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It’s funny you said that, because one of my resolutions this year is to learn some bluegrass. I guess I’ll start with Brian’s bluegrass lessons, but there aren’t a whole lot to choose from. I’m a bit afraid that my speed might be insufficient to play that fast cross-picking style the skilled bluegrass players use. And you have to use a pick to play fast bluegrass, so that means I have to start using a pick more than I normally do. This could be interesting.
Sunjamr Steve
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Upon searching there are 23 lessons tagged “bluegrass.” So not a ton, but if I do one every other week that’ll last a year! I tried a few lessons from Banjo Ben Clark years ago, he’s pretty good.
If I zoom out a little, my bigger goal is to simply play more acoustic. There are 150 lessons tagged “acoustic” so plenty of material.
I considered working on fingerpicking; a technique based goal was kind of intimidating, and the acoustic goal seemed more realistic. Some day….
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I play only acoustic, and I’m in my 4th year here at AM. I haven’t run out of material yet! Also, just because Brian uses an electric on a lesson, or it’s not specifically tagged as ‘acoustic’, doesn’t mean it’s not appropriate. Everything is worth examining and learning from, even if it would never be a solid acoustic showcase piece. Anyway, my 2-cents.
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… And you have to use a pick to play fast bluegrass, …
You certainly don’t have to use a pick to play fast, no matter the style.
The European Qualification Framework (similar to UK’s ABRSM) for classical guitar requires 144 bpm for the Final grade (ABRSM Grade 8). That’s 144 quarter notes per minute, i.e. 288 eighth notes or 576 sixteenth notes!!!
I don’t think anyone can play 576 notes per minute, not even in bursts, but some flamenco guitarists (e.g. Grisha Goryachev) routinely achieve over 400 notes per minute in bursts. Paco de Lucia or Andres Segovia were also known for their blazing fast burst speeds.That being said, I’ll gladly admit that you typically won’t get the tone if you don’t use a pick.
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Once I tried to learn to play “Recuerdos de la Alhambra” like Segovia, but achieving that speed was hopeless for me.
Sunjamr Steve
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“Recuerdos de la Alhambra” is not a particularly fast piece; but there is that tremolo picking throughout and that’s indeed a beast to master. It is THE tremolo picking song for all classical guitarists.
The big challenge with tremolo picking is not so much speed but rather smoothness and consistency, particularly when done on inner strings (like in Recuerdos).
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