In almost every feature article we have printed in Flatpicking Guitar Magazine, all of the professional players we have interviewed have stated that the best place to start learning is with rhythm. They also will tell you that when they learned how to play there was no tablature, so they learned it all by ear. This is not how most flatpickers learn today. I have observed two things that most flatpicking hobbyists, who have learned how to flatpick in the past fifteen years, have in common. First, not enough time is spent focusing on rhythm (and timing) and, second, not enough time is spent on ear training. I know this is a true statement for myself and, from the feedback I have received from readers, I would say it is true for a good portion of the flatpickers who have started learning since tablature and transcriptions have become abundant.

If all of our heroes are telling us to spend more time focusing on rhythm and training our ear, why aren’t we doing it? If I were to guess at an answer I’d have to say that, first, for most people, learning to play lead guitar is more exciting and interesting than playing rhythm. Secondly, learning from tablature is easier than learning by ear. Ear training is hard work.

The problem with the way new students are learning these days is that they are missing some important fundamentals. If you start your flatpicking development by learning fiddle tunes from tablature, I predict that you are going to run into some problems. After you learn fifteen to twenty fiddle tunes from tablature, you may indeed be able to execute the memorized arrangements of those tunes in a jam session at a moderate speed. But one or more of the following difficulties will fall upon you: You may have trouble remembering the chords when you start to play rhythm (because you never practice rhythm). Once you do know the chords, you will eventually get tired of playing the same old rhythm lick (because there is not much tablature available for rhythm). You will have a very difficult time learning how to improvise. You will crash and burn when you are in the middle of a memorized solo and you get lost. You will have a difficult time coming up with your own solo arrangements, especially on vocal numbers. Finally, you will have a hard time playing songs at a jam that you have never heard before. All this will lead to you reaching a plateau in your progress. You will not feel like starting over again, so you will continue to memorize more fiddle tunes and noodle around on the ones that you already know. Then you will reach another plateau. Eventually you will realize that there is a lot missing from your flatpicking education. If any of this applies to you, then I recommend you journey back to the roots of flatpicking.

After interviewing hundreds of flatpickers, studying dozens of instructional books and videos, listening to hundreds of flatpicking CDs, and talking with thousands of flatpicking students and enthusiasts, I have come to the conclusion that the best way to study flatpicking is directly along the evolutionary line that it developed. Having said that, I feel remiss in not publishing this special “pioneers issue,” way back during our first year of publication. It took me over ten years to realize that the information in this issue should have been published long ago and then we should have been building upon the information as the years progressed. Although we certainly have covered many of the early pioneers in the magazine here and there over the years, I feel like we should have focused more heavily on those pioneers in the early years and then continued to present more of their material as time went on. In this issue, and in the future, we will explore these pioneers and their styles and techniques in more detail.

So now that I’ve boldly stated that I have discovered the method by which all flatpickers should learn and develop their craft, I should lay out this method for all to read. The way I wish to present it is to talk about the evolution of the flatpicking technique and suggest that a solid learning method might follow a similar course. While I don’t feel that strict chronological adherence is absolutely necessary, I do feel like spending some time studying each of the most important players in the chronological development of the style will serve to give the student a complete understanding of the flatpicking style and fill in any holes in one’s knowledge and/or skill. For instance, in order to develop your ability to play rhythm in a bluegrass band it is fine to study Lester Flatt, Jimmy Martin, or Red Smiley before studying Riley Puckett or Roy Harvey. However, if you ever want to improve your bass run repertoire, or if you are going to play in a small ensemble that does not include a string bass, studying players like Riley Puckett, Jimmie Rodgers, Charlie Monroe, Edd Mayfield, or Roy Harvey is highly recommended. However, in general I feel that chronological adherence is the best way to proceed. For instance, I would not recommend that someone study Doc Watson, Tony Rice, or Norman Blake before they study Maybelle Carter’s chord-melody style or George Shuffler’s crosspicking technique. You have to learn to add and subtract before you learn algebra. Rhythm and Ear Training

As stated previously, the large majority of professional players and guitar instructors that I have talked with over the years agree that rhythm is the most important place to start when learning how to flatpick. Most will also agree that students do not generally spend enough time studying rhythm before they try to move on to playing lead. In the early years of the steel-string flat-top flatpick playing, the guitar was used as a rhythm instrument almost exclusively. So if our learning method is going to follow the chronological development of the style, a solid focus on rhythm is where we need to start. Typically a beginning flatpicker will start learning basic first position chords with the left hand and the simple alternating bass-note strum, or “boom-chick”, with the right hand. Once that has been accomplished, then many students will learn a couple of G-run variations, a handful of simple bass runs, and then maybe a couple of alternate right hand strumming patterns, all the while chomping at the bit to move on to learning how to play lead.

Over the years that I’ve published Flatpicking Guitar Magazine I have frequently run into frustrated flatpickers who are “stuck” in their development as a rhythm player because they feel as though they only know a few things and they play those same things over and over. One question that they will typically ask is “How can I learn more about bass runs?” My answer to that is to go back to recordings by some of the earliest flatpickers like Riley Puckett with Gid Tanner, Roy Harvey with Charlie Poole, or Edd Mayfield with the Mayfield Brothers. Also take a listen to any of the musicians who played with the Light Crust Doughboys (Herman Arnspiger, Sleepy Johnson, or Derwood Brown) or any of the guitar players in the brother duets groups of early country music (Monroe Brothers, Blue Sky Boys, Delmore Brothers, etc). Why? Because these guys played in bands that did not have a bass player so their style of rhythm was filled with a lot of bass runs. They played the part of both the guitar and the bass in the band and so their rhythm work was full of creative and interesting licks and runs.

Many players who are accustomed to learning from tablature are going to say, “Where can I find transcriptions of these players so that I can learn some of those great bass runs?” Well, there have been some transcriptions over the years in Flatpicking Guitar Magazine, and I have posted some of them on-line in a series of articles that I’ve been writing for Mel Bay’s Guitar Sessions on-line magazine. However, the best way to learn this stuff is to buy the CDs and listen! You will not only hear some great music and guitar picking, but you will also begin to learn how to train your ear. Ear training is a vital part of learning how to play the guitar and if you don’t spend time with it everyday, you will not get very far. If you try to start your ear training by listening to Doc Watson or Tony Rice you are going to become frustrated. Guys that have a very good ear and have been transcribing for years find it challenging to transcribe some of Tony and Doc’s stuff, so you can’t expect to start training your ear by listening to any of the modern players. Going back to some of the early players and picking out bass runs is not so challenging and thus you will begin to develop your ear and gain confidence in using your ear if you start with transcribing bass runs and rhythm.

Starting your ear training by picking out bass runs on old records is advantageous for several reasons. First, the ensembles are small and since there is not a bass in the band the bass runs on the guitar are easier to hear. Secondly, because bass runs are mostly played on the lowest three or four strings, and since they are usually played on the first three or four frets, you have a limited area of the fretboard to work with in trying to find the notes that you hear. Lastly, the notes in the bass note runs are usually at least a quarter note in duration so trying to transcribe bass runs is far easier then trying to transcribe eighth-note solos. There are fewer notes to worry about. So I highly recommend that you download a few Gid Tanner fiddle tunes and try to figure out Riley Puckett’s bass runs.

In working to transcribe these rhythm runs yourself, you are going to begin your ear training development at a place that is appropriate for your skill level if you are new to ear training. Plus, in transcribing all of these bass runs by yourself, you are going to learn to internalize them in a way that is not possible if you do it by using tab. You are going to really hear how and where they are employed and thus you are going to instinctively know how to do it when you go out and play in a jam. You are going to hear it in your head and you are going to be able to find it on your guitar in real time. That is the great value of ear training. This is harder to do when learning from tab.

If you want to get an idea about what the old style of rhythm sounds like, listen to Edd Mayfield’s back up to the first part of “Sawing the Strings” on this issues’ audio companion. As an exercise, capo up to the fifth fret and try to figure out what Edd is playing before you look at the tablature that we have provided in Joe Carr’s column on page 13. For a couple more examples of this style in tablature, please view my Mel Bay Guitar Sessions article regarding the pioneers of flatpicking on the web: http://www.guitarsessions.com/mar07/flat.asp. Here you will find examples of Riley Puckett and Roy Harvey’s rhythm work.

If you want to hear how a modern player would incorporate this style of rhythm, please check out Flatpicking Guitar Magazine’s monthly on-line lesson for January 2007 at: http://www.flatpick.com/Jan07lesson/january1.html... In that lesson we transcribed the rhythm accomaniment that Charles Sawtelle used when backing up mandolin player John Rossbach playing “Tennessee Wagoner” on John’s CD Never Was Plugged. Since Charles was not playing with a full band here, but only accompanying the mandolin, he decided to utilize this bass-note heavy style of accompaniment. Charles was a student of the rhythm work of the old brother duets of the 30s and 40s. He was also a master at employing the accompaniment that was appropriate for a given song or situation. In other words, he may have never played this style of rhythm if he was in a full bluegrass band because he would have interfered with what the bass was doing. However, behind just a mandolin (or fiddle, or banjo) it works great. The bass line runs add a lot of interest to the accompaniment.

So, my suggestion to those who want to either learn how to spice up their bluegrass rhythm, or who want to learn a different way to accompany a fiddle, mandolin, or banjo in a small ensemble, that does not include a bass, is to go back and listen to some of the early pioneers of flatpicking and try to transcribe their rhythm work by ear. If doing that gives you some confidence, then move on up to the bluegrass era and listen to, and study, Lester Flatt, Jimmy Martin, and Red Smiley (for a list of examples that have appeared in Flatpicking Guitar Magazine, refer to the index at the end of this article or look at this webpage for examples: http://www.guitarsessions.com/apr07/flat.asp). Having spent time with their predecessors, you may have an easier time hearing what these great bluegrass rhythm players are doing. Spend some time studying how they shaped the guitar’s role in the bluegrass band setting and your ability to play rhythm guitar will improve greatly.