This week’s session of Flatpicking Old-Time Fiddle Tunes focuses on two three-part tunes in the key of A: “Ways of the World” and “Bull at the Wagon.” You’ll learn both tunes with a capo on the second fret, played out of G position. Scott talks about deciding whether to play A tunes with a capo or not and then walks you through his arrangements, which include two versions of each part.
In this video, you’ll learn “Ways of the World”, which comes from an amazing solo fiddle recording by Kentucky fiddler William Hamilton Stepp, who was recorded by Alan Lomax in 1937 for the Library of Congress. There are also great contemporary versions by Rayna Gellert and Bruce Molsky. “Bull at the Wagon” comes from the Lewis Brothers, Dempson and Denmon, a fiddle and guitar duo that was recorded in El Paso, Texas, in 1929. Scott also references Oklahoma fiddler Earl Collins’s version.
