Reddit reviews Hot Licks for Bluegrass Guitar

> is someone who knows theory well actively thinking about tonics, dominants, subdominants, seventh's, etc on the fly? Or is it more like, the progression is "G, C, G, D" so I know I can play an E minor scale when G is being played as long as I resolve on G? Or am I way off base?

I guess yes and yes. You might get different answers depending on who you ask and their skill level. For me, after playing rhythm bluegrass for 6 months you start getting better at picking up chord progressions by ear, and the more you start practicing flatpicking notes vs just strumming, you slowly but surely start adding licks and recognizing patterns of notes over each chord. You start learning how some notes resolve better than others over a certain chord progression, pick up a few licks along the way, etc.

Learning theory only helps you understand what the hell you're doing and why things sound good sometimes and why the might not other times.

> So the question is if I learn enough bluegrass songs flatpicking style will that same concept show through? Like I can make sure the melody notes are ringing and I'm playing in the correct scale at the time, is that basically flatpicking?

I would say so. I'm not a finger picker myself (though I've always wanted to get better at it), but it does sound familiar.

> And once I have enough practice and a solid song repertoire it will all kind of come to fruition with the understanding of how I can jam with others?

Yeah - it takes a while to build up a good repertoire of songs. And to be honest, a lot of flatpicking songs can sound the same.

As far as building a repertoire of licks, I got this book when I first started out which I thought was helpful as well:

https://www.amazon.com/Licks-Bluegrass-Guitar-Orrin-Star/dp/0825602912/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1467386209&sr=8-1&keywords=bluegrass+licks

Additionally, I have this video on VHS and when I had a VHS player, I remember enjoying it:

https://www.amazon.com/DVD-Bluegrass-Slow-Jam-Total-Beginner/dp/B000BGPL1G/ref=pd_bxgy_74_2?ie=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=3VQAGPQD7CW13S94N4QP

I also remember that DVD teaching good jam etiquette, which I thought was important. Going to a jam can be like playing golf in some ways. People always love new members in a jam circle, it's what makes bluegrass great, but I always thought having good etiquette is important (picking songs to play that most people are familiar with, not playing obnoxiously loud when others are playing a lead, when you play rhythm and take a lead, when to start and stop, etc.).

I just bought the intermediate DVD and will be here this weekend - I'm curious if it's good. I'll report back and let you know if it's any good. I've never paid for Banjo Ben's site before, but I've watched a handful of his free videos back in the day and just remember picking up a lot of info. I don't think you'd necessarily need to pay for an account if you're doing everything else mentioned above (learning songs, trying out the DVD, etc), but maybe it's more up your alley.

The first song I got half decent at improvising to was Foggy Mountain Special, a really good song to practice improvising to IMHO if you're starting out. Here's a video playing this 7 years ago when I was starting out. The two leads I play are mostly a combination of licks I've learned, put together over the I-IV-I-IV chord progression.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BzPYLk_LME0

Hope that helps! All that aside, if you just practice flatpicking a lot, practice with a purpose, and practice often, it doesn't matter whose advice you listen to, you'll get better.