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Bluegrass.
A growing collection of bluegrass standards, old-time tunes, and fiddle favorites. Every song has its key, chord progression, and history. Public domain songs also have lyrics and free sheet music. All written by a picker for pickers.
All 54 songs.
Learn the tradition.
Articles about bluegrass history, instruments, and how to jam.
What to do when you don't know the song at a bluegrass jam
Ask the key, play quiet rhythm, watch the guitar player's chord hand, and pass on the break if you are unsure. Here is how to stay in the circle on a song you have never heard.
How to tune up before a bluegrass jam
Tune before you sit down, use a clip-on tuner, and check your pitch between songs. Here are the standard tunings for guitar, banjo, mandolin, fiddle, bass, and Dobro, and the tuning manners of the circle.
A-style vs F-style mandolin: which to buy for bluegrass
A-style and F-style mandolins differ in body shape and price, not much in sound. Learn what the scroll does, why sound holes matter more, and which to buy for bluegrass.
Banjo rolls to learn first for bluegrass
Four banjo rolls to learn first: the alternating thumb roll, the forward-reverse roll, the forward roll, and the Foggy Mountain roll, with strings and fingers for each.
Bluegrass gospel songs for a jam
Six gospel songs that bluegrass jams sing again and again, with the common key and chords for each, and how gospel singing works in the circle and at a Sunday morning jam.
Bluegrass jam etiquette: the unwritten rules of the circle
Twelve unwritten rules of a bluegrass jam: when to join, how loud to play, how breaks move around the circle, and what to do when you do not know the song.