Musix Newsletters
News, Music, tablature, MPs, to download & learn! Click the Newsletter title, e.g. “Musix Newsletter #7,” and you’ll be magically transported to it!

Musix Newsletter #20

  • New book/CD All-Time Favorite Parking Lot Picker’s Guitar Solos.
  • Flatpicking Guitar: East Virginia Blues
  • Crosspicking Guitar: Green Pastures
  • Gypsy Swing & Hot Club Rhythm Special Offer
  • The Dix Bruce & Jim Nunally CD Collection
  • What’s up with Dawg Picks?
  • Dix Bruce & Julie Cline Look at it Rain Special Offer
  • Computers and Hard Drives

Musix Newsletter #19

  • Interview with and photos of Levon Helm, of The Band.

Musix Newsletter #18

  • Crosspicking Guitar: We Three Kings of Orient Are
  • Flatpicking Guitar: Jingle Bells
  • Mandolin: Alice Blue Gown waltz
  • Bluegrass Mandolin: Little Birdie solo

Musix Newsletter #17

  • Bluegrass/Old Time Guitar: backup for the song Little Willie Blues
  • Mandolin solo: Frogs for Snakes double stop solo
  • Crosspicking Guitar: “Silent Night” from the soon-to-be-released “Christmas Crosspicking Solos for Guitar” book/CD set
  • Bluegrass Mandolin solo: Down in the Willow Garden single string tremolo solo
  • Bluegrass Mandolin solo: Down in the Willow Garden double stop tremolo tremolo solo
  • Mandolin fiddle tune: St. Anne’s Reel

Musix Newsletter #16

  • Blues guitar: Backup technique using bass line and strums on Key to the Highway
  • Bluegrass/Old Time/Country Backup Guitar: Take This Hammer
  • Bluegrass/Old Time/Country Backup Mandolin: Take This Hammer
  • Jazz/Swing/Bluegrass Mandolin Chords: Cycle of Fifths
  • Guitar lead: The Wayfaring Stranger
  • Swing & Jazz Guitar: Solo for (Back Home Again in) Indiana

Musix Newsletter #15

  • Swing/Jazz Mandolin Improvisation/Solo: Swingin’ Like ’42
  • Swing/Jazz Guitar Improvisation/Solo: St. James Infirmary
  • Bluegrass Guitar solo: There’s More Pretty Girls Than One
  • Bluegrass/Old Time Mandolin solo: The Old Man at the Mill
  • Swing/Jazz Mandolin Chords & Melody: Corrine, Corrina
  • Christmas Guitar solo: What Child is This?
  • Christmas Mandolin solo: The Friendly Beasts

Musix Newsletter #14

  • Video postings: Guitar solos: Christmas Favorites for Solo Guitar: 30 Best Loved Traditional Songs for Bluegrass Guitar.
  • Mandolin Tunes: Mandolin Uff Da! Let’s Dance: Scandinavian Fiddle Tunes & House Party Music I talk about Scandiavian House Party music and play a few of the tunes on the mandolin.
  • Gypsy Swing/Jazz mandolin: Stumbling I show how to work on the chords first, then the melody as written in the book, then an improvised solo, then more chord work, and finally a lower octave melody.
  • Great Guitar book: Mel Bay’s Chord Rhythm System book. It teaches ALL the jazz and swing chords you’ll ever need: majors, minors, sevenths, major sevenths, minor sevenths, diminished, augmented, ninths, thirteens, and more, most with four different positions/inversions on the guitar fingerboard.

Musix Newsletter #13

  • Guitar solo: We Three Kings of Orient Are
  • Uff Da Mandolin Tune: Skjorte Frak Waltz
  • Gypsy Swing/Jazz Guitar melody/solo: Avalon in the Lower Octave
  • Gypsy Swing/Jazz Mandolin melody/solo: Whispering
  • Mandolin Solo: Little Sadie
  • Mandolin Solo: Darling Cory

Musix Newsletter #12

  • Mandolin Solo: The Ash Grove
  • Accordion Solo: Meet Me Tonight in Dreamland
  • Guitar Solo: Meet Me Tonight in Dreamland
  • Mandolin Solo: Meet Me Tonight in Dreamland
  • Jazz Violin Solo: Chicago
  • Guitar Solo in Octaves: China Boy
  • Guitar Solo: Pretty Polly
  • Hot Club Swing preview
  • Mandolin Solo: Swing in Minor

Musix Newsletter #11

  • Mandolin solo: “Bury Me Beneath the Willow” based on the new “The Parking Lot Pickers Songbook-Mandolin edition.”
  • Flatpicking Guitar solo: “Bury Me Beneath the Willow” based on the new “The Parking Lot Pickers Songbook-Guitar edition.”
  • Gypsy Swing Guitar, chords & melody: “Margie” from the “Gypsy Swing & Hot Club Rhythm for Guitar” sessions.
  • Gypsy Swing Mandolin, chords & melody: “Margie” from the “Gypsy Swing & Hot Club Rhythm for Mandolin” sessions.
  • Crosspicking Guitar: “Oh Come all Ye Faithful” to promote Holiday cheer.
  • Mandolin solo: “It Came Upon the Midnight Clear” as a jazz waltz to promote even more Holiday cheer.
  • Guitar chords: “It Came Upon the Midnight Clear” as a jazz waltz to promote maximum Holiday cheer.

Musix Newsletter #10

  • Mandolin Duet: Angels We Have Heard on High. I’m a sucker for a pretty old Christmas tune and I also love to play duets. So, I arranged a duet version of this old holiday favorite.
  • Guitar Duet: Angels We Have Heard on High. What’s good for the goose is good for the gander, as it were. The music’s the same as above but with different tablature.
  • Mandolin Double Stop solo: Away in a Manger in the key of G. We posted a simple version of this song way back in Newsletter #1. By now you’ve mastered it and are probably ready for a slightly more challenging double stop solo.
  • Avalon for Swing Guitar: I’ve been working on a Gypsy Jazz play-along project and been having a ball with it. Avalon is a preview. Learn the chords, melody, and jam along with the band.
  • Avalon for Swing Mandolin: Same as above but with mandolin chords and tablature.
  • Blues Guitar: Frogs for Snakes. A finger style blues plus a play-along track. From my “BackUP TRAX: Basic Blues for Guitar.”

Musix Newsletter #9

  • Swing Guitar: Learn closed position, moveable chords to the traditional tune “Careless Love.” This is from my recently released DVD “Basic Swing Guitar.”
  • Crosspicking Guitar: Relatively easy crosspicked version of Oh Where, Oh Where Has My Little Dog Gone? Great for getting you going on crosspicking.
  • Mandolin: Learn Amazing Grace in a closed position with no open string notes and transpose it to two other different keys. Accompanying lesson will help you understand the mandolin better.
  • Mandolin: Great old time tune, Pig Ankle Rag, from my new Mel Bay book “String Band Classics for Mandolin.”
  • Great Song: This one’s for anybody who likes great songs: Who Broke the Lock on the Hen House Door? Includes guitar TAB. It’s from my other new book/CD set “String Band Classics for Guitar.”

Musix Newsletter #8
Includes two holiday tunes with standard notation, chords, tablature, in .pdf and MP3 formats. You can download and print .pdfs of the music and listen to the MP3 examples.

  • Mandolin: “It Came Upon the Midnight Clear.” Easy arrangement with single string notes and tremolo.
  • Flatpicking Guitar: Carter-style arrangement of “Away in a Manger.”
  • GarageBand file #1: An energetic slightly Latin rhythm track for “Sally Goodin.” You can play along with this for days on end discovering all kinds of new variations as you go.
  • GarageBand file #2: A one chord groove for “Reuben’s Train.”

Musix Newsletter #7
Four tunes for guitar & mandolin, with standard notation, chords, tablature, in .pdf and MP3 formats. You can download and print .pdfs of the music and listen to the MP3 examples.

  • Swing Mandolin: Chords and comping on the chord changes to everybody’s favorite tune Sweet Georgia Brown.
  • Intermediate Mandolin: First learn the melody to In the Pines and then learn a simple double stop solo.
  • Flatpicking Guitar: Dropped D tuning without lowering the sixth string. Use the “partial capo” method to play this solo on John Henry.
  • Guitar Chord Melody solo on the chord changes to I Can’t Give You Anything But Love.

Musix Newsletter #6
Four tunes for guitar & mandolin, with standard notation, chords, tablature, and lyrics, in .pdf and MP3 formats. You can download and print .pdfs of the music and listen to the MP3 examples.

  • Mandolin: The Holly and the Ivy / Coventry Carol
  • (Christmas mandolin Trio)
  • Mandolin: Lo, How a Rose E’re Blooming
  • (XV century Michael Praetorius composition)
  • Guitar: Toyland (Basic Carter-style lead. Victor Herbert composition)
  • Guitar: Deck the Hall (Christmas Cross Picking)

Musix Newsletter #5
Five tunes for guitar & mandolin, with standard notation, chords, tablature, and lyrics, in .pdf and MP3 formats. You can download and print .pdfs of the music and listen to the MP3 examples.

  • Mandolin: All the Good Times. (Double stop/Tremolo)
  • Mandolin: Cherokee Shuffle (Fiddle tune)
  • Guitar: When the Saints Go Marching In (Basic/Double Stop/Variation).
  • Guitar: Two Guitars (Light Classical for flatpickers)
  • Guitar: Wildwood Flower (Arranged in two keys with modulations)

Musix Newsletter #4
Five tunes for guitar & mandolin, with standard notation, chords, tablature, and lyrics, in .pdf and MP3 formats. You can download and print .pdfs of the music and listen to the MP3 examples.

  • Jolly Old St. Nicholas (Finger picking guitar)
  • Star of the County Down (Flat picking guitar)
  • Silent Night (Mandolin-double stop tremolo)
  • Ja-Da (Mandolin-swing chords)
  • The First Nöel (Mandolin-tremolo solo in the key of B)

Musix Newsletter #3
This issue includes six tunes for guitar & mandolin, with standard notation, chords, tablature, and lyrics, in .pdf and MP3 formats. You can download and print .pdfs of the music and listen to the MP3 examples.

  • I Never Will Marry (Flatpicking guitar)
  • Beautiful Brown Eyes (Flatpicking guitar)
  • Way Down Yonder in New Orleans (Swing guitar)
  • East Virginia Blues (Beginning Bluegrass Mandolin Solo)
  • Auction Pa Strommen (Scandanavian fiddle tune for mandolin)
  • A Beautiful Life (Mandolin arrangement)

Musix Newsletter #2
This issue includes five tunes for guitar & mandolin, with standard notation, chords, tablature, and lyrics, in .pdf and MP3 formats.

  • Memphis Minnie Blues (Blues guitar)
  • Banks of the Ohio crosspicking (Flat picking guitar)
  • Shady Grove (Flat picking guitar)
  • Danny Boy (Mandolin arrangement)
  • The Cuckoo’s Nest (Mandolin-Irish fiddle tune)

Musix Newsletter #1
This issue includes four tunes for guitar & mandolin, with standard notation, chords, tablature, and lyrics, in .pdf and MP3 formats.

  • Children Go Where I Send Thee (flatpicked/bluegrass arrangement)
  • Angels We Have Heard on High (crosspicking arrangement)
  • Away in a Manger (easy mandolin version)
  • The First Noel (Carter-style version)

Copyright © 2019 by Musix

Customer comment:
“…I just wanted to send an email to firstly say thank you for making available the tablature for “Two Guitars” amongst the many others. I have been looking for the tabs for quite a while (I’m only beginning to play the guitar though, so I thought tabs would be easier for me to follow) and stumbled across your newsletters in the process of searching the web (I’d even attempted searching in Russian, but to no avail!). I have now bookmarked your site, having looked through and found many different traditional gypsy songs (which have interested me for a long time). Again, I would like to express my gratitude for your efforts in putting the tabs, sheet music and even MP3 files online, it certainly has helped me a lot!”
—R. B. (UK)

“…I just recently discovered your Newsletters and MP3 downloads. These are great aids for lerning new tunes on the guitar!…Thank you for your time — and your great music!”—J.D. (USA)