Peghead Nation, the online musical instruction site, is launching a new, eight-part, live Zoom workshop series this Saturday. Titled Earl Scruggs: A Player’s Guide, the course will be taught by noted banjo player and instructor, Bill Evans, with guest faculty on selected episodes.
Bill is already a familiar face on Peghead Nation with his Bluegrass Banjo and Beginning Banjo courses, and to the wider banjo community through DVD releases for Homespun Tapes, The Murphy Method, and AcuTab. His various solo albums and in-person workshops all over the world have won him a loyal following, and he is eager to get started in this new format.
The course will run on Saturday afternoon, every other week, from February 20 through May 29.
Topics to be covered include:
- Easy Earl: straightforward tunes and solos (Shortnin’ Bread)
- Early Earl: Earl with Bill Monroe and His Blue Grass Boys
- Fiddle tune and slow song (teardrop) back-up (Fiddle and Banjo, I’ll Just Pretend)
- Solos to Flatt and Scruggs vocal tunes (Head over Heels, Doin My Time)
- Up-the-neck solos & discussion of fingering (Why Did You Wander?)
- Boogie-Woogie Earl, licks and solos (Six White Horses)
- Drop-C tuning (Farewell Blues, Ain’t Gonna Work Tomorrow)
- Earl’s most awesome licks for leads and back-up
Since these one-hour sessions will be conducted live, students will be able to pose questions and make requests during the classes. The session videos will be available to registered students to review following each class, and in perpetuity online. Tabs and any other lesson handouts will be emailed to each participant prior to the sessions.
Bill explains what to expect in this video tease.
For those who have already studied with Bill in his other banjo courses, he notes that this is all new material, with nothing repeated from his Bluegrass Banjo or Beginning Banjo lessons.
Course registration for Earl Srruggs: A Player’s Guide is $200 for the eight weeks of live Zoom sessions. Full details can be found online.
