Basic Guitar Chords

By Wayne Erbsen

If you’re wanting to learn the basic guitar chords, you’ve come to the right place. Although there are thousands of chord positions, I’m only going to show you the basic chords you need to start with. In certain kinds of music, such as as bluegrass, Appalachian, folk, gospel, country and blues, these chords are pretty much all you’ll ever need.

Important Tip: When you’re making your chords, it’s ESSENTIAL that you go to the chord all at once, not one finger at a time. Landing on the chord all at once will guarantee that you’ll be able

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The Appalachian Dulcimer

By Wayne Erbsen

It’s amazing just how many people dream about playing a stringed instrument. When they finally do get around to trying out a guitar, banjo, fiddle, mandolin, or bass, they sometimes find it takes a little more work than they figured to make their dreams come true. If you are one of those people who has always wanted to make your own music, instead of buying it prepackaged in the store, let me tell you about an instrument that is both very easy to play and inexpensive to buy — the dulcimer.

Of all the stringed instruments

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Easy Guitar Songs

Easy 2-Chord Songs for Guitar, cover

By Wayne Erbsen

The Internet is abuzz with people wanting to learn to play the guitar. 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 guitar, 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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Links

Emmett Miller – The Vaudeville Star Who Helped Shape Country Music

By Charles Wolfe

Emmett-Miller-photo

There are dozens of unsung heroes in the annals of country music; some are instrumentalists, like the legendary Georgia fiddler Joe Lee, who introduced the “long bow” style to greats like Clayton McMichen; some are songwriters, like the gospel singer Grady Cole, who wrote Tramp on the Street; others were promoters and radio personalities like the late Eddie Hill, who helped introduce the music of the Louvin Broth­ers to a wide audience. But one of the most unsung, and one of the most mysterious, was a remarkable blackface come­dian and singer named Emmett Miller. He flourished

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‘Fall On My Knees’ – Clawhammer Banjo Tab + Lyrics

Clawhammer Banjo CoverMore than forty years ago I wrote my first banjo book, Clawhammer Banjo for the Complete Ignoramus. About five years ago I decided it was time for a follow up, so I started working on it. Recently we received delivery of the new book – Clawhammer Banjo ~ Tunes, Tips & Jamming. To make it easy to use, the new book has coil binding and contains 44 tunes not included in the Ignoramus. I’ve also loaded it with playing and jamming tips as well as information to help people join jams and improvise plus almost 200 vintage photos

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Celebrating 50 years of the ‘Ignoramus’

The evolution of the ‘Ignoramus’

Many of you have learned to play the banjo from my book ‘Clawhammer Banjo for the Complete Ignoramus‘… and this year this method is 50 years old! The book has been rewritten a few times over the years, and each time I think it’s gotten even better, but it’s always had the same down home and easy approach.

I thought you might like to know the story of how the ‘Ignoramus’, as we like to call it, came to be.

The original book

It was 1973 when I landed a job in Charlotte,

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How Hard Is It to Play the Guitar?

By Wayne Erbsen

The first question I hear from people interested in playing the guitar is “how hard is it?” For those of you with that same question, this article is for you.

The relative ease or difficulty of learning to play any musical instrument depends on three main things:

    1. Natural talent. It’s just a fact that some people are born with more musical talent than others. But before you jump to the conclusion that you were standing behind the door when music talent was passed out, stick with me here for a minute. Natural talent alone doesn’t guarantee
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Bluegrass Standards

Rural Roots of Bluegrass by Wayne Erbsen

If you’re new to bluegrass music, you might like a little friendly advice on some of the artists and songs to listen to. Without hesitation, I would point you to the musicians who first played the style of stringband music known as Bluegrass. This would include Bill Monroe, Flatt & Scruggs, the Stanley Brothers, Reno and Smiley and Jimmy Martin. Of course, the list goes on and on, but in my opinion, if you’re well-grounded on these artists, you have a solid foundation on which to learn, enjoy, and understand what bluegrass music is all about. At the risk of

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