Lead & Solo Guitar Learning Resources

Author: Roland White and Diane Bouska
Media: Book + CD
Level: Intermediate

This book/CD set presents Clarence's early but fully realized acoustic guitar style, as demonstrated in the recordings he made at home in 1962. These songs were included in the "33 Acoustic Guitar Instrumentals" CD. Featuring • 14 songs and tunes with variations, in notation and tablature • Instruction with tab examples • Biography with photos 2 CDs included • Disc 1: Clarence’s original recordings plus CD-ROM video of Clarence playing two tunes close-up • White Brothers slide show • Disc 2: Rhythm tracks: Play along at slow or fast tempo with Roland White on guitar and Missy Raines on bass.

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Author: Marcy Marxer
Media: DVD / DIGITAL
Level: Beginner - Intermediate

Marcy Marxer's user-friendly method brings all the notes, frets and strings into clear focus, giving you an invaluable roadmap to the guitar fingerboard. She has successfully taught this foolproof method at guitar camps and workshops across the country and provides both practical exercises and theoretical knowledge to demystify the guitar for learning players. Marcy shows you how to hear each melody note in terms of intervals, where it lies on the scale, and its place in a chord. Adding passing tones, slides and other ornaments start to make your melodies come alive. This in-depth two-hour course imparts a huge amount of information that will take you from basics of improvisation to the intricacies of the CAGED system.

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Author: Steve Kaufman
Media: DVD / DIGITAL
Level: Intermediate

Steve Kaufman breaks demonstates how to play lead solos to six classic songs, explaining the steps involved in the process. He starts with the melody and chords, then moves on to fills, hammer-ons, cross-picking, chord inversions, embellishments, and other flatpick techniques. This is a great video to learn how to analyze a song and create your own lead break. Steve is joined by veteran singer and guitarist John Herald (of the Greenbriar Boys) who does the vocals to the songs. This in-depth DVD will prepare you to create your own guitar solos, rhythmic backups, and full arrangements to complement any bluegrass singer.

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Author: Steve Kaufman
Media: DVD / DIGITAL
Level: Intermediate - Advanced

Every bluegrass flatpicker wants to play faster while maintaining good tone and timing. Steve Kaufman has powerful advice and well-thought out exercises to help get a player's right and left hand mechanics working correctly. Using well-known fiddle tunes as drills, Steve works on coordination and how to practice for best results. Also included are a cross-picked version of Wildwood Flower and show-stopping chord runs and picking combinations on the classic Little Rock Getaway.

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Author: Rolly Brown
Media: DVD / DIGITAL
Level: All Levels

This video course is an excellent overview of solo flatpicking guitar. The primary focus is creating interesting accompaniments for singers and for playing solo instrumental tunes and breaks. Most of the video is a study of one song: "Hard Times." Starting with the basic melody, Rolly then teaches the chord progression, playing the melody with chords and different strums. He then explores adding bass runs, crosspicking and rolls, hammer-ons and pull-offs, and arpeggios. This is a terrific course and a great next step from the Study Tune on our site.

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Author: Pat Flynn
Media: DVD
Level: Intermediate - Advanced

This top Nashville guitarist carefully breaks down his method for improvising across the entire guitar fingerboard. Teaching how to create fascinating guitar solos through finding 'chord centers' in every position, Pat includes new ideas for adding harmonies within chords, improvising blues and minor-key songs, and innumerable tips on playing technique.

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