| The guitar player in bluegrass music was not always | | | | music, you will find that you need to work on the use |
| play solos. As with some other folk styles from | | | | of your plectrum using up as well as down strokes. |
| various parts of the world, the guitar was originally just | | | | Practice doing alternate up and down strokes slowly |
| part of the rhythm section. The guitarist could be heard | | | | and smoothly using a metronome to keep time. For |
| playing the odd bass run but apart from that he was in | | | | bluegrass picking use a heavy gauge pick but as with |
| the background. | | | | everything, you should try different ones out till you find |
| Nowadays bluegrass guitar is not only a lead | | | | what's right for you. |
| instrument in the band but the playing techniques can | | | | You will see and hear that a lot of bluegrass guitar |
| be quite complex sounding. The early greats of | | | | playing consists of the guitarist playing bass notes and |
| bluegrass guitar playing like Lester Flatt and Charlie | | | | strumming in between. A simple example is to hold a C |
| Monroe used a combination of fingerpicking and | | | | chord in the first position and pick the C note on the |
| flatpicking using a thumbpick. A common technique | | | | fifth string. Now use your plectrum to strum the other |
| which you can also hear in country music is to play | | | | strings. Next, pick the E note on the fourth string and |
| bass notes and runs on the E A D strings and melodic | | | | strum the rest of the strings again. Once you have |
| passages on the G B E strings. | | | | done this a few times you will recognize the familiar |
| Flatpicking has become quite common in bluegrass | | | | bluegrass sound that you hear on CDs emerge from |
| music but that does not mean that playing bluegrass | | | | under your fingers. |
| guitar has become easier. It just means you have to | | | | Once you have got an idea of the guitar players you |
| work as hard on your flatpicking technique as you | | | | should be listening to and watching, you will be able to |
| would have had to work on your fingerpicking in the | | | | go looking for bluegrass guitar tabs. With these you |
| early days. A great flatpicker does not need the extra | | | | can learn picking patterns that you can apply to any |
| notes provided by fingerpicking to sustain interest. Just | | | | songs you learn. You will also be able to pick up tabs |
| take a listen to the CDs and watch the videos | | | | for bluegrass fiddle tunes you can learn to play on the |
| featuring flatpickers like Norman Blake, Tony Rice, Dan | | | | guitar. Try any bluegrass forums you find, as well as |
| Crary, Clarence White and Doc Watson. | | | | tab archives. |
| If you are new to the guitar as well as bluegrass | | | | |