About my first video

 I love  You Tube, I Could spend Hours just watching people play  Bluegrass music on it  or any music for that matters.
When I first started watching a few years ago, I could not get enough. Still can't. I look up   old songs that I like and I learn all kinds of cool  stuff from them. But what I found on some You tube videos is, Whoever is playing , is playing way to fast for me or anybody else to figure out every note.
So when I made my first video. I wanted to show you note for note what I was playing.
And I want to apologize to you that think my first video is way to fast, because looking at it  now  myself
 I agree, it is way to fast in some spots. But in my defence, I really never meant for it to be .if you have never watched it here is the link
http://youtu.be/9Wp6-UC8s6Q
 On the other hand if you back this video up a bunch of time and try to figure out what I'm doing. It will help train your ear and make it much easier the next time you trying and figure out a tune that the person might not be showing how to play it.

Bluegrass Twist Tab

I have to be honest. I hate tab. I never had the patience to take the time to read it
      I have learned a few things from it , but not very much
  But I know that alot of folks learn from it and Every little bit helps.
So I thought I would try and write a little bit down for you all.
  I have a student (8 Years old) who is learning this now. He's doing a good job so far.
I would say this  is pretty close to the Bill Monroe version
For you beginners, you can steal some pretty good Monroe licks out of this even if you don't Learn the whole song
This is the Kick off and first break I will ad a few more breaks to this at some point .              

Bluegrass Twist
Kick off and first break

~ = Slide
E-|-----------------|---------3-6-3-1-----|-----------------|
A-|-----------------|---0-5-----------5-3-1~2|-----------------|
D-|---0-0-3~4-0-3~4----------|----------------5-|-----------------|
G-|-----------------|-----------------|-----------------|
*1~2 on A is a slide
E-|-----------------|-----------------|-----------------|
A-|-----------------|-----------------|-----------------|
D-|----------------5-|-----------------|-----------------|
G-|---7~~5-0-3~4----0--------|-----------------|-----------------
* 7to5 slide 3to4 slide
E-|-----------------|-----------------|-----------------|
A-|-----------------|----------1~2--1~2---1~2--|-2-3-5--------------|
D-|--0-3-0-3-5-5-5-5-5-5-5-----5|-----5------5------|-----------------|
G-|--0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-----|-----------------|-----------------|
* 1~2's or slides
E-|--3-3-3-3-3-3-3-6-3-1------|-----------------|-----------------|
A-|-----------------|-------5-3-1~2--------|-----1~2------------|
D-|-----------------|-----------------5|---2--5-------5-3-2----|
G-|-----------------|-----------------|--55---------------
*1~2 are slides
E-|-----------------|-----------------|-----------------|
A-|---------1~2-5-3-1~2-----|------------------------------------0--5-------|
D-|--- 2--5----------------5-|--------------5----0-0-3~4-0-3~4-------------|
G-|-55----------------|-------7~~5-0-3~4---0------|-----------------
1~2 are slides 7~~5 lick same as above
E-|-3-6-3-1-------------|-----------------|-----------------|
A-|----------5-3-1~2-----|-----------------|-----------------|
D-|-----------------|---5--0-3~2-0-3~2--0-------|-----------------|
G-|-----------------|------~----------|-------0----------
*note above 0320320 notes Are hammer on pull offs Pluck only the open notes

PLAYING SOLO's IN DIFFERENT KEYS

           I had a guy not so long ago, left a  comment on one of my videos, and  He said He would like

for me to do a video on playing in the key of B. Well I plan to do that some time soon but I wanted to

write this first so you will know how I reference or look at playing  in different keys .

My hope is that it will help you make it easier with not making it so technical

This a drawn out story , but I promise it will make sense at the end.

I , like a lot of you, starting playing guitar first and after about a year  

I realized I wanted to play Bluegrass( cause that is where all the money is)

little joke there.HA HA

Anyway I started playing Bluegrass guitar, And the  first chords  I learned on the guitar where most

 likely G C and  D . you can play a thousand songs with those three chords. Now in bluegrass,in most

cases when you want to play in the key of A you just capo  your guitar on the 2 fret and play your

G,C and D chords which in turn makes those chords A,D and E now.  Now when playing the mandolin

most folks frown on playing it with a capo. So here's where your reference comes in.  In order for

 you to play a song, that you know in the key of A that you learned  in the key of G, you need to

 move everything up 2 frets. You might already know, but the Key of A is one of the easier Keys to

play in on the mandolin. But never the less  here is a couple little tips for changing your song from the Key

 of G to A. NOW educated  music folks  call dat dare transposing   LOL. You did'nt think I kowed

that. LOL.  Anyhow  Here is a couple tips. The notes that you play open, in the key of G you need to

 note on the 2nd fret.  and the notes you play on the 5th fret ,you might be able to play open on the

next string down  rather than the 7th fret , depending on the song of coarse

Now Reverse all that . Let's  just say that You want to play a song in the key of G that  you Learned

in the key of A.  SoYou need to move everything back down 2 frets which Like the tips before, you

 need to reverse. Every note  you play on the 2nd fret  in the key of A needs to be  a open note in the

key of G  and your open notes in the key of A  need to be played on the 5th fret in the key of G.


With all that said  changing from the Key of A to B , your moving  all your notes up 2 frets , all open

notes in the key of A need to be played on the 2nd fret in the key of B.  I could go back and forth like

 this forever from key to key.  Hopefully your getting this. So I'm just going to give you a Few

Referenes  to get you in the right places and end this up    
From G to A  up 2frets
. From G to B up 4 frets
 From G to C up 5 frets

From A to G down 2 frets
 From A toB up 2 frets
 From A to C up 3 frets

From B to C up 1 fret
From C to D up 2 frets
From D to E up 2 frets
 From E to F up 1 frets

Now thats not all of them but I think if you play around with this you will get what I'm saying.

If you hav'nt already read my post on The notes from A to G. put these 2 together and practice for

 awhile and you will be transposing like a big dog in No time flat. HA HA

Dan

Building a Break Or Solo

In Bluegrass music a Break is where you play a solo, where the term came from? Well  I'm not real sure.
The first break in a bluegrass song is called the kick off and also the first part of a break is called the kick off to your break.Never the less it is one of the most notable features of bluegrass music Because of the way that is laid out,compared to other music. Let me explain real quick be fore we get into the rest of this post. Usually in a Bluegrass song a instrument Kicks off the break, whether it be a banjo fiddle , mandolin or whatever.  if you are a beginner and don't know what they are playing. It will usually be a variation of the melody of the verse of that song. I say variation of the melody because it might not follow it exactly. In some cases the Kick off  might be the chorus of the song.or maybe both the verse and the chours but in most cases it is the verse. Of course if the song is a strictly instrumental piece
 you just play a variation of the melody

So with all that said lets get on to it  BUILDING A BREAK
This is my approach to really setting down and building a break, not a jam session where you just pull something out of your head . I'm talking about a song that you will be playing with your band or maybe friends or you just want to pick the song good and want it to be your break and not something that you copied of one of your favorite pickers.
First of all Have the melody in your head and the key you want to play the song in
 now.Take your time and pick out the most simplest melody to the song. Hold directly to the melody
You might have to, match your instrument to your voice by humming over singing. to find some of the notes Now this may not be that easy at first. But you will get it over time  it will also definitely improve your ear
Once you can pick the basic melody. It maybe  sound kind of bland or boring. if you notice above I said a Variation of the Melody Just about any instrument has it Own set of Kick offs, licks , Scales
And some are shared among instruments.
So you want to make your break more exciting So lets start with a Kick off .
the Kick off sets you up to play your melody
Lets just say your a Newbie and only know a few songs. Try the kick off to one of those songs.
It might fit.  now you might have to transpose the key of it in order make it right.
So at this point you have a Kick off and the melody  *note* you must make your kick off flow right into the melody Play that for a While
Now you have a A great kick off with the same old boring melody. Now most bluegrass songs have a quick cord change at the end of the phrase whether it be G to D and back to G or A to E and back A
Now that's a good spot for a lick, same as above see if some of the licks in the songs you already know
will work in that spot maybe You could even use a variation of some of the licks I showed you in my videos. *note*Old fiddle tunes are great to steal licks from. Even if you cant pick the whole tune.
There will be something you can use..and put in your bag of licks for the next time.
Now you have a Kick off,   the melody, and a cool lick at the end of your break
Sounds better already.
Lets take it a step further Will that lick Fit twice in your song? It probably will.Now you might have to change a note or two at the end .or phrase it a little different. You might even find and different lick to put in that spot.
 So now you have A kick off, a peace of the melody, a cool lick, another peace of the melody, and another cool lick at the end. Is that good enough? It might be GREAT! then again It MIGHT SUCK
LOL. Just kidding.
At this point most traditional bluegrass pickers stop at this point for the most part. and there is nothing wrong with that.I love the old stuff as well as the new.
 But Let take it a Step further there A lot of Musicians ,bluegrass or what ever stray from the melody quite a bit. So how do they do that?Here are some ways. By scales. they Find a scale or part of a scale that
that fits where the melody would go or to replace  the lick  or both they might even combine the two
So if you would choose to do that. Here's what your break might be: A kick off, a Peace of the melody, a cool lick, a scale, in place of the melody, walking into a cool lick at the end of your break
And that's about it That pretty much it in a nut shell
With that I hope you can  get something out of this

The Notes A to G

If you are just starting the mandolin or the guitar or any string instrument  You might know nothing about music, I think this article will help you. If you read music and play some piano or have had played a horn or something in high school. I think this Article will help you also. This article will help you make sense of the fret board and after reading this hopefully you can find notes on your fret board,  *Note* (you do need to know what note the strings are) So if you don't here they are: for the Guitar (standard tuning) From bottom to top:(1st string E) (2nd string B)(3rd G)(4th D)(5th A)(6st E) for mandolin from Bottom to top:(1st E)(2nd A)(3rd D)(4th G) Most of you might already know this. Anyway Now that you Know for sure, I want to start out by saying that I don't read Music at all. So if you don't, Don't let that discourage you. This is a way that you can look at music that might not be correct but  , I feel will be very easy to remember for you Here it is Music is a Alphabet  That go's from A to G then repeats So Here is Your alphabet * note *(the b stans for flat and the # stans for sharp) I Think of Flat being before the note and sharp being after the note

Ab A Bb B C C# D D# E F F# G.

 Ok now  for some of you that read music or know music might  have noticed I left out some b's and #'s note   that's OK then  that just means you know what I' m talking about. If you don't know then I will explain Some times a Flat (b) note may be called a Sharp(#) note depending on what key your playing in. for example Ab maybe called a G# or a Bb Maybe called a A# or a D# maybe Eb
  But don't worry about that for right now just learn the alphabet and you should be fine .Once you use this for a little while you will be able to figure it out. So how is this going to help you? ok you know the notes of your strings on your instument  So lets just use the E string for example. and let's just say  you want to find a G note  on  your E string, so that means your E note is Open , meaning your not pressing any fingers on the fret board, now by counting. Put your finger on the first fret.now look at your alphetbet. What Note is that ? your right that is a F. Now your looking for a G note So to get to the G  you will have to Go 2 more frets  thus making your fingers be on the 3rd fret . So now that  you've got there lets just say you want to play a A note on your E string( remember what I saidA-G then repeats) so the next note on the figer board(4th fret) will be a Ab which making the A note on your 5th fret. Now you can practice  this on a different strings by using your alphabet. Also  by using this you will be able to figure out what notes are in the chords you already know and use that for a refferance  and be able to make your own chords

E String: open E  1st fret F 2nd FretF#3rd fret G 4th fret Ab 5th fretA 6st fretBb 7th freatB 8th fret C 9th fretC# 10 fret D 11fretD# 12fret E. then repeats
I hope this has been helpful