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.