials-vol2 95/113
You
Are ftly
Sunshlne Slmple
Embelllshmenfs
ln
C
Audio TFack 2-25
90
Flatpicking Essentials
Volume 2:
Learning How To
Solo, Carter Style and
Beyond
7/25/2019 Flatpicking Essentials Vol2
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/flatpicking-essentials-vol2 96/113
You
Are My
Sunshlne
Anolhet Veidclllon
ln
C
Audio T)ack2-25
9
Flatpicking
Essentials
Volume 2: Learning How
To
Solo, Carter
Style and Beyond
7/25/2019 Flatpicking Essentials Vol2
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/flatpicking-essentials-vol2 97/113
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
7/25/2019 Flatpicking Essentials Vol2
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/flatpicking-essentials-vol2 98/113
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
7/25/2019 Flatpicking Essentials Vol2
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/flatpicking-essentials-vol2 99/113
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
Volume 2: Learning How To
Solo,
Carter Style
and
Beyon
7/25/2019 Flatpicking Essentials Vol2
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/flatpicking-essentials-vol2 100/113
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
Volume 2: Learning How
To Solo, Carter
Style
and
Beyond
9
7/25/2019 Flatpicking Essentials Vol2
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/flatpicking-essentials-vol2 101/113
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
7/25/2019 Flatpicking Essentials Vol2
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/flatpicking-essentials-vol2 102/113
Nlne
Pound
Hammer I
Audio
Track
2-29
Audio
Track2-29
Nlne
Pound
Heimtne?
2
9
Flatpicking
Essentials Volume 2: Learning
How To
Solo,
Carter
Style
and
Beyond
7/25/2019 Flatpicking Essentials Vol2
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/flatpicking-essentials-vol2 103/113
7/25/2019 Flatpicking Essentials Vol2
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/flatpicking-essentials-vol2 104/113
Sforms
Are
On
The
Oceein
(contf)
I -
9
Flatpicking
Essentials
Volume
2: Learning
How To
Solo,
Carter
Style and Beyond
7/25/2019 Flatpicking Essentials Vol2
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/flatpicking-essentials-vol2 105/113
Old
Splnnlng
Wheel
Audio
Track 2-31
Flatpicking
Essentials
Volume 2: Learning
How To
Solo,
Carter Style
and Beyond
7/25/2019 Flatpicking Essentials Vol2
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/flatpicking-essentials-vol2 106/113
7/25/2019 Flatpicking Essentials Vol2
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/flatpicking-essentials-vol2 107/113
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
7/25/2019 Flatpicking Essentials Vol2
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/flatpicking-essentials-vol2 108/113
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-.]
7/25/2019 Flatpicking Essentials Vol2
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/flatpicking-essentials-vol2 109/113
Arlronsos
Trcrvele;z
Colftet
Etyle
Am
Audio
Track2-32
r04
Flatpicking
Essentials
Volume 2: Learning
How To
Solo,
Carter
Style
and Beyond
7/25/2019 Flatpicking Essentials Vol2
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/flatpicking-essentials-vol2 110/113
Ar{ronscrs Trclvele;
Audio
Track 2-33
t-J
C
Flatpicking
Essentials
Volume 2: Learning How To Solo, Carter
S4tle
and
Beyond
1
7/25/2019 Flatpicking Essentials Vol2
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/flatpicking-essentials-vol2 111/113
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
7/25/2019 Flatpicking Essentials Vol2
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/flatpicking-essentials-vol2 112/113
R.ed
Wlng
(con'f)
Flatpicking
Essentials
Volume 2: Learning
How To
Solo, Carter Style and
Beyond
1
7/25/2019 Flatpicking Essentials Vol2
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/flatpicking-essentials-vol2 113/113
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
me
at
dan@flatpick.com.
lease
ut
"Flatpicking
Essential
in
thesubjectine so will be able
o
identifyyour
emai
in
my in-basket.
' l l
see
ou
n Volume3