New Lessons for August 2026

New Tunes, Techniques, and Lessons from our Peghead Nation instructors.

By: Dan Gabel

August 1, 2026

Peghead Nation instructors have released hours of new instruction in their courses, and here are the tunes and lessons we’ve just published for August 2026. Join us in any course and get your first month free. Just use promo code Learn26 at checkout!

GUITAR COURSES

Norman Blake-Style Guitar with Greg Schochet

Lord Won’t You Help Me: The Blake original played in C position includes a simple melody on the bass strings with a lot of hammer-ons and pull-offs, double-string harmony notes, and syncopated strums fleshing out the chord structure.

Irish Guitar with John Doyle

The Black Rogue: John introduces jig playing with a great old piping tune that goes back centuries. It’s in the key of D, although the first part starts as if it’s in the key of A Mixolydian until it resolves to a D in the fourth and eighth bars.

Contemporary Flatpicking Guitar with Grant Gordy

Voice Leading: Grant introduces the art of connecting chords by treating individual notes as continuous melodic lines. Using arpeggios in the key of C, he shows you a composed etude to play over the classic turnaround sequence for “Beaumont Rag.”

Irish Flatpicking Guitar with Flynn Cohen

Nellie, Your Favor I’m Afraid I’ll Not Gain: Here’s a great little hornpipe that Flynn teaches in the key of E minor. You’ll learn to play the tune primarily in second position, and Flynn will show you some ornaments to embellish the melody.

Western Swing Guitar with Matt Munisteri

Billy Goat Rag: In this lesson, you’ll learn a great two-chorus solo from Wilson “Lefty” Perkins that epitomizes western-swing guitar playing at its best. Matt shows you both choruses in the key of B♭ and offers some tips on fingering key phrases.

MANDOLIN COURSES

Weekly Mandolin Workout with Ethan Setiawan

Tune Accompaniment: Ethan expands your backup vocabulary via shuffles, boom-chucks, drones, alternate chord voicings, walking-bass lines, and more to build backup patterns for “Whiskey Before Breakfast” in the key of D.

Monroe-Style Mandolin with Mike Compton

Let Me Rest at the End of My Journey: Monroe himself never played a mandolin solo on this number in the studio or onstage, but Mike’s solo has period-correct stylistic flourishes including typical tremolo sections, triplets, slides, and blues notes.

Gypsy Jazz Mandolin Essentials with Aaron Weinstein

I Can’t Believe That You’re in Love with Me: The great jazz violinist Eddie South recorded a eloquent mid-tempo version of this standard with Django Reinhardt in 1937. The song has an AABA form and Aaron’s arrangement is in the key of C.

The Advancing Mandolinist with Joe K. Walsh

Ways of the World: This month Joe shows you a great three-part tune in the key of A from Kentucky fiddler William Hamilton Stepp. The tune is delightfully “crooked,” with an extra half bar in the A part, and a B section half as long as the other parts.

Octave Mandolin with Joe K. Walsh

Freight Train: Elizabeth “Libba” Cotten’s classic “Freight Train” remains a staple of fingerpickers, jug bands, folks groups, and bluegrassers such as Jim and Jesse. Joe shows you a lovely harmonized stand-alone arrangement in the original key of C.

FIDDLE COURSES

Jazz Violin with Aaron Weinstein

Indiana: Aaron’s solo for this great standard starts with a sliver of the melody followed by a chromatic run to a chord tone and then a rest for a full bar. You’ll also play some blue notes, approach tones, and scale phrases, all in the key of F.

Old-Time Fiddle with Bruce Molsky

Black Cat in a Briar Patch: This crooked tune from West Virginia fiddler Melvin Wine modulates between the keys of G and C. Canadian fiddler Erynn Marshall has a lovely version that inverts the parts, but Bruce teaches Wine’s version starting in G.

BANJO COURSES

Beginning Banjo by Ear with BB Bowness

The G Scale and Chords: After a basic fingerboard orientation, BB shows you how to play the G-major scale, first on one string, then across four strings. She also introduces a few chords and dips into some easy music theory.

Creating Bluegrass Banjo Solos with Bill Evans

Blue Ridge Cabin Home: Bill uses the Flatt and Scruggs classic “Blue Ridge Cabin Home” as a template for improvising. You’ll start with a bare-bones melody before adding a variety of licks and rolls to round out the sound.

Clawhammer Banjo with Evie Ladin

Fiddler’s Dram: This jaunty tune in the key of A is short, crooked, and easy to play. The A part is just six bars long and the B part is eight bars, and neither is repeated. The tune goes by a dozen different names, but it’s a lot of fun whatever you call it.

PLAY-ALONG RHYTHM TRACKS – Available to all subscribers. Guitar accompaniment video, downloadable audio, and chord charts for popular bluegrass, old-time, and roots tunes and songs.