Lessons
Country Fiddle Style and Licks
In this video, Austin Scelzo explores ideas related to country style fiddling.
“Hillcrest Drive” on the Mandolin
Jake Howard of the Henhouse Prowlers, who was featured in Bluegrass Unlimited Magazine in our September 2025 issue, sent us a lesson where he teaches Ronnie McCoury’s “Hillcrest Drive.” If you’d like sheetmusic/tab of this tune, Jake makes it available on his Patreon page. Search “Jake Howard Patreon.”
How to Take a Fiddle Solo Without Knowing the Melody Fiddle – Part 1
This video lesson is Part 1 of a series where Austin Scelzo teaches how to take a fiddle solo even when you don’t know the melody. In Part 1, he demonstrates how to play pentatonic and major blues scale notes over the chord changes using “Banks of the Ohio” as an example.
Songwriting – “Tweaking” Your Song
In this video lesson Mark “Brink” Brinkman discusses putting the finishing touches on a new song that you have written by “tweaking” the lyrics to smooth the rough edges.
“Bye Bye Blues” on the Mandolin – Part 2
This is the second part of a two part lesson where Austin Scelzo teaches the song “Bye Bye Blues” on the mandolin. In the last part he taught how to find the chord progression by ear. In this lesson he teaches how to find the melody by ear and then talks about some ways to…
“Bye Bye Blues” on the Mandolin – Part 1
In this first of a two-part lesson Austin Scelzo is going to show you how to listen to a recording of the song “Bye Bye Blues” and analyze what you hear to first find the melody’s contour and then identify the bass line, which will help identify the chord changes, all by ear. In part…