MelBay's Complete Bluegrass Banjo Method

One of the very best G tuning five-string bluegrass banjo methods available! The book teaches how to pick out tunes single-string style (one note at a time), how to play chord accompaniment, and how to play solos in the full three-finger, bluegrass style. Topics include note and tab reading, chord background styles, traditional bluegrass techniques, fills and endings, use of the capo, rolls, slides, hammers, pull-offs, choking, harmonics, and up-the-neck playing. In notation and tablature. The audio includes acoustic bass, acoustic guitar, and a rhythm track as well as the 5-string banjo. All songs and most exercises are included in this teaching recording, performed at a tempo that the student should be able to maintain in short order. Includes access to online audio.

Part One

About Part One

The Author

Left-Hand Position

Right-Hand Position and Fingering

The Picks

The Quickest Way to Learn

Music-Reading Section

The Rudiments of Music

Other Musical Signs and Terms

Tuning the Banjo

Reading Tablature

Time Values of Notes and Rests

The Time Signature

Counting Time in Tablature

Counting Time

Playing Songs on the First, Second, and Fifth Strings

Bile 'Dem Cabbage Down

Merrily We Pick Along

Shoo Fly

Skip To My Lou

Playing a Song on the Second and Third Strings

French Song

Cripple Creek

Old MacDonald

I Wish I Was Single Again

Chord Background

The Chord Symbol

The Basic Chords

Down and Up Strumming

Pinching the Chords

The Bugle-Call Pinch

Melody and Pinch Chords Together

Good-Night Ladies

Bile 'Em Cabbage Down

Chromatics

Key Signatures

Yankee Doodle

Down in the Valley

Clementine

Counting Review

3-Finger Picking Section

Counting Bluegrass Style

The Basic Rolls

Forward Rolls

Backward Rolls

Thumb-Alternating Rolls

Combination Rolls

Rolls on the D and D7 Chords

Daily Practice Patterns

Right-Hand Patterns

County Line 

Frog Pond

Haystack

Fiesta

Backing  Up

Moving On

Big Dipper

The Basic Banjo Picking Effects

Fills and Endings

The Capo

Solo Section

Bile 'Dem Cabbage Down

Cripple Creek

Old Dan Tucker

I've Got Peace Like a River

Old TIme Religion

Hand Me Down My Walking Cane

Careless Love

When the Saints Go Marcking In

Lean on Jesus

This Train

Banks of the Ohio

The Yellow Rose of Texas

Pickin' On the Old Banjo

Li'L Liza Jane

The Lonesome Road

Mama Don't 'Low

She'll Be Coming 'Round the Mountain

Worried Man Blues

Red River Valley

The Banjo and Its Parts

Part Two

Chart of Banjo Tunings

Foreword

Chord Studies

Playing in the Higher Positions

She'll Be Coming 'Round the Mountain

Mixing the Major Chord Forms

The I, IV, and V Chords

Little Brown Jug - Pinch Style

The I, IV, V, I Progression

Other Movable Chord Forms

The Dominant Seventh Chord

The Diminished Seventh Chord

The Augmented Seventh Chord

Right-Hand Chord Background patterns

Blues & Boogie Back-Up Section

Blues Rock Back-Up

5-String Boogie

Melodic Thirds and Sixths

Melodic Thirds and Sixths Mixed

Blues-Rock Chorus

"Melodic" or "Chromatic" Picking

Advanced Solo Song Section

Chord Diagrams for Solo Section

Circled Tab Numbers

The Choke

Chimes

Blue Mountain Train

Chime Time

Georgia Gallop

Pickin' Around

Wabash Cannonball

Bury Me Beneath the Willow

Wildwood Flower

Will the Circle Be Unbroken

Arkansas Traveler

Wreck of the Old 97

Nine Pound Hammer

Carry Me Back to Old Virginia

Banjo Blues

Bluegrass Joe

Mama Don't Low

Stockade Blues

Salty Dog

Catfish Creek

Grandfather's Clock

Frankie and Johnny

Careless Love

Bill Bailey

Hard and It's Hard

Old Time Religion

Bully Of the Town

Bicentennial Breakdown

John Henry

Lonedonberry Air

Under the Double Eagle

Nuegrass

St. Anne's Reel

Black Eyed Susie

John Hardy

Buffalo Gals

Endings