Musix Newsletter #18 • December 2011
Welcome to Musix Newsletter #18! We’ve got a few pieces of music, TAB, and MP3s for you to download and learn. First here’s some news!
My newest book/CD set Christmas Crosspicking Solos for Guitar has arrived just in time for the holidays! If you read Musix Newsletter #17 you know that it’s long been anticipated.
Christmas Crosspicking Solos for Guitar includes 31 arrangements of the most popular and best-loved traditional Christmas songs for crosspicking guitar. Chords, melodies (in tablature and standard notation) and lyrics are presented, as well as extensive instruction in the crosspicking style. Recordings of every song at both slow and regular speeds are included on the accompanying play-along audio. Click here for a full listing of all the included songs, ordering info, plus sample pages and audio clips. You can see a video of me playing several of the songs from the set. Click here!
Christmas Crosspicking Solos for Guitar is my second Christmas guitar book/CD set. The first, published in 2009, Christmas Favorites for Solo Guitar (Best Loved Traditional Songs for Bluegrass Guitar) is also available. It includes 30 wonderful solos in the Carter / flatpick style.
You can download samples music, tab, and MP3s from Christmas Crosspicking Solos for Guitar and one from Christmas Favorites for Solo Guitar in the Newsletter section below.
Free, Downloadable Christmas Lyric Book
We’ve also posted a complete, beautiful, full-color, downloadable and printable, lyric book with all the lyrics to the songs in Christmas Crosspicking Solos for Guitar. It’s absolutely free and we hope you’ll use it in song-alongs with friends and family this Holiday Season. Click here to download.
Announcing E-books
Most of the books I’ve written for Mel Bay Publications are now available as downloadable e-books! How cool would it be to have the Parking Lot Picker’s Songbook on your iPad or other e-reader? Well, you can finally do it! Just log on to the Mel Bay website and browse by my name or any of my book titles. Eventually we hope to have all my e-books available directly from this website. In the meantime, Mel will set you up.
Parking Lot Picker’s Songbook, Bass Edition
My other recent publication is the Parking Lot Picker’s Songbook, Bass Edition. It’s the sixth book/audio set in the Parking Lot Picker’s series. Now every member of the band, banjo, mandolin, guitar, fiddle, dobro, and bass, can have their very own copy of the book, with the same songs, in the same key, and follow along for a jam session.The 312-page book/2 CD set contains over 215 great Bluegrass, Old Time, Country, and Gospel standards. The downloadable audio include recordings of every song.
Don’t forget our other Parking Lot Picker‘s Songbooks!
The Parking Lot Picker’s Songbook Bass Edition
The Parking Lot Picker’s Songbook Guitar Edition
The Parking Lot Picker’s Songbook Mandolin Edition
The Parking Lot Picker’s Songbook Banjo Edition
The Parking Lot Picker’s Songbook Dobro Edition
The Parking Lot Picker’s Songbook Fiddle Edition
Musix Newsletter #18
Guitar Crosspicking Solo: “We Three Kings of Orient Are”
Here’s the crosspicking arrangement of “We Three Kings of Orient Are,” from my Christmas Crosspicking Solos for Guitar set. To see me play it on my recent YouTube posting, click here.
We Three Kings of Orient Are crosspicking solo for guitar pdf
We Three Kings of Orient Are crosspicking solo for guitar MP3
Guitar Flatpicking Solo: “Jingle Bells”
Since the Holiday Season and winter are upon us, here’s another seasonal arrangement, this time from my Christmas Favorites for Solo Guitar. It’s everybody’s favorite seasonal song “Jingle Bells.” The “Jingle Bells” solo is a little bit easter than “We Three Kings” solo above and it’s written in a more traditional flatpicking/Carter style.
Jingle Bells flatpicking solo for guitar pdf
Jingle Bells flatpicking solo for guitar MP3
Mandolin Solo: “Alice Blue Gown”
For the mandolinists we have a pretty waltz, “Alice Blue Gown,” from my “Favorite Mandolin Picking Tunes” book/CD set. If you don’t have this book, I know you’ll love it. It’s one heck of a good deal: book plus CD for a retail price of $7.95! “Favorite Mandolin Picking Tunes” includes over thirty eclectic tunes teaching a wide range of material, from bluegrass and jazz standards to classics, waltzes, polkas, and other ethnic music.
Alice Blue Gown solo for mandolin pdf
Alice Blue Gown solo for mandolin MP3
Bluegrass Mandolin Solo: “Little Birdie”
For you bluegrass, old time, folk, and country mandolinists here’s a solo on a great old traditional song “Little Birdie.” It’s not from any book, yet, but you can find a full version with the melody, lyrics, chords, TAB, etc. in all The Parking Lot Picker’s Songbooks. The solo includes a mixture of single notes and double stops all played out of a closed position in the key of G. Since it’s in a closed position, it’ll be fairly simple to move around the different keys. Be sure to try moving it!
By the way, most all of the MP3 recordings I post in the Musix Newsletters are presented at only one speed. We do that to save space on our ever expanding website’s server. However, just about every book/audio set that I’ve ever produced includes at least two recordings of every piece of music: one at a slow speed and one at regular performance speed.
Little Birdie solo for mandolin pdf
Little Birdie solo for mandolin MP3
Have a wonderful Holiday Season. We’ll see you soon with Musix Newsletter #19.
Dix Bruce, December 2011