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LWM has helped hundreds of guitar players get started flatpicking. You’ve found your online destination for instructional videos, fiddle tune arrangements, transcriptions of your favorite breaks, educational blog posts, and one-on-one Skype lessons.
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Learning Billy Strings' Red Daisy guitar break in 20 minutes!
Transcribing Breaks From Billy Strings, Tony Rice, and Molly Tuttle!
Putting The Grass Into Blue Notes - Bluegrass Theory/Guitar Lesson
Learn some Billy Strings' Heartbeat Of America - Bluegrass Guitar Tabs
Improvise With The Melody, Not Against It - Bluegrass Guitar Improv Lesson
Instructional guitar videos come out weekly on the LWM YouTube channel. You’ll find walkthroughs of your favorite breaks, live transcriptions, interviews with top players, and the occasional vlog of bluegrass events.
Tabs are released weekly at the Tab Store. You’ll find transcriptions of artists you know, original arrangements of fiddle tunes, and transcriptions ordered by other fans. Oh, and most of them are free!
If you can’t find a guitar teacher in your area you can get Skype lessons through LWM! There is sometimes a waitlist to talk to Marcel but if that’s the case, LWM will help you get in touch with another teacher.
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Many fiddle tunes follow the same form. In addition to the popular AABB structure, almost every fiddle tune melody falls into a four phrase format: 2 bar question, 2 bar answer, repeat of the 2 bar question, and the final 2 bar statement (commonly referred to as the tag). This form can be seen in countless tunes such as “Old...
In part 2, we talked about using licks that followed the chords of the song instead of playing the melody. In part 3, we learn how to make adjustments to licks to help them to fit into the song better. WHAT IF IT DOESN’T FIT? You may find that your new favorite lick doesn’t fit where you want it to...
In part 1, we talked about how to add fill-in licks, either behind a vocalist, or between the phrases of the melody. In Part 2, we talk about how to replace part of the melody by using licks that match the chord of the song instead. “What song is this again?” Let’s face facts. Great bluegrass guitar players don’t always...
I’d like to show you some of the more creative ways to play major scale patterns. Every competent guitar player at some point learns scale patterns and uses them as building blocks for improvisation. There are literally countless scale patterns and countless ways to incorporate them into your playing. This lesson touches on playing all of the different interval possibilities...
In December of last year, Tony Rice passed away. He was/is my all-time favorite guitarist. Like many of his fans, my love of his playing has likely transcended obsession. In fact, at the time of writing this, I have transcribed over 100 Tony Rice solos. That puts me in a unique position to share with you not only my favorite...
This is a three-part series on how to use licks in bluegrass songs. Part one focuses on fill-in licks, and how they can be used to add energy and style to a melody. In part two, we abandon the melody altogether and learn how licks can be used instead when they follow the chord progression. Finally, in part three, we...
Have you ever been told to learn a song in every key? It’s often talked about but rarely done. Few things can improve your knowledge of the fretboard more than working out all your favorite licks and tunes in as many keys as you can. For this article I’ve taken a simple melody version of “Whiskey Before Breakfast” and arranged...
Sometimes when I play a slower song, a single-note melody can seem pretty sparse. Chord melodies are a great way to fill out a tune. Sometimes we bluegrassers might think of chord melody as a complex jazz guitar technique, but once you’ve learned the process, you’ll find that it’s not difficult to create rich-sounding chord melodies on bluegrass, country, and...
The Fiddle Tune Secret, Part One
Mickey Abraham November 22, 2021
Many fiddle tunes follow the same form. In addition to the popular AABB structure, almost every fiddle tune melody falls into a four phrase format: 2 bar question, 2 bar answer, repeat of the 2 bar question, and the final 2 bar statement (commonly referred to as the tag). This form can be seen in countless tunes such as “Old Joe Clark”, “Soldier’s Joy”, “Salt Creek”, and “Temperance Reel.” There is also an exact phrase length that seems to be favored. While there are endless rhythmic and melodic variations it is this phrase length that will enable you to hear, play, and improvise over fiddle tunes.
Using Licks in a Bluegrass Song, Part 3
Andy Hatfield August 9, 2021
In part 2, we talked about using licks that followed the chords of the song instead of playing the melody. In part 3, we learn how to make adjustments to licks to help them to fit into the song better.
WHAT IF IT DOESN’T FIT?
You may find that your new favorite lick doesn’t fit where you want it to go. It may be too short, too long, or doesn’t match the chord changes. Here are some adjustments you can make to get the most out of the licks you already know.
Using Licks In A Bluegrass Song, Part Two
Andy Hatfield May 3, 2021
In part 1, we talked about how to add fill-in licks, either behind a vocalist, or between the phrases of the melody. In Part 2, we talk about how to replace part of the melody by using licks that match the chord of the song instead.
“What song is this again?”
Let’s face facts. Great bluegrass guitar players don’t always play the melody to the song. In fact, I might go as far as to say they usually don’t play the melody to the song. In this article, we are going to break down a way of thinking about bluegrass licks to help you go from a basic melody break into something that is a more exciting to listen to and play.
What we are going to do is replace part of the melody with a lick. We can choose almost any lick, as long as the lick matches the chord that happens at that point of the song.
Major Scale Patterns
Mickey Abraham April 5, 2021
I’d like to show you some of the more creative ways to play major scale patterns. Every competent guitar player at some point learns scale patterns and uses them as building blocks for improvisation. There are literally countless scale patterns and countless ways to incorporate them into your playing. This lesson touches on playing all of the different interval possibilities that show up in a major scale. I chose to arrange these examples in open C position to relate them to bluegrass flatpicking. I find the guitar open position to be a worthwhile mystery to unpack. If you take the time to master scales, patterns, and licks in open position you will be able to incorporate the ideas into your existing bluegrass language. These ideas, for example, will remind you of C position fiddle tunes such as “Billy in the Lowground.”
8 Licks Tony Rice Loved To Play
Marcel Ardans April 3, 2021
In December of last year, Tony Rice passed away. He was/is my all-time favorite guitarist. Like many of his fans, my love of his playing has likely transcended obsession. In fact, at the time of writing this, I have transcribed over 100 Tony Rice solos. That puts me in a unique position to share with you not only my favorite Tony Rice licks but what I think might be Rice’s favorite licks, if the frequency with which he played them is any indication.
These examples can be found in almost every Tony Rice break. They are integral to his sound and they can become part of your sound too. This comes with one small warning though: These licks are not meant to be parroted off this page. A big hallmark of this sound is to use these phrases but to vary them, and create your own versions of them. Let’s remember Rice by innovating on his past achievements the same way he innovated on the achievements of the players that came before him.
Using Fill-in Licks in a Bluegrass Song
Andy Hatfield February 12, 2021
This is a three-part series on how to use licks in bluegrass songs. Part one focuses on fill-in licks, and how they can be used to add energy and style to a melody. In part two, we abandon the melody altogether and learn how licks can be used instead when they follow the chord progression. Finally, in part three, we will study how to make small changes to licks to make them fit into a song better.
Whiskey Before Breakfast in EVERY key
Mickey Abraham December 23, 2020
Have you ever been told to learn a song in every key? It’s often talked about but rarely done. Few things can improve your knowledge of the fretboard more than working out all your favorite licks and tunes in as many keys as you can. For this article I’ve taken a simple melody version of “Whiskey Before Breakfast” and arranged it in literally EVERY key!
Chord Melody For Flatpickers
Andy Hatfield November 16, 2020
Sometimes when I play a slower song, a single-note melody can seem pretty sparse. Chord melodies are a great way to fill out a tune. Sometimes we bluegrassers might think of chord melody as a complex jazz guitar technique, but once you’ve learned the process, you’ll find that it’s not difficult to create rich-sounding chord melodies on bluegrass, country, and folk songs.
The concept of chord melody is simple: you add a chord, or sometimes just a part of the chord, to the melody of the song. In the jazz tradition, the melody is always the highest-pitched note, and I find that this practice works well for bluegrass too.
We’ll create a chord melody to the song, “The House of the Rising Sun.” This song is familiar to most, and has an interesting chord progression. You need two things: the melody under your fingertips, and knowledge of the chords. For this example, I wrote a lead sheet with both melody and chords, available here.