BluegrassCollege.org is now offering a series of free playing tips from their prestigious faculty, updated daily on the front page of their web site.

First up are two posts on warm-up tips for flatpickers from Tyler Grant and one for mandolinists from Matt Flinner. Next week tips are coming from Luke Bulla on fiddle, and Brad Talley on resonator guitar.

BluegrassCollege.org is a subscription-based online database of bluegrass music instruction. Members can join for less than $10 monthly, or purchase individual video lessons for a flat fee. Instructors include top bluegrass artists like Rob Ickes, Ron Stewart, Chris Eldridge, Jesse Cobb and many others.

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.

UKBluegrass.com recently posted an interview with fiddle player, and instructor, Brian Wicklund. The interview centers around the instructional website BluegrassCollege.org. Brian was one of the founders of the site and continues to teach fiddle lessons online as one of the site’s main instructors.

We’ve told you about BluegrassCollege.org before, but for those who are new here, let me explain. The site offers online instruction on all the major bluegrass instruments, including: fiddle, banjo, guitar, mandolin, dobro, and bass.

Each lesson includes notes and tips along with tab/notation in pdf format, the lesson in video (Quicktime) format at more than one skill level, and mp3 files of practice tracks at varying tempos.

If you want to know more, read the interview over at UKBluegrass.com and then visit BluegrassCollege.org.

Online instructional resource The Bluegrass College, has undergone a complete website revamp. Based on feedback from it’s ever-growing numbers of subscribers, the site owners have made changes intended to increase the site usability and ease of use.

Site navigation is now easier to use with large icons providing clear direction to different areas of the site.

Additionally, the hosts have added a monthly subscription option of $8.95 and the ability to buy gift memberships. Tweaks to the video, audio and tab have made them even easier to use.

The Lesson Library is updated each month with a new tune performed and taught by different bluegrass masters. January’s tune of the month is the Stanley classic, Clinch Mountain Backstep. The instructors for the tune are the members of the Infamous String Dusters with Travis Book (bass, vocal), Jesse Cobb (mandolin), Chris ‘Critter’ Eldridge (guitar), Jeremy Garrett (fiddle, vocal), Andy Hall (dobro, vocal) and Chris Pandolfi (banjo).

If you are intersted in an online learning opportunity then I encourage you to check out The Bluegrass College.

Brian Wicklund, one of the founders and instructors of the site, sent along a few quotes from students who recently joined the site.

This is just what I need to get to the next level. – mandolin student

It is REALLY helpful for those of us who are learning. I’ve been playing the dobro for about a year and a half and the learning process for these songs is really helping me put things together (and make some sense of this instrument). –dobro student

This is great!!! I’ve been playing banjo for 3 years now and there are no teachers where i live! This has been by far the most help i’ve gotten since i started. Thank you so much! –banjo student

From time to time we have discussed various ventures that involved online video instruction for bluegrass music. The idea has a great deal of appeal to bluegrass instructors, and some are actively involved in providing such instruction. Three that come to mind immediately are Butch Baldassari, Ross Nickerson, and BluegrassCollege.com.

Ours is a small industry and I suggest that we look outside of bluegrass to see what other people are doing and possibly learn from them. There are other artists and companies who are also pursuing this avenue of instruction, and income. One such company that has come to my attention is WorkshopLive.com. They don’t have any bluegrass instruction on their site, it’s all rock, blues, jazz, etc. But what they do have is great quality video. At a reasonable price. Reasonable, but not cheap.

Theirs is a subscription service. You pay by the month and can then access as many lesson as you want from any of their offerings. The lessons include the video instruction, synchronized graphics of the instrument fretboard, and printable exercises. It”s an impressive program.

To be fair, they have spent a lot of money to get set up. I saw it reported just this week that a new investor has just provided them with $3.25 million dollars in funding to bolster their staff, expand the service, and expand their marketing efforts. Not many of us in bluegrass will have that kind of capitol to work with, but let”s not write off the idea of achieving a similar level of success in our own industry. There is much to be said for the idea of emulating success.

We”ve previously told you about a new online instructional resource, The Bluegrass College. (here and here)

Two of the sites founders, Brian Wicklund and Ian Nicholls, recently wrote us to give us some background information on the site and how it got started. It”s an interesting story. I”ll let them tell it in their own words. (more…)