Hello All,
We’re kicking off a new tune this week: the venerable Billy In The Lowground. This is one of the all time classic flatpicking tunes. Everyone knows and plays this one, and for good reason: it’s really fun to play! It also has a couple of tricks up it’s sleeve that we’ll look at in subsequent lessons. But for now, let your focus rest on the good flatpicking fundamentals of staying loose, relaxed, and finding a nice groove to your playing.
Enjoy!
Chris
Topics and/or subjects covered in this lesson:
Bluegrass
Print Chords & Tab
Loop 0:00 Run-Through of Billy In The Lowground
Loop 2:01 Breakdown of Billy In The Lowground
Loop 19:24 Closing Thoughts
Comments
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Really trying to work on flow and movement. Not so much speed or accuracy. Also trying to open up my picking hand in terms of range of motion. Seems like I can get more of a flow by loosening up and allowing the range of motion to be more free and wide.
Nice!
Great job Travis, you've definitely got a good flow going here! You got my foot tapping right along. The next thing I would focus on is how you are accenting the melody to make it "hop" or groove even more. There are times when, probably in the name of staying relaxed, it feels a bit dynamically flat. So now that you've got the loose flow going, try to find times to "punch" the melody to make it dance. I didn't do a great job of this in my play through, but I think you can hear what I'm talking about in the first few notes of the melody after the potatoes at the very beginning. It's subtle, but it makes a difference.
Keep up the great work!
Chris
Hi Chris -
I should be cutting the grass but here I am picking on Billy in the Lowground. Always a work in progress.
Kip
Kip, as always you’re just killing it. You seem really calm and relaxed as you’re playing. That practice of mindfulness has really paid off and it’s awesome to see. I think it’s time for you to graduate to your metronome clicking half as much (so just on beats 1 and 3 instead of 1, 2, 3, 4). Try and maintain your sense of flow as you play. If that seems easy, have it click half as much again so that it is only beating on the first beat of every measure. This can be a GREAT way to work on both your own internal sense of flow and mindfulness/relaxation.