New Lessons for December 2023

New lessons, tunes, and techniques from Peghead Nation instructors!

By: Dan Gabel

December 6, 2023

Peghead Nation instructors have released hours of new instruction in their courses, and here are the tunes and lessons we’ve just published for December 2023. Join us in any course and get your first month free. Just use promo code Learn23 at checkout!

GUITAR COURSES

Bluegrass Guitar Fingerboard Mastery with Stash Wyslouch

“Sophronie” Solo with Arpeggios Stash shows you how to play the melody and a solo to the Jimmy Martin song “Sophronie” using the arpeggios in position 2E. The solo adds arpeggios, scales, rhythmic variety, and an ending lick to the basic melody.

Maybelle Carter-Style Guitar with Cathy Fink

Victory Rag “Victory Rag” is another fingerstyle showcase for Maybelle Carter. It has a ragtime-style chord progression, so Cathy starts by showing you the chords before showing you Maybelle’s arrangement of “Victory Rag.”

Irish Flatpicking Guitar with Flynn Cohen

Mrs. Carolan’s “Mrs. Carolan’s” is a reel Flynn learned when he was playing with acclaimed Irish button accordionist John Whelan, who called it “Sleepy Maggie.” Flynn plays “Mrs. Carolan’s” in second position, with a lot of trebles.

Western Swing Guitar with Matt Munisteri

We’re happy to announce the latest Peghead Nation course, Western Swing Guitar, taught by the great Matt Munisteri. In this course, you’ll learn to play the classic western swing rhythm style pioneered by Eldon Shamblin, as well as “twin guitar” solos from Bob Wills’s guitarists and the soloing styles of greats like Junior Bernard, Jimmy Wyble, and others.

The extensive lessons in Western Swing Guitar include transcriptions of Shamblin’s groundbreaking chordal work, as well as transcriptions of twin guitar solos from songs like “Roly Poly,” “Bob Wills Special,” and “I Hear You Talking.” You’ll learn Western swing classics from Bob Wills, Leon McAuliffe, and others, with arrangements of classic songs like “Faded Love,” “Panhandle Rag,” “Right or Wrong,” and more. Matt will add new lessons to the course each month, and all lessons include detailed notation and Play-Along Track videos and audio downloads so you can play along with Matt.

The Waltz You Saved for Me “The Waltz You Saved for Me” is a beautiful waltz written in 1930 and recorded by Bob Wills in 1938. In this lesson, Matt shows you how to turn a twin guitar part into a triple guitar part.

MANDOLIN COURSES

Swing and Jazz Mandolin with Joe K. Walsh

Learn to play swing and jazz melodies and classic solos from jazz legends like Lester Young, Miles Davis, and Django Reinhardt, as well as swing mandolinists like Tiny Moore and Jethro Burns. For each song, you’ll learn the melody and a solo, along with tips on technique, phrasing, and improvisation.

Freddie Freeloader, Miles’s Solo In the next two lessons, you’ll explore some blues vocabulary in Bb, using the Miles Davis tune “Freddie Freeloader” from Kind of Blue. In this lesson, you’ll learn three choruses of Miles’s solo.

Monroe-Style Mandolin with Mike Compton

Big River Bill Monroe recorded Johnny Cash’s hit song “Big River” in 1960. It’s in D but Bill plays a lot of open G notes under the D chords. Mike walks you through the solo, giving you some less dissonant options to play if you want.

Gypsy Jazz Mandolin Essentials with Aaron Weinstein

Learn to play swing and jazz mandolin from scratch, with a step-by-step method for learning swing chord voicings, as well as simple, swingin’, melody-based solos for some of the most popular songs in the jazz and swing repertoire. Designed for newcomers to playing jazz and swing.

Minor Swing Django Reinhardt’s classic “Minor Swing” is one of the most popular Gypsy jazz tunes. In this lesson, you’ll learn two new chord voicings (Am and Dm) as well as a simple solo to “Minor Swing.”

Honeysuckle RoseFats Waller’s swing “Honeysuckle Rose” has been recorded by nearly everybody, and the version by Django Reinhardt, Stéphane Grappelli and the Hot Club of France is a classic. In this lesson, you’ll learn a new voicing that can function as a minor seven or major chord (in this case, a Gm7 or a Bb) and a solo on “Honeysuckle Rose” composed by Aaron.

Old-Time Mandolin with John Reischman

Virginia Reel “Virginia Reel” is a classic square dance tune in the key of D. John learned it from his bandmate in John Reischman and the Jaybirds, Nick Hornbuckle, who learned it from old-time fiddler and banjo player Kirk Sutphin.

The Advancing Mandolinist with Joe K. Walsh

Indifferénce “Indifferénce” is a French musette waltz written in the 1940s. There are also some great contemporary mandolin versions by Peter Ostroushka, Mike Marshall, Tim Connell, and others.

Brazilian Choro Mandolin with Ian Coury

O Bom Filho à Casa Torna “O Bom Filho à Casa Torna” (“The Good Son Goes Back Home”) is a maxixe in D minor written by Bonfiglio de Oliveira, a trumpeter and composer who played with the great Pixinguinha in the 1930s.

Chord Melody Mandolin with Aaron Weinstein

Smile The melody of “Smile” was written by Charlie Chaplin. It was used in Chaplin’s 1937 film Modern Times, and lyrics were added later. It’s a simple and spare melody, so Aaron arranged it to match its simplicity.

Octave Mandolin with Joe K. Walsh

Christmas Eve “Christmas Eve” was written for the octave mandolin by mandolinist Ethan Setiawan, and was recorded on his album Gambit, where he plays it (mostly) as a solo mandolin piece.

BANJO COURSES

Old-Time Banjo with Bruce Molsky

Sourwood Mountain Bruce’s version of the square dance tune “Sourwood Mountain” comes from the playing of Glen Smith, who recorded it on a fretless banjo in eBEBE tuning, which puts it in the key of E.