Log Cabin Music

By Wayne Erbsen

Now and then I write a column called “Log Cabin Music” for several bluegrass music magazines. I don’t call it that fer nuthin’. In fact, my wife Barbara and I own two log cabins. The one that sits next to our primary residence in Asheville, North Carolina, is home to our business, “Log Cabin Cooking & Music.” In the retro kitchen of this 1940s cabin, Barbara teaches workshops in old-timey Appalachian cooking on our 1928 Home Comfort wood cookstove. In some of the classes she uses our rock fireplace to teach hearth cooking skills.

The large and

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Easy Fiddle Tunes

Old-Time Fiddle for the Complete Ignoramus! instruction book by Wayne Erbsen

By Wayne Erbsen

The Internet is abuzz with people wanting to learn to play the fiddle. My guess is that you are one of them! Of course, you want to learn the easiest songs possible. Who wouldn’t?

The songs that are the easiest to play are the tunes you already know. They’re the ones you’ve had in your head for years. So instead of having me teach you a totally unfamiliar tune on the fiddle, let’s get you to learn how to play the tunes you already know.

I suggest you start making lists of your favorite songs. If you

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Secrets of Playing Mandolin by Ear

By Wayne Erbsen

Practically everybody who plays the mandolin wants to play by ear. What does that mean? It means playing without reading music or tab.

To play by ear, you need to know a little bit about three things: 1) simple scales, 2) chords, 3) walk-ups and walk-downs.

1) Simple scales. This is the do re mi you learned as a kid. In the key of G, it’s do=G, re=A, mi=B, fa=C, so=D, la=E, ti=F#, do=G. As you can see, you start with G and go right up the alphabet – G, A, B, C, D, E, F#, G.

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Just 2 Chords! Easy Bluegrass & Folk Songs on Guitar

By Wayne Erbsen

In Basic Guitar Chords, I showed you a number of basic guitar chords. Armed with that knowledge, there are thousands of songs you can play simply by strumming the chord and singing, humming, or whistling the song.

Before you can do that, you will need to figure out which chords to play when.

The good news is that most bluegrass, folk, and country songs can be played with just three chords. These three chords form a little family called a “key.” We often give the chords in the same family the numbers 1, 4, and 5.

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How Hard is it to Learn to Play the 5-String Banjo?

I get asked this question all the time, so I thought I might as well answer it. Learning the banjo can be as easy as falling off a log or as painful as a good ole root canal. It all depends on how it’s taught.

Bluegrass banjo as pioneered by Earl Scruggs sounds like it has a billion notes. It not only sounds complicated, it IS complicated. But friends, it doesn’t have to be that way. Unfortunately, most instruction books and banjo teachers completely miss the boat by starting the total beginner off with complicated rolls and then wonder why

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Easy Bluegrass & Folk Songs on Mandolin

By Wayne Erbsen

In my article entitled Mandolin Chords, I showed you a number of basic mandolin chords. Armed with that knowledge, there are thousands of songs you can play simply by strumming the chord and singing, humming or whistling the song.

Before you can do that you will need to figure out which chords to play when.

The good news is that most bluegrass, folk and country songs can be played with just three chords. These three chords form a little family called a “key.” We often give the chords in this family the numbers 1, 4, and

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High on a Mountain

by Ola Belle Reed, © Midstream Music (BMI). Used by Permission.

As I looked at the valleys down below,
They were green just as far as I could see.
As my memory turned, oh how my heart did yearn,
For you and the days that used to be.

Chorus:
High on a mountain, wind blowin’ free,
Thinkin’ about the days that used to be.
High on a mountain, standing all alone,
Wonderin’ where the years of my life have flown.

Oh I wonder if you ever think of me,
Or if time has blotted out your memory
As I listen

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Playlist for December 16, 2012

December 16, 2012

Bonepart’s Retreat (Erynn Marshall)

Icy Mountain

Lonesome Road Blues

Boys, My Money’s All Gone.

Ain’t Gonna Rain No More (Fred Price, and Clint Howard)

Ain’t No use in Your High Hattin’ Me

East Bound Train

Surely I Will

Tough Luck

I’ve Gota Mule to Ride (Ralph Stanley)

Bound to Ride

Black-Eyed Susie

Waves on the Sea (Big Medicine)

Brushy Run

Texas Gales/Blackberry Blossom

Little Girl Dressed in Blue (Bill Clifton)

Sales Tax on the Women

Hobo Bill’s Last Ride

Methodist Pie

Hell Amongst the Yearlings (Adam Hurt)

Love of the Mountains (Blue and Lonesome)

Shine Hallelujah Shine

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