Bluegrass Books Online

Free Lessons

 Welcome to our free lesson page. Of course nothing is truly free. We’re trying to sell books and Cds. But when you come right down to it, I'm a music teacher. It's what I do and these lessons are our way to thank everyone who has purchased “JAM TUNES” and to entice more innocent souls into the twisted world of “bluegrass”. The plan is to add new tunes as time permits. I hope you find these helpful and fun.

The lesson tunes are recorded and laid out in the same way all of the tunes in my "Jam Tunes" books are done. Each tune has three tracks. The 1st track is melody with band @ 106 bpm. The 2nd track is no melody with band @ 106 bpm. The 3rd track is full band, 3 times through @ 170 bpm.m. Remember to practice your rhythm playing as well as the picking, you're going to need it.

The tunes are in MP3 format, the text and music/tab is in PDF format and videos’ are WMV. In order to read the PDFs’, you will need to have Adobe Reader. The MP3s and WMVs’ are as small as I could make them without losing quality. Right click on each of the links for the MP3s’, WMVs’ and PDFs’, and download them to your computer.

The lessons are designed for intermediate players for both mandolin and guitar, and are intended for private/home study use. Of course, feel free to contact me with any questions you might have, Rick@bluegrassbooksonline.com, I will get back to you. Also be sure to visit our free samples page to download samples from " Jam Tunes."

Several folks have asked, "Who played on the recordings"? Well, for better or worse it's all me, one track at a time.

Keep Pickin', Rick

May 07

Big Sandy River

December '06

Deck the Halls

It Came Upon a Midnight Clear

August '06

Blackberry Blossom

May '06

The Gold Rush

March '06

Dixie Hoedown

February 06

Interstate Rag and Lonesome Fiddle Blues