Long-time students of bluegrass instruments will recall with fondness the name Oak Publications, a division of Music Sales that released some fine instructional manuals for banjo, guitar, mandolin, fiddle and bass starting in the 1970s. While the brand has remained active since, some of those early titles have been unavailable for years - though AcuTab reissued their classic (and massive) - Masters of the 5 String Banjo book.

Oak has reprinted a number those early books, and two of particular interest to the bluegrass community are among them. Both Bill Keith and the late Vassar Clements had transcription books as a part of Oak’s Bluegrass Masters series - which also featured books on Kenny Baker, Jesse McReynolds and Clarence White - both reissued earlier this year.

Clements’ fiddle book was written by Matt Glaser, current chair of the string department at Berklee College of Music, and the Keith banjo book was written by Tony Trischka with Bill’s assistance. The Vassar transcriptions are in standard notation and the Keith in tablature. Both feature information on the recordings from which the transcriptions were taken.

Look for Oak titles wherever bluegrass instructional materials are sold.

HT: PlayBetterBluegrass.com

This post is a contribution from David Hollender, Professor at the Berklee College of Music in Boston. Dave has been a member of the ensemble department for several years, and teaching upright bass. He also teaches banjo for students following the Acoustic String Principal, where banjo, mandolin, acoustic guitar or fiddle players can pursue a degree at Berklee.

He writes following up on our earlier post on Spring Break in Nashville.

I just returned home from Nashville on a trip that takes place each year during spring break. Berklee Professors Pat Pattison and Stephen Webber led 125 students for six days and over two dozen sessions and events that featured top names representing every aspect of the music business - performers, studio musicians, songwriters, producers, engineers, record company executives, publishers, managers, song pluggers, you name it. By the end of the week those on the trip had received the benefit of decades of experience that will prepare many of them for a move to Nashville after graduation.

Bluegrass is just one part of the trip, however the presentation of an honorary doctorate to Ricky Skaggs Tuesday night was definitely a highlight of the week for everybody. In previous years Ricky has welcomed Berklee students to his recording studio, and now he joins a list of illustrious musicians who have received an honorary degree. The students attended the Tuesday night Grand Ole Opry where they heard, among other, The Whites and Del McCoury Band.

They were given a backstage tour during the show to watch players warming up in their dressing rooms, see television and radio production facillties, and watch part of the Opry from the wings of the stage. The last band of the evening was Ricky Skaggs and Kentucky Thunder, who played four tunes before the ceremony. After a brief video in which President Roger Brown described the Acoustic String Principal at Berklee, the presentation was made by Lawrence J. Simpson, Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs, along with Trustee Jeff Davis, Pattison and Webber.

Following the ceremony Ricky, still wearing the robe, grabbed his mandolin and closed out the Opry show by playing Bluegrass Breakdown. After the Opry ended the students were treated to a two hour private session with Ricky and the band in the Opry television studio. There the band played and students got to come to the mic to ask questions of Ricky and the other players. Some of these students are involved in playing bluegrass at Berklee and some who were really hearing the music live for the first time. What was most striking was the pleasure the Ricky and the band took in spending time with everyone and how well they connected with the students. Plans are currently in the works to schedule a visit by the band to Berklee where they will give clinics, work with student players and bands and perform.

Other sessions and excursions of interest to bluegrass enthusiasts took place during the visit too. Everyone headed to the Station Inn on Sunday night for the jam. On Tuesday afternoon Grammy-nominated Berklee graduate Casey Dreissen, Grammy-nominated engineer Jason Lehning (Alison Krauss, Jerry Douglas, Viktor Krauss, Dreissen) and bassist Viktor Krauss spent two hours sharing insights with students in a panel discussion held at Warner Brothers Records. Other sessions were less about bluegrass but still were very interesting, inspiring and educational. (more…)

Lloyd Loar’s is a name spoken in hushed and reverential tones when serious students of fretted instruments get together to discuss their shared passion. In the bluegrass world especially, his contributions are remembered with a great debt of gratitude.

During a brief period in the early 1920s, Loar worked for the Gibson company in Kalamazoo, MI and introduced a number of design innovations, many of which are still in use today. Chiefly, his fusing of the design and construction techniques of violin building to the mandolin family of instruments launched an eight string revolution, and gave us what we now generically describe as the F-style instrument. The mandolins which he signed during his tenure at Gibson command prices that dwarf anything they have made since.

Roger Siminoff is one of the modern era’s most celebrated historians of Lloyd Loar, and a leading luthier in his own right. His biographical sketch of Loar’s life (published online) is regularly referenced as the most accurate, and is loaded with photos and details of his life, both before and after his time with Gibson.

Siminoff has just published a book that will be of interest to Loar-ophiles the world over, as well as anyone with an interest in the melding of scienece and music. The Physics Of Music is taken from a detailed set of lab notes transcribed by a student in one of Loar’s classes starting in June 1943 and continuing until his death later that year. The notes have been preserved since they were donated to Loar’s widow, and Siminoff has copied these detailed notes word-for-word, and included scans of the illustrations as well.

Roger describes the contents as follows:

“Professor Loar taught at Northwestern University for 13 years and while he taught other subjects, The Physics of Music was his predominant class. The School of Music catalog listed Loar’s class for 1944 as including electronics and it became a 4-credit class (where previous classes were 3-credits). Unfortunately, he didn’t live to give that class. I have a listing of his classes on my web site at this page here.

While the content might have been new and interesting for the students, I don’t think anything in this class was “groundbreaking” as far as the music industry is concerned. While the groundwork on musical acoustics was done by folks as early as Pythagoras (570-490 BC) through to Hermann Helmholtz (1821-1894), and the major development of acoustical instruments done by the Amati family, Guanari, and Stradivari (in the period 1500s to 1700 AD), in 1943 Loar was reporting the science of musical acoustics as it was in his day. He was sharing what was fairly well known and documented at that time.

I found quite a bit that both surprised and enlightened me including: 1) specific reference to tuned bodies and air chambers of violin from the great makers, 2) his comments on how “lute family” instruments (which in his mind included mandolins) didn’t measure up to violin family instruments, 3) and generally, his rich understanding of musical acoustics and how he presented it to a college class.

His conclusion - the last class - probably would have been very interesting, but he didn’t live to give Lecture 12. I think what is important in this piece is that we hear it from Professor Loar, and we get a sense of his diversity of thought.”

The book runs to 44 spiral-bound pages and is available exclusively from Siminoff Banjo and Mandolin.

Spring Break usually means a quick sprint to southern beaches for college students eager to escape the grind of their studies. For serious-minded students at Berklee College of Music, spring break each year means a trip to Nashville to learn more about opportunities in Music City, meet alumni working in town, and attend sessions with top industry pros.

Tonight at the Tuesday Night Opry in Nashville, they will also be on hand when Ricky Skaggs accepts an honorary doctorate from Berklee. The Boston institution notes that…

Skaggs’ virtuosity, his rich musicality, and his commitment to the deep roots of American music make him a deserving recipient of a Berklee Honorary Doctorate.

Berklee awarded a similar honor to Earl Scruggs in March of 2005 and to Loretta Lynn in 2006. They have also been awarded to jazz and pop luminaries like Duke Ellington, Billy Joel, Sarah Vaughn, Dizzy Gillespie and Paul Simon.

The presentation will be a part of the Tuesday Night Opry radio broadcast, which can be heard on WSM AM 650 and simulcast worldwide via online streaming at wsmonline.com. If you want to listen in, that segment is scheduled during the final half hour, from 9:30-10:00 p.m. (EDT).

GAC’s cameras will be on hand to record the ceremony, which they will air during this weekend’s edition of Opry Live.

Our friend Dave Hollender is in Nashville with the Berklee contingent, and he will try to get us some more details about the Opry event as well as the students’ various activities in town during their break.

Music instruction publisher Mel Bay recently re-released one of their mainstay titles, Mel Bay’s Complete Mandolin Method.

Originally released in book form only, the updated product is now available with an accompanying DVD. The product teaches the basics of mandolin technique, note-reading, music theory, and a large number of tunes ranging from classical pieces such as Chopin’s Prelude, Op.28 No.20, to traditional tunes favored by bluegrass and old-time players such as Carry Me Back To Old Virginny, Grandfathers Clock, Shenandoah, and everything in between.

The tunes are presented in a variety of keys. Standard notation is the only presentation of the music in the book, no tab.

Complete Mandolin Method is available for $12 as book only, or $20 for the book and DVD.

I’ve had occasion this week to speak with both Alan Bibey and Wayne Benson, two of the premier mandolinists playing bluegrass today. They are teaming up this year for a number of projects sure to be of interest to students of the mandolin, and folks who just love to hear them played.

Within the next several months, Al and Wayne will start work on a new twin mandolin project for Pinecastle Records. Their intent is to write some new music together, and arrange some more with harmony parts for mandolin duets.

Al said that they will have Ron Stewart on banjo, Stewart Duncan on fiddle, Tony Rice on guitar and Barry Bales on bass. He and Wayne will be featured on nearly all the members of the mandolin family and the material is expected to be largely grassy with a few ventures just a bit outside.

If all goes well, you can hope to see this new mando duo CD in the spring of ‘09.

The discussions about the CD have led the pair to also team up for a number of mandolin workshops with the first scheduled for March 26 in Woodstock, GA. The format will have them teaching both an hour long beginner and an advanced/intermediate class following a Q&A with the two of them together. Students who take the beginner or advanced classes will have the chance to spend time with both Wayne and Alan, and the evening will conclude with a duo concert.

Anyone who would like to attend should contact Dan Connell at 678-643-7531. If you are interested in hosting one of their joint mandolin workshops, contact Alan for details.

Known far and wide as a scholar specializing in banjo music, Bill Evans is bring the banjo to America.

Bill performs in variety of ensemble settings, including his band Rustler’s Moon, and shows with fiddler Megan Lynch. Bill also works as an instructor at many banjo camps and workshops, and he is an accomplished author. His most recently published work being the Banjo For Dummies book, available from Wiley Publishing.

In between all these other items on his busy schedule, Bill somehow finds time to perform as a soloist, in a format that could best be described as a concert/educational workshop called The Banjo in America. During the course of the presentation, Bill traces the banjo from its roots in West Africa to America, performing selections from the 1700’s forward on a variety of instruments in the banjo’s linage.

Bill recently visited me here at the studio and we filmed a few short video clips of select period performance pieces taken from The Banjo in America. I found the various instruments and tunes to quite fascinating, so I took the opportunity to speak with Bill about the tour and glean some information from him.

I inquired of Bill how long he had been pursuing this concept and what his inspiration had been.

I’ve been touring with “The Banjo in America” since the mid-1990’s but it’s something that I’ve often squeezed in between band performances, workshops and other shows. The initial inspiration for this concert format came from my participation in the Tennessee Banjo Institute and a couple of the Maryland Banjo Academy events in these years. These remarkable weekends brought banjo players together from all over the world who played in a variety of styles, including many of the historical styles I later incorporated into “The Banjo in America.” Also, as in so many things in my career, my buddy Tony Trischka was an inspiration to me. We were following similar paths in exploring these earlier historical styles. Joe Ayers, Clark Buehling, Eli Kaufman and Bob Carlin have also provided help and input along the way.

My work in American music history as a graduate student in ethnomusicology at the University of California, Berkeley in the late 1980’s and early 1990’s also helped me as I developed the format for this show. The Kentucky Humanities Council provided tour support early on as well - I played just about every public library in that state between 1992 and 1994! I’ve also toured with “The Banjo In America” throughout Japan, I’ve showcased this concert at IBMA on several occasions and have performed “The Banjo in America” at Wintergrass, the Gettysburg Bluegrass Festival and various festivals here in California and Colorado, among others. I completed a two week tour in Virginia last November, when these videos were taped. So the show has been out there for a long time - It’s just been under the radar!

A lot of people probably don’t realize the important role the banjo has served historically in the popular music of this country. (more…)

We’ve written often about Berklee College Of Music in Boston and their recent embrace of the banjo and mandolin as principal instruments. Like most top music schools, Berklee requires all degree students to complete a minimum of two years of intense study (technical proficiency) on an instrument or voice, even if pursuing a program other than performance.

To tutor the mandolinists and help lead ensembles Berklee hired noted mandolinist and instructor John McGann as an associate professor in the Strings department. John put together a concert at the college on February 5 to showcase the mandolin, bringing together faculty, staff and students. All Berklee concerts are recorded on video and 8 clips from the show are available on YouTube.

Annika Lückenbergfeld is a professional classical mandolinist who came to Berklee to study improvisation. I wrote a duo piece called Minatures which we play together.

On the long Blue Grass medley we play at the end, I feature Berklee students Eric Robertson and Jacob Jolliff. Eric is from North Carolina, and is ridiculously great for having only played for 4 years. He has a great combination of rootsy, bluesy expressiveness and an adventurous streak. Jake is from Oregon and sounds like he started playing in utero-just a natural talent who works his behind off at sounding effortless. He weaves beautiful, flowing lines.

The medley also features fiddler Nate Leath, a Berklee graduate who now plays with Old Scool Freight Train. Flynn Cohen plays great bluegrass (as well as other styles) of guitar, and my fellow professor Dave Hollender is on bass.

The complete medley is Midnight Sun (one of my tunes), Mississippi Waltz (Monroe), Huggin’ The Rail (original), Roanoke/Wheel Hoss/Big Mon - the last three being Bill Monroe tunes. I arranged all the harmony parts, etc. (more…)

Gibson has been posting free instructional videos on their web site of late. Most of them have reflected the larger size of their market that comes from the world of rock music, but two mandolin lessons were posted recently.

They are taken from How To Play Mandolin by Bert Casey, and show both a split-screen video and on-screen tab for the tune Blackberry Blossom.

Find the mandolin videos - and all the other free lessons - at Gibson.com.

Our friend Laura Leder from Cool Mandolin Company emailed recently to ask us to remind students of bluegrass and old time music - both here in the US, and in the UK and Europe - about Sore Fingers Week 2008.

The annual event will be held March 24-28 in Oxfordshire (UK), with classes offered in a residential setting over five days for fiddle, guitar, mandolin, banjo, resophonic guitar, bass, singing and autoharp. The faculty is drawn from top performers from both sides of the Atlantic.

A full instructor listing can be found on the Sore Fingers web site.

How many steel string acoustic guitars do you think are sold each year? I don’t know either, but it must surely be in the millions.

With a large bulk of them being sold - or given - to folks without much knowledge of the workings of a flat top box, one imagines that there are millions more who own a guitar and don’t know much at all about how it works, or what should be done to keep it in top condition.

It is for just these people that the newest DVD release from AcuTab was produced, as well as for serious guitarists and guitar owners who want to know more about their cherished six strings.

Get To Know Your Acoustic Guitar featuring Marty Lanham is designed as a DVD owner’s manual for guitarists. Marty Lanham is a well-respected luthier and the owner/builder of the Nashville Guitar Co. Top Nashville guitarists in both bluegrass and country music regularly entrust him with their priceless vintage instruments for set up, repair or restoration, and many of them also use his fine, hand made guitars on stage or in the studio.

The 2 hour video takes the viewer through an overview of the various component parts of the guitar, and how they work together to create its distinctive tone.

It also covers the most crucial guitar repair issues and how you can both spot and prevent them. Fret wear, loose braces, bridge plate wear, bridge pulling up, and neck twist and warpage are among the topics covered in detail, with many close ups. Marty goes over neck relief, temperature and humidity, tuning machines, intonation, finish issues and when a guitar’s neck may need to be reset. Causes (and corrections) for high or low action are also discussed and demonstrated.

AcuTab has posted a clip on YouTube with a number of brief video samples, along with clips from their various other banjo, guitar, mandolin and fiddle DVD projects.

The new DVD is due for release on February 15, with advance orders being accepted now. Get more details (screenshots, video clips) on the AcuTab web site.

Homespun Video has released two new instructional DVDs for mandolinists taught by Mike Marshall.

The two releases each carry the title Mike Marshall’s Mandolin Fundamentals for All Players, with DVD #1 subtitled Building Technique Through Exercises and Melodic Studies and DVD #2 Mastering Chords and Theory.

The subtitles accurately describe what is covered in each package, and both are presented in a step-by-step fashion so that each new exercise builds on what has been presented to that point.

Both DVDs include a printed booklet with tab and standard notation, and a discounted price is offered when they are purchased together.

Find more details on the Homespun site.

James Montgomery discovered bluegrass music at age 9 in his native North Carolina. He was suffering from polio and spent a lot of time listening to the radio. Now, 68 years later, and retired in Austin, TX, Montgomery recently donated $500,000 dollars to Mars Hill College in North Carolina.

The school has an Appalachian Studies program that includes the studio of regional music, including bluegrass and old-time music. In addition to the money, Montgomery also plans to donate his collection of 1,500 records and CDs to the school for use as reference material.

I just want to keep this music alive, and if I can do it through academics, so much the better.

The financial donation will be used to fund two annual scholarships for students studying the culture of the Appalachian region.

Statesman.com has the full story.

Speaking of free tabs…

Mando monster Alan Bibey has recently added a free tab section on his new web site, where he also plans to offer tips for mandolinists.

The first two transcriptions posted are for mandolin tunes Alan has written and recorded: Shoot The Moon (co-written by Ronnie Bowman) from the first BlueRidge CD, Common Ground, and Grasstowne City Limits from the debut Grasstowne release, The Road Headin’ Home.

These transcriptions were prepared by Andy Friedman of AcuTab Publications, who published Alan’s tab book and instructional DVD.

The two free transcriptions are presented with both tab and standard notation.

Our friends at BluegrassCollege.org are ringing in the New Year with the launch of their free Bluegrass College Fakebook.

The Fakebook currently consists of tabs (notation for the fiddle) for 10 bluegrass instrumentals. The tabs are available for all the bluegrass instruments including: bass, guitar, banjo, mandolin, fiddle, and dobro. The dobro page only contains 9 tabs not 10.

These free tabs are presented in high resolution pdf format, available for download or print. The proprietors of BluegrassCollege.org say they intend to add an additional 10 tabs to the Fakebook every couple of months.

If you are learning to play, this is great opportunity to learn some new tunes. If you are involved in a group of learners, it’s even better. You could all learn the same tunes together and be able to practice playing them together.

And when you’re ready for some more in-depth learning, be sure to check out the premium lessons offered by BluegrassCollege.org. The lessons include audio and video files as well as tab, and are taught by such bluegrass greats as The Infamous Stringdusters, members of Three Ring Circle and Blue Highway, Ron Stewart, Matt Flinner, Casey Dreissen, Luke Bulla, Tyler Grant, Mark Schatz, Missy Raines and many more.

Homespun Video is set to release a new instructional DVD this week featuring Peter Rowan and Tony Rice. Entitled Peter Rowan and Tony Rice Teach Songs, Guitar and Musicianship, the DVD runs 110 minutes with Rowan Rice teaching a half dozen songs from the repertoire of their live shows.

Rowan shows ideas designed to help an rhythm guitarist accompany a vocalist, while Rice describes more advanced concepts. Songs taught include You Were There For Me, Dustbowl Children, Let the Harvest Go to Seed, Angel Island, Come Back to Old Santa Fe and Panama Red. The DVD also features a performance of Rowan’s classic song, Midnight Moonlight.

It is scheduled for release on January 4. Find more details on the Homespun Video site.

The Transatlantic Bluegrass School, scheduled for May 7-11, 2008 in the Welsh town of Pembrokeshire, has announced the formation of a  scholarship program for young students, aged 16-25, based on financial need.

The scholarship awards will cover the full tuition costs, and are available for banjo, guitar, fiddle, mandolin or vocal. Applicants must submit essays describing their musical background, financial situation and their interests and aspirations in bluegrass music.

The management of the school describes the program as follows:

The purpose of these scholarships is to encourage the development and appreciation of bluegrass music and musicianship in the 16 to 25 year age group, and especially to facilitate participation in learning activities by those who without benefit of a scholarship would find it difficult to fund attendance personally.

Instructors at the ‘08 school will include Bobby Hicks on fiddle, Kenny Smith on guitar, Amanda Smith on vocals, Emory Lester on mandolin, Ross Nickerson on banjo, and Mike Bub on bass.

Applications must be received by March 21, 2008. Full details and necessary forms can be found online.

Mel Bay Publications has a new book/CD set sure to be of interest to serious mandolinists.

The Complete Mandolinist is written by Marilynn Mair, a professor of music at Roger Williams University in Rhode Island and an internationally recognized artist and instructor of the mandolin, specializing in classical chamber music. She has also been active in performing and promoting Brazilian choro music, a jazz-inflected style where mandolin is prominent.

Her new book follows the traditional format of a method book, starting with basic reading skills and technique, progressing through scales and arpeggios, exercises, position shifts, tremolo, pick techniques and duets to demonstrate the state of mandolin proficiency at this point in time.

Musical examples used to convey these techniques are drawn from the wide range of the mandolin repertoire, including fiddle tunes, choro, and both Vivaldi concertos and Beethoven sonatinas.

The book (with audio CD) is directed at both new mandolinists who want to follow a classical model, or more experienced players who seek to profit from the long and distinguished career of Marilynn Mair.

More details and ordering information can be found on the Mel Bay site.

Alan Munde has made a career out of playing the banjo, something he once joked about in an interview. He described meeting a girlfriend’s parents as a young man, and answering their obvious question about what he did for a living with the plain truth. Alan said that their expressions made it clear that they imagined him on a street corner with a hat and a monkey, while in fact he was on the road with Jimmy Martin.

The intervening years have marked Munde as a consummate music professional, with a long performing and recording career, plus a 20 year tenure as the head of the bluegrass music program at South Plains College in Levelland, TX. Along the way, he has authored or been the subject of a great many pieces of instructional material, and taught at camps and workshops all over the world.

So it should be no surprise that Mel Bay Publications chose Alan to author a banjo book for their Getting Into series. Getting Into Bluegrass Banjo is a 96 page book with an accompanying audio CD that is designed to help novice banjo pickers get started on the 5 string. It covers right hand rolls, creating solos, left hand techniques and then combines them all in a number of banjo arrangements for popular bluegrass standards.

You can find more details and a list of songs on the Mel Bay web site.

IBMA’s Bluegrass in the Schools program runs an annual lesson plan competition which encourages school teachers to submit the lesson plan they have developed to teach children bluegrass music.

One of the winners for 2007 is Sally Stuart of Mayflower, AR. Sally won for her lesson plan Bluegrass, Our Musical Roots.

Just recently the NorthWest Edition of the Arkansas Democratic Gazette ran a feature story on Stuart’s efforts to teach children bluegrass music. The story focuses on an after-school program Stuart started to actually teach the children to play the music. She has a small group of children who were interested in learning to play and she has provided instruments for them to practice on, some paid for by herself, others donated.

The children will be performing for friends and family in the spring of 2008, at an outdoor concert.

Stuart got interested in teaching bluegrass to students after watching the Discover Bluegrass DVD produced by IBMA.

For more information on the program and how you can be involved, please visit the Bluegrass in the Schools webpage.