A series of Chet Atkins, Merle Travis, n Jerry Reed lessons

[Ray Bohlken]

I bought some of these lessons when they were being sold at Steven Grossman's Guitar Workshop. I learned a lot from them. They were cassette based lessons and not video, so I got most of my information from the tabs that came with the course. Michel Lelong did a great job of tabbing out these songs. I have no association with him, but I sure enjoy playing the songs I learned. I still have a ways to go to learn them all...I'm trifling...what can I say.
Here are the links to the courses.
Ray
http://www.michel-lelong-music-house.co ... elong.html

http://www.michel-lelong-music-house.co ... elong.html

http://www.michel-lelong-music-house.co ... elong.html

Here is a link to Copper Kettle which I learned from that course. I don't play all that well, but it was fun to learn the song and be able to play it after a fashion. The same with Girl Friend of the Whirling Dervish.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OUJ2WgYFA1Y

Here is a link to Girl Friend of the Whirling Dervish which is also one I managed to learn.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5alhSNW57mY

[DagerRande]

Thanks, Ray! I'll look at those!

[Ray Bohlken]

Hi Rande. One of the songs I hoped to learn from these lessons was Liza - one of my favorites. I still hope to get to it one day.
I hope you're doing well. I am feeling great these days and doing right much playing with my buddies when we can get together.
Take care,
Ray

[DagerRande]

Hi Ray,

I'm glad that you're able to continue playing and having fun with it! I'm doing something I haven't done for
a long time. I'm spending a lot of time just working on one song....."Jerry's Breakdown". I've done a lot of
"jazz style" arrangements of songs for many years but never really worked on those "banjo lick" songs.
It's probably because they don't stand alone and need an accompaniment and I do all of my performing
alone. Now having said that, I'll tell you that I attended my one and only Richard Smith concert this past
May and he performed "Jerry's Breakdown" that night with no accompaniment. He just played the pure
melody until it came to Chet's part, for which he broke into a nice thumb picking middle part and then went
back into Jerry's banjo melody and finished it. I think he knew that it was impressive enough that he
wouldn't let anyone down....lol.
Anyway, that inspired me to learn it and has helped me to identify weaknesses and work on them individually. I use a metronome app on my iPhone and I used to start out at 100 bpm and worked my way up to 140 bpm's in increments of 10 every 5 minutes. I couldn't go past 140 bpm without mistakes so I would stop there. Things are better now. I start at 150 bpm and work my way up to 200 bpm in increments of 10 bpm every 5 minutes. That's still not fast enough but I'm hoping to eventually get it up to speed. I figured out the notes and fingering years ago but was lacking in my physical skills. Sorry for rambling but I guess I was reliving the process.....lol. Take care, Ray!

[Ray Bohlken]

Hi Rande. I really enjoy Jerry's Breakdown. I've tried to learn to play it several times, but I guess my brain isn't wired right or something. I can never get it smooth or up to speed. In fact the only Jerry Reed song I was ever able to play was La Madrugada and I haven't played that in quite awhile. I think you're taking the right approach and gradually getting it up to speed and using a metronome to guide your timing. I didn't do that and it probably would have helped some of my problems with the song and others of his that I tried. I never had the patience to go that route, but I think I'll give it a try and see how it works out for me. I sold my big metronome on eBay a while back and I reckon I'll have to use a digital one when I get back to working with one. I always wanted to learn that Jerry's Breakdown and Blue Finger - both are such neat songs. I used to practice all kinds of rolls and got to where I could do a decent job on them when I encountered them in a song. Not so much any more, but I'm back to working on them again. Anyway, I'm glad you're taking a good approach to learning this song and working on techniques...I'm sure it is paying off on other songs as well.
Take care,
Ray