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> 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.

This is a great book on the history of bluegrass

Now, to nerd out.

Bluegrass is very similar to jazz, in that it is a potpourri of a bunch of music mashed together to create a new style. Bill Monroe was influenced by the baptist gospel music, he was singing Country and Western brother harmonies with his brother Charlie. He also listened to the modified European fiddle style that was brought over by the Scottish that settled in the area where he grew up. He was also greatly influenced by Arnold Schulz, a black man who played blues/hillbilly music.

Bill mashed that all together (the harmonies of gospel, the fiddle music his Uncle Pen would play, the turn-taking of blues as well as the back-beat). Many say it officially solidified in 1945 when Earl Scruggs joined the band (who played a syncopated banjo roll that developed in North Carolina by guys like Snuffy Jenkins).

Bill Monroe and his Blue Grass Boys played on the Grande Old Opry, and his music was a sensation. Many of the other bands in the area started to make small adjustments and started to play similar (or plain old copied) Bill's style of playing.

Bailey Brothers and the Happy Valley Boys

and of course

Stanley Brothers.

Bill toured a lot and worked his musicians hard (sometimes having them work on his farm). So he had a pretty good turnover. Some of those bandmates would eventually form their own bands.

In the fifties, country and later, rock and roll started to cut heavily into bluegrass. Many bands had to modify their playing to keep afloat. So the first changes that occurred was bluegrass with a little more country feel. Sometimes even adding drums, electric guitar and pedal steel, piano.

Osborne Brothers

Reno and Smiley

Jimmy Martin

some bands were great, but just came out at the wrong time:

McCormick Brothers

In the sixties, the folk boom started to occur. Flatt and Scruggs (who had left Bill Monroe in 1948 to form their own band) started touring College campuses and bringing their music to an entirely new generation. And Alan Lomax and Mike Seeger started to educate a lot of people on "Americana" music. So now you had bands outside of that area of Kentucky and North Carolina forming bluegrass bands.

Kentucky Colonels

This is when bands just started to branch out into new realms. Buzz Busby in Washington D.C. started to bring bluegrass to an entirely new area of the world. One of the young men he influenced, Charlie Waller, would get the Country Gentlemen together, taking the "high lonesome" sound and replacing it more with more of a blend of folk and bluegrass.

So now you had a lot more people experimenting with bluegrass music, and it blew up in the 70s. It was the perfect storm of musicans who had grew up listening to a broader range of bluegrass music and really developing as musicians and blending genres. And you started to get the first major discussion (fights) between what was actually bluegrass and what was Newgrass (and all types of bands, from the traditional to the "contemporary"). And here you start to hear regional differences. You have the bands from the south. You have a California sound, and you have the east-coast sound as well. This was also the explosion of bluegrass festivals, so you have a lot of these bands (and the old guard) playing festivals and sharing stages.

John Hartford - who played with guys like Tut Taylor on dobro and Vassar Clements on fiddle.

Bluegrass Alliance with Sam Bush, who would form the first iteration of New Grass Revival. And Tony Rice.

Country Gazette

JD Crowe and the New South

Old and In The Way

Joe Val and the New England Bluegrass Boys

Seldom Scene

Del McCoury and the Dixie Pals

In the lat 70s/early 80s you started to see more of a swing back to traditional bluegrass. This was a pretty tough time for bluegrass as acoustic music wasn't really popular. But there were some great bands being formed. Then converting to more country stuff in around the mid 80s (like Keith Whitley, Ricky Skaggs). Interestingly, JD Crowe played banjo in his teens with Jimmy Martin. Doyle had played with Country Gazette. Ricky Skaggs had played with Ralph Stanley (as did Larry Sparks). This is pretty standard in bluegrass that you almost do an "apprenticeship" with a more established artist, then go on to start your own band; e.g. Del McCoury, Jimmy Martin, Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs had all started with Bill Monroe.

Johnson Mountain Boys - another disciple of Buzz Busby (Dudley Connell).

Bluegrass Album Band

Doyle Lawson

Boone Creek

Larry Sparks

Hot Rize

In the mid 90s and blowing up in 2000 thanks to "Oh Brother Where Art Thou," you start to see a new explosion of bluegrass on the scene. Some people call this the start of the "Nashgrass" scene (hugely influenced by Doyle Lawson and JD Crowe stuff).

Lonesome River Band

Blue Highway

IIIrd Tyme Out

Del McCoury Band

and, of course, Alison Krauss who you already listen to.

My personal belief is the more recent boom comes from those who started playing and getting interested during the "Oh Brother Where Art Thou" boom of bluegrass. Many of these players didn't start playing with an already established band or bluegrass musician, and started bands on their own.

Chatham County Line

Cadillac Sky

That's just a little taste. There are SO many bands I've missed, and so much history I've missed. I could talk about this all day. Steeldrivers - James King - and one-offs like Here Today - Dreadful Snakes - Muleskinner

I have a few suggestions. The first is a series by Dan Miller and Tim May that they sell that progressively builds on older material and builds chronologically. That link I included should link to pages where you can view more closely the material in each book. I trust you to know your own skill level and what you want to learn to be able to determine what book you want.

Another one that I've heard is pretty good is the Real Bluegrass Book by Matt Flinner. It has musical notation and chord backup for a bunch of standard bluegrass tunes.

Not knowing your skill level, I'll throw in this last one because it was a good one helping me to get started with: the Four Hour Bluegrass Workout from Steve Kaufman. While I'm not the biggest fan of Kaufman's flatpicking, the guy's written some really great teaching tools for flatpicking fiddle tunes. And flatpicking fiddle tunes is a great exercise for practicing bluegrass.

Edit: If you have any luck with any of these, or any other book, please let me know!

Noam Pikelny Plays Kenny Baker Plays Bill Monroe - Back in the 1970s, Kenny Baker (Bill Monroe's #1 fiddle player) put out an album of Monroe's best instrumentals. It is considered to be one of the standard albums for bluegrass instrumentals. This past year, Noam recorded a tribute to the album playing Kenny's fiddle lines note-for-note on the banjo. Joining Noam are Bryan Sutton on guitar, Stuart Duncan on fiddle, Ronnie McCoury on mandolin, and Mike Bub on bass. Definitely a new standard album.

Skaggs & Rice - This isn't recent (1980), but is considered a timeless tribute album consisting of 10 standard Bluegrass duets by Tony Rice and Ricky Skaggs.

Everything by the Bluegrass Album Band - Once again, the B.A.B. records aren't recent, but at least give a 2nd generation slant on the standard tunes. Tony Rice, J.D. Crowe, Bobby Hicks, Jerry Douglas, Doyle Lawson, Todd Phillips, and more.

Chris Eldridge & Michael Daves have been putting out some Stanley Brothers covers on SoundCloud.

The Earls Of Leicester (Lester) - Possibly the best for last. This is a supergroup made up of Jerry Douglas on dobro, Barry Bales on bass, Tim O'Brien on mandolin, Charlie Cushman on banjo, Johnny Warren on fiddle, and Shawn Camp on guitar/lead vocals. This is a straight up Flatt & Scruggs tribute band: everything from the arrangements to the bowties. They have an album coming out in September.

Start with some fiddle tunes! I'm a big fan of the Kaufman 4-Hour bluegrass workout books for learning some. They have a bunch of tunes, most of which are jam standards, in music and tab, and include CDs with slow and fast accompaniment so you can practice with a band. Once you have the basic tune down pat, work the same thing up the neck, and then do some improvisation around the melody.

For rhythm playing, be sure to find resources that teach you proper right hand patterns. Bluegrass guitar is all about the "boom-chick", where you play a low string on 1&3, along with the bass, and strum the chord on 2&4, along with the mandolin, everything on downstrokes. You can go beyond that of course, playing on upstrokes and syncopating, but I see a lot of young and beginning bluegrass guitar players strumming like they're playing a folk song, and it just doesn't sound good. Also learn some bluegrass runs (start with the Flatt lick).

Finally, do some listening. Tony Rice's work on the Bluegrass Album Band records is the benchmark for bluegrass guitar IMO and a good place to start. Listen to how he keeps it simple most of the time, and how tasteful and musical the accents are when he changes it up with a lick or extra strums.

These are all great suggestions. These were all some of the songs I learned to play guitar to as well. May I suggest these songs as well;
"Sitting On Top Of The World", "Whiskey Before Breakfast", "High on the Mountain", "Old Home Place", "Whitehouse Blues", "Me and My Uncle". Or better yet, just buy the Bluegrass Fakebook. (http://www.amazon.com/Bluegrass-Fakebook-Favorites-Gospel-Mandolin/dp/1893907376)

When I started playing fiddle my teacher recommended the american fiddle method book by brian wickland; it's great! It has angelina baker, old joe clark, cripple creek, and a bunch of other common tunes. It has chords with it as well as finger diagrams for playing the violin chords so you can take turns playing the melody. The book also has variations of the songs with slides and double taps.

http://www.amazon.com/American-Fiddle-Method-Vol-Book/dp/0786652519/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1420945852&sr=8-1&keywords=american+fiddle+method

Here's one great album: The Bluegrass Album Vol. 6: Bluegrass Instrumentals

And this old thread has more great recommendations: https://www.reddit.com/r/Bluegrass/comments/136nb1/instrumental_bluegrass_bands/

Books;
Earl Scruggs and the 5-String Banjo: Revised and Enhanced Edition https://www.amazon.com/dp/0634060430/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_H.ArDbGBY9Q57

The Complete 5-String Banjo Player https://www.amazon.com/dp/0825603552/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_laBrDbDE9THKJ

Or

Tony Trischka Master Collection of Fiddle Tunes for Banjo https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0109O79WS/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_EaBrDbRF753TS

Videos:
YouTube BanjoBen
YouTube Homespun banjo lessons

Site:
Banjohangout.com for lessons, info about banjos, tabs, and more.

Technology:
TablEdit is a free tab editor where you can find lots of downloads for songs on the previously mentioned website

Perhaps not a direct answer to your question, but this book is a good set of "standards" that parking lot pickers should know some/most of.

edit: Perhaps I can be more helpful. I actually have a copy of the book and snapped crappy pics of the table of contents.

http://imgur.com/a/DkACi

I think my favorite is Skip, Hop and Wobble, Jerry with Edgar Meyer and Russ Barenberg.

I've been seeing a lot of Sam Bush talk here so here you guys go. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9cTscRKAdgk

https://www.amazon.com/Revival-Sam-Bush-Story/dp/B07GQ8VBCM/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1541601586&sr=8-1&keywords=revival+sam+bush

These are a sneak peek to the movie and a place of purchase on Amazon.

I second LightWolfCavalry's list and recommend the Real Bluegrass Book (a Bluegrass fakebook with over 300 instrumentals and vocal standards).

all the standards of most styles can be found in this book

Here are some links for the product in the above comment for different countries:

Link: Blueridge BR-40AS

• UK: amazon.co.uk
  
• Canada: amazon.ca
  
  
  This bot is currently in testing so let me know what you think by voting (or commenting).

http://www.amazon.com/Bluegrass-HISTORY-ANNIVERSARY-Music-American/dp/0252072456


By Neil Rosenburg, a professor of music wrote a history of Bluegrass.

He's also a hell of a fine banjo player!