Jeremy Fritts
The Doctor Is In
To say that there are a lot of people providing guitar instruction on YouTube is an understatement…there are thousands…maybe tens of thousands. Refine your search to bluegrass and fiddle tunes and the numbers drop, but there are still hundreds. Refine the search again to look for someone who has taught bluegrass guitar and fiddle tunes at the college level for well over a decade and is a Doctor of Music Education and there is probably only one—Jeremy Fritts.
Jeremy received his bachelor’s degree from East Tennessee State University (ETSU) in the late 1990s. After graduating from ETSU he started teaching in the school’s bluegrass guitar program and also taught jazz, classical, and Christian contemporary guitar at Milligan College. Just a short while later (in 2000) he entered the Master’s degree program at Belmont University in Nashville. He studied the classical guitar and earned a degree in guitar pedagogy (teaching), graduating from that program in 2002.
After graduating from Belmont, Jeremy enrolled at the University of Tennessee and took a semester to study composition and orchestration and work on writing original classical music. Shortly thereafter he produced four instructional books and DVDs for bluegrass guitar and in the fall of 2010, he started teaching again at ETSU in the bluegrass music program as an adjunct professor. A position he still holds today.
When his academic load at ETSU was reduced during the pandemic, Jeremy decided to go back to school once again and earned his DME (Doctor of Music Education) from Liberty University. In 2023, he decided to begin sharing his vast knowledge of the guitar online for free by posting lessons on his YouTube channel. I recently talked to Jeremy about his online lessons, and I’ll share that with you, but first I’ll give you a little more about Jeremy’s background in bluegrass music and education.
The Early Years
Like many other bluegrass musicians, Jeremy Fritts is one of those who was born into bluegrass. Jeremy’s father, Larry Fritts, played in Eastern Tennessee bluegrass bands since before Jeremy was born. His father also owned a music store in Rogersville, Tennessee, that catered to bluegrass musicians. Larry Fritts played the banjo, guitar, bass and mandolin. Jeremy’s older brother, Geoffrey, played the bass, banjo and guitar. Jeremy recalls, “My strongest memories of being a little kid are from that music store. I would hang out with my dad and older brother and all of these people would come in and play music. I was surrounded by it as far back as I can remember.”
Although Jeremy has always been surrounded by bluegrass, in his own exploration of the guitar he has not been content to stick with flatpicking or bluegrass. He has always been motivated to seek out and absorb as much information about guitar playing and guitar music as he could find, and continues to do so today. A short list of his influences includes a very wide range from bluegrass players like Larry Sparks, Tony Rice, David Grier, Tim Stafford, Kenny Smith, Scott Nygaard, and Bryan Sutton to jazz players like Martin Taylor and Wes Montgomery, classical players like Julian Bream and Sharon Isbin, and Gypsy players like Django Reinhardt and Bireli Lagrene.
Jeremy started playing the guitar in 1986 at the age of nine. His interest was sparked by a sunburst Epiphone guitar that was hanging in his father’s music store. When he saw that guitar, he asked his dad if he could have it. His father told him, “You can have it, but if you don’t play it everyday I’ll put it back up on the wall.” When asked what attracted him to the guitar versus the other instruments that he had been exposed to, Jeremy said, “I was mostly around guitar players. Although my dad played banjo in his band, he was usually playing the guitar around the store and at home.” Jeremy’s father was his first teacher.
Once Jeremy started learning how to play the guitar, his father didn’t waste any time bringing him into his band. “Within a month after starting to learn how to play, my dad was bringing me up on stage and I quickly became the guitar player for his group,” Jeremy recalls.
As the Fritts kids got older Larry’s band changed to a family bluegrass band with Larry on banjo, oldest son Geoffrey on bass, Jeremy on guitar, youngest son Josh on mandolin and guitar, and daughter Sarah on fiddle. The family had a regular spot on the Blue Ridge Drifters weekly radio program and performed at local venues and festivals. Eventually the band got so busy that Larry didn’t have enough time to run a music store and a band, so in the early 1990s he closed the store to focus more on the band.
From the very start Jeremy learned everything by ear and spent hours jamming at his father’s store. He said, “On Saturday we would play the radio show in the morning and then go jam at the store all day long, then play a show at night.” When it was time for Jeremy to go to college, he selected East Tennessee State University (ETSU) because he knew that along with getting his graphic design degree he could take advantage of the classes offered in the bluegrass music program.
When asked if he had entered the program at Belmont so that he could earn the credentials that would allow him to seek a teaching job after graduation, Jeremy said, “I went to Belmont with no plan other than to learn as much as I could about the guitar. I wasn’t there to seek a job after graduation, I was just after the knowledge. I love learning about music.”
The Music Store
Just three months after completing the Master’s program, Jeremy decided to follow in his father’s footsteps and open a music store to cater to bluegrass and acoustic musicians. Today, Jeremy still owns and operates East Tennessee Musician’s Supply in Surgoinsville, Tennessee. In addition to selling instruments, picks, capos, strings, tuners, instructional DVDs, books and CDs, Jeremy teaches lessons at the store and has authored a series of instructional books for the guitar that he calls “The Jeremy Fritts Guitar Method.”
When teaching his students, Jeremy’s number one goal is to make the lessons fun and enjoyable. He starts by teaching simple tunes like “Amazing Grace” with a simple melody, based on quarter-note down-stroke picking, and basic chord changes. After a student has studied for three to six months and has built a number of tunes into their repertoire, Jeremy then begins to introduce music theory. He starts by teaching scales and chord construction. His goal is to teach them how to analyze the chord progression and melody and discover how the notes relate to the scales and arpeggios that they have learned.
Jeremy said, “I like my students to learn theory through practical example. I’ll have them listen to one of my solos and analyze it by first figuring out the chord progression and then, using the chord progression as a guide, figure out what melody notes match the chord tones. Once they are able to understand some theory behind a simple solo that they have analyzed, I think that it becomes easier for them to create their own solos.”
Having himself had the opportunity to play with other people for his entire musical career, Jeremy feels that playing with others is vital to the learning process. In addition to teaching private lessons, he organizes band classes at his store and teaches his students how to interact with other musicians. He said, “When you play with other people you learn how to take risks and you learn that you have to be willing to fall down so that you can then learn how to get back up again.”
Teaching Online
Between 2010 and 2020 most of Jeremy’s time was spent teaching students at his music store and teaching at ETSU. Currently he teaches at ETSU two days per week. He also put together a solo show that included guitar music from many genres. He said, “I like to introduce audiences to music that they might not be used to. I’ll play bluegrass and fiddle tunes, but I’ll also slip in some Bach or jazz.”
Regarding his teaching format, Jeremy said that 2020 was “life changing.” Prior to the COVID pandemic he taught all of his students in person. He would bring handouts and he also allowed the students to video tape him playing. When the pandemic shut things down at ETSU, he was forced to start teaching online. He said, “When we went on spring break in 2020, we learned that we were not coming back to school and had to take our classes online. So, I had to prepare videos for my students and send them out. Between the spring of 2020 and 2023, I had built a large library of lessons. They are not beginner lessons, they are mostly for the intermediate or advanced player.” Jeremy produced lecture videos related to various coursework that he taught at ETSU as well as performance videos and instructional videos.
After finishing his doctorate studies in August 2023, Jeremy decided to start to share some of the videos that he had created for his ETSU students and add to that archive—and he decided to make them available for free. He set up a YouTube channel and has currently uploaded over 60 lessons, adding about two new lessons per week. To find his YouTube channel, go to YouTube and search on “Dr. Jeremy Reuben Fritts” or use the URL www.youtube.com/@Dr.JeremyReubenFritts.
In January of 2024, I asked Jeremy if he would prepare a video for Bluegrass Unlimited so that our readers could get a taste of what he had to offer. He prepared an excellent video on performing fiddle tunes as a solo flatpicker using the tune “Golden Slippers” as an example. You can find that video by scrolling through the Lessons page on the Bluegrass Unlimited website (bluegrassunlimited.com).
Jeremy has divided his YouTube playlists into five categories as follows: Performance Shorts, Performances, Fingerstyle/Thumbstyle guitar, Flatpicking Guitar Lessons and Music Education Lectures. For each of the instructional videos that Jeremy posts on his YouTube channel, he includes the difficulty level, ranging from 1 (easiest) to 6 (most difficult). For all of his instructional content, Jeremy includes tablature that appears on the video screen, which is helpful. The Music Education Lectures are from his American Roots Music Course that he teaches at ETSU.
Jeremy Fritts is a talented and versatile guitar player who has a strong passion for teaching. He has a solid background as a professional educator and the bluegrass guitar world is lucky that Jeremy has chosen to share his knowledge and experience for free via the YouTube platform. His channel is a great resource for anyone wanting to improve their flatpicking guitar skills.
