Flatpicking

Grounded in her roots as a native Virginian, bluegrass trailblazer Rebecca Frazier found herself reawakening to a whole new journey of inspiration and invention. For the flatpicking luminary, who achieved notoriety in the music world as the first woman ever to appear on the cover of Flatpicking Guitar Magazine, that creative rebirth turned into her most captivating work yet: BOARDING WINDOWS IN PARADISE. Like generations of her ancestors who have lived along Virginia's coast, she, too, has weathered life's hurricanes and battering winds - and witnessed it's luminous beauty - and she wanted to capture that juxtaposition on this record.

An entertaining and instructive lesson from Double Trouble Bassist Tommy Shannon. Aided by Arlen Roth and Chris Layton, Tommy shows you how to play basic blues riffs, playing on 2 and 4, closed position, special walking patterns, 1/2 step passing notes, muting, walking bass skips, rolling picking touch, flatpicking, and New Orleans style. A truly great bass lesson!

Steve Kaufman’s comprehensive three-DVD course in bluegrass flatpicking takes you from "Picking 101" through advanced techniques that will enable you to hold your own in any band or jam session. On DVD #1, "From the Beginning," you’ll learn a variety of essential flatpicking skills: proper pick grip, down-up strokes, rhythmic strumming and song accompaniment. Only a few minutes into the first lesson you’ll be starting to pick easy versions of well-known fiddle tunes. By DVD #2, " Building Bluegrass Technique," you’ll have built a "runs vocabulary" and learned to cross pick, move up the neck, play bass runs and construct hot bluegrass solos. DVD #3, "Developing Speed and Style," covers the finer points of style, using slides, arpeggios, bends, accents, intros and endings, and that most challenging of subjects, building up speed.

Tony Rice slows down his fabulous picking style and brings it up close so you can clearly see what he's doing and how he's doing it. He has chosen six songs and instrumentals from his recordings to demonstrate a variety of techniques and styles. He shows his intros and accompaniments to "Church Street Blues" and "Cold On The Shoulder," as well as a jazz chord arrangement to "Georgia On My Mind." You'll also learn three of his hard-driving flatpicking instrumentals in detail: "Gold Rush," "Blackberry Blossom "and his dynamic kick-off to "Muleskinner Blues."

The first two volumes of this series have met with such enthusiasm from guitar playing fans of John Denver that it became clear that we had to continue with a third lesson. Pete Huttlinger's comprehensive understanding of John Denver's music, and his ability to communicate techniques to learning guitarists, have inspired innumerable players and have made these among Homespun's most successful instructional products.