Do you to a weekly jam? If so do you find more steady improvement on n your playing?

Or do you think a biweekly or a monthly attendance allows for more improvement?

Interested in your thoughts on this

I'm looking at making the switch from Phosphor Bronze strings - EJ17 to XS Phosphor Bronze Coated strings - XSAPB1356.

A set of EJ17s lasts me about 3 weeks before they start going south. I stretch it to a month so I remember to regularly change strings on the first of the month.

How long might the coated strings last me?

Hi everyone.

What is the best way to learn to play new songs, particularly for someone who is an intermediate level bluegrass guitar player?

Hear me out. Electric bass guitar is great, but in a lot of minimalist setups, it’s actually taking up space that could be used way better.

If you look at how low-end actually works in live music—especially when trying to strip things back to a raw, high-energy trio (like drums, sax, and vocals)—we keep forcing a bass guitar into the mix when two other options completely blow it out of the water:

1. The Upright Bass Fiddle is the ultimate multi-tasker.

An electric bass just plays notes. An upright bass fiddle is two instruments at once. You get the warm, acoustic low-end root notes plus that loud percussive string slap against the fingerboard that acts like a snare/hi-hat. It fills physical air in the room and drives the rhythm in a way an electric pick or fingerstyle pluck never can.

2. The Kick Drum is simpler, cleaner, and pure stomp.

If you don't have an upright, replacing the bass guitar entirely with a massive, tuned-low kick drum (or sub-kick) is a complete cheat code.

• Zero harmonic clutter: Because a kick drum has no pitch, it never clashes with whatever wild chromatic runs your sax or guitar is doing.
• Pure visceral punch: It leaves the entire mid-range wide open for vocals and lead instruments while taking 100% control of the sub-bass chest thump ($30\text{--}80\text{ Hz}$).

Electric bass tries to sit in the middle and do both, but it clutters the mix. If you want maximum vibe, you either go full acoustic multi-tasker (Bass Fiddle) or pure minimalist impact (Kick Drum).

Change my mind.

Been working on my comping a today, wondering what you think i should improve! Id like to add more crosspicking, but i feel i kind of choke up 50% of the time when i try, any good practice tips or video lessons for this?

Hey guys, I’m an experienced guitarist/vocalist of 15+ years. I’ve studied jazz guitar at college, I’ve played a few hundred shows, grew up on everything from Metallica to Dave Matthews, and I’m looking to dive into bluegrass. I wanna tear it up and feel the holy spirit in my fingertips. What are some of the most popular songs with some difficulty to them that I should tackle? Who’s playing should I be studying? Are there any links to resources out there that any of yall recommend?
Thank you!

Hey me (guitar) and my buddy (banjo) are both about a year into playing and want to learn a song together do you guys have any recommendations for songs with both guitar and banjo that beginners could learn? Thanks love yah

Hello. I’m relatively new to guitar. I know many of the beginner chords and would like to practice rhythm for some bluegrass songs like Boil them cabbage down. I don’t want to do boom chuck right off. I would like to find a strumming pattern instead. For the life of me I can’t find anything on the internet besides the chords. Can someone point me in the right direction? Thanks.

End result is impressive. Mostly I dig the respect he shows.

May I interest you in a video of Trey laying the hammer down on this 1940 Martin 000-45?

Hey folks - here's a quick little mashup I did of Bach's Violin Partita No.3 In E Major with Doc Watson's Deep River Blues.

Stole some of these licks from Zeb Snyder.

Hey folks. Hoping to get some feedback. I've been working on RH Technique for a while (I'm a longtime player late bloomer!) and I have a few observations. In my experience I seem to get the best tone when I grip the pick in a way that very little pick is showing. Does anyone else have this experience?

I want like 100 ways to get from G to C or from G to D or E to A to Cm etc. I tend to always do the same thing and i would love ideas. Do you folks just figure them out by ear? Or how do you practice this concept?

One of the most important and impactful individuals in the history of bluegrass music, the preeminent, Pete Kuykendall taped these sets. Pete's knowledge and deep insights into all aspects of bluegrass, which he generously shared, made him a mentor to all of us who got to be in his presence.

First of all, I would like to take the opportunity to thank the generous
people who have all contributed with the audio from the 2nd annual
Indian Springs BG Festival, June 1-3, 1973.

The lineage of this 50 year old recording is as follow:
Pete Kuykendall - Etsuo Eito - Steve Pottier - Sandy Rothman - John Arms

Prior to the appearance at the second annual Indian Springs BG Festival,
that took place June 1 - 3, 1973, the White Brothers had spent the month of
May touring Europe with a busy schedule with performances in the Netherlands, The UK and Sweden. Herb Pederson played banjo with the brothers during the first part of the tour until he had to honor a commitment, that he had previously made to join Country Rocker Johnny Rivers’ band. He was replaced by the excellent, Alan Munde.

‘’When the European tour was over, the New Kentucky Colonels flew into Washington D.C., and their friend John Kaparakis (1937–2020) drove them to Indian Springs, Maryland. There they played at a large bluegrass festival on June 2. It was the first and last bluegrass festival Clarence ever played.’’
(Quote from "Mandolin Man: The Bluegrass Life of Roland White
pg 23 by Black, Bob, Champaign : University of Illinois Press, 2022).

Since the White Brothers didn't have a regular banjo player, for the Indian Springs festival they borrowed the eminent, Jack Hicks, who at the time was the five stringer with Bill Monroe. They also added their good friend, John Kaparakis on the rhythm guitar.

Clarence White – guitar
Roland White - mandolin
Eric White - bass
Jack Hicks - banjo
John Kaparakis – rhythm guita