Dan Miller Archives - Bluegrass Today

Dan Miller named as new editor of Bluegrass Unlimited

Bluegrass Unlimited, now under the aegis of the Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame & Museum, has named Dan Miller as their new editor, effective with the November 2020 issue.

Bluegrass folks will remember Dan from his helming of Flatpicking Guitar Magazine, from its inception in 1996 until it ceased publication at the end of 2016. There he served as editor, publisher, writer, and ad sales manager, as well as head of anything else that needed doing. Under the FGM banner, Miller also produced a number of popular instructional DVDs for guitar, and released several audio CDs for flatpickers. Back issues and digital collections of its 20 years of content are still available.

Since closing down his magazine, he has been working primarily as a gentleman farmer in Missouri, raising food for him and his family. The farm is also used as a site for instructional workshops and retreats, though those have been shelved while COVID restrictions remain in effect.

When we spoke earlier today, Miller expressed excitement about getting back into print media again, but without all the many chores that land on the publisher’s desk. A primary early goal for Bluegrass Unlimited is to get readership and subscription rates back up to where they were a decade ago. Dan said that they would retain their focus on longer-form essays and articles, along with quality photography.

He also expects to launch a monthly column that will regularly examine some of the many exhibits on display in the museum, not to mention their deep archive of historical photos.

The Bluegrass Hall has also announced that they are partnering with Tanner+West, an Owensboro, KY-based advertising and design firm, who will handle the magazine’s monthly layout, printing and mailing, and its overall look. Dan says a new logo is in the works for the November issue.

Current subscribers need do nothing; they will continue receiving the magazine as before. But it is expected to gradually evolve into the magazine of the Museum, like most established museums in this country provide. As such, subscriptions will be offered as premiums for members and supporters of the Hall, located in Owensboro.

Flatpicking Guitar to bow out after 20 years

Dan Miller, publisher and editor of Flatpicking Guitar Magazine, has announced that the bi-monthly print periodical for steel string, acoustic guitar enthusiasts will cease publication at the end of 2016. That will take the magazine through 20 years of offering tips, tricks, and tunes to flatpicking fans around the world.

But they’re not done yet! Miller is planning five more issues, and promises a great deal of special content to mark the final volume. Current plans have the September/October 2016 issue marked as the last one to roll off the press.

Dan will continue to operate the FGM web site, which offers all sorts of guitar accessories and instructional items, plus back issues of the magazine available in both printed and PDF formats. The various teaching videos produced by Flatpicking Guitar will also remain on the market, as DVDs or downloads, along with their Flatpicking Essentials book series.

In assessing his reasons for closing down the magazine, Miller finds the same problems that have plagued all of print media in recent years. Declining subscription rates and increases in print and postage costs have taken their toll to the point that each issue now mails out at a loss to the company. But he wants to go the full 20 years as a personal goal.

“I thought it would be worth the effort to finish out 20 years of publication. In our 20th year we are featuring all of the heroes of flatpicking…David Grier, Bryan Sutton, Jim Hurst, Tim Stafford, Kenny Smith, Cody Kilby, etc. So, it will be a fun year and we will go out with a bang.

It was a great run.”

Subscriptions are still available for the magazine’s final year, and individual issue sales will be offered online.

Once Flatpicking Guitar Magazine is complete, Dan plans to return to school and complete a PhD in mathematics, something he has put off long enough. Already possessing a Bachelor’s degree in Mathematics and a Masters in Electrical Engineering, Miller jokes that he wants to get the doctorate before Alzheimer’s sets in.

We’ll all be sorry to say goodbye to FGM. Hat’s off to Dan Miller for keeping it in print for 20 years!

The Guitar Player’s Guide to Developing Creative Solos

Flatpicking Guitar Magazine has published a comprehensive manual on developing solos for acoustic guitar. Written by FGM publisher Dan Miller, The Guitar Player’s Guide to Developing Creative Solos runs to 260 pages and includes a pair of audio CDs covering what the author describes as three different approaches to building solos.

The first method is based on what is often called the Carter style, based on finding the melodies to songs by working around familiar chord shapes. By holding down the chords you already know, this style involves either lifting a finger in the chord to expose an open string, or simply striking a fretted note or a note on a nearby adjacent fret, to pick out the tune of most simple folk songs. Examples are shown for 14 jam favorites.

Dan then explores the concept of soloing based on scales and a basic knowledge of music theory to guide in the selection of notes in building solos. Five scale types are demonstrated: major, minor pentatonic, major blues, minor blues, and chromatic. These are applied to dozens of examples in standard songs, along with suggestions for how to mix the scales types in a single solo.

Finally, the book turns to what is called an “intuitive approach,” where the player starts to trust their own skill and knowledge, and combining these various pathways already discussed into a method for much more free improvisation. Of course examples for doing so can’t really be given, since learning free playing can only come from doing, but several ways of thinking about it are presented.

All in all, more than 150 song arrangements are shown, all played on the two audio CDs packaged with the book. You can see a table of contents on the FGM web site, showing just how complete and in depth this material is handled.

This isn’t a songbook, but instead a roadmap to these three ways to approach building solos in a flatpicking style.

The Guitar Player’s Guide to Developing Creative Solos is offered for $29.95 in hardcover, and $24.95 for the digital edition.

Dan Miller is Going Through A Phase

Opening disclaimer: I’ve known Dan Miller for the past 20 years, ever since he moved east from California to southwest Virginia in 1998.

Dan had uprooted his young family and bought a home in the thriving metropolis of Hiawassee, VA to be closer to the bluegrass scene, as he had recently launched Flatpicking Guitar magazine, now a staple in the diet of thousands of guitar fiends. The plan was to replicate the success he had achieved previously in the martial arts publishing world.

While serving as an officer in the US Marine Corps, from the time he graduated from the Naval Academy in 1982 until he resigned his commission in ’92, Miller made a personal study of Pa Kua Chang, a Chinese method of self defense. As a civilian, Dan created the Pa Kua Chang Journal, a magazine for students and masters alike, and offered supplies and teaching materials to his readership.

That magazine was sold in 1997, just a year after Flatpicking Guitar was introduced, and the Millers moved to Virginia one year later, setting up a business office in Pulaski where it remains to this day. Dan followed the same model as his prior venture, publishing bi-monthly, and creating and marketing a wide array of instructional methods, concert recordings and other learning materials for flatpickers.

While his trusty staff managed the mail order (and now online) business, Miller traveled the country, offering merch and promoting the magazine at festivals across the country. After his marriage dissolved, Dan followed his two young daughters back to California to maintain his role as a doting father, while still touring the country, increasingly as a performer as much as a rep for Flatpicking Guitar, appearing with Brad Davis and Tim May.

I say all that to say this… After being a notable fixture in the guitar world this past 18 years, Dan Miller has recently released his first-ever recording, Going Through A Phase, which finds him in the role of singer, songwriter and lead guitarist. He is ably supported by Tim May on banjo and reso-guitar, Robert Bowlin on fiddle, and Brad Davis on rhythm guitar, mandolin, bass and harmony vocals. Jane Accurso also sings harmony. The album is released on the magazine’s FGM Records label, one started several years ago to make recordings available from notable pickers.

All but one of the tracks are Miller originals, with several co-writes with Davis. The lone cover is Grandpa Was A Carpenter from John Prine, and you can hear Prine’s influence on many of the new tracks as well. This is particularly true of Bring Me Back, a call to live in a simpler time, and Staying Close To Home, which tells of a talented roper and rider who decides that home is the place to be.

Most of the songs are arranged in a bluegrass style, like Ida Jane and Ramblin’ Boy & Stay Home Girl, with a few taking on more of a blues or old time feel. And of course, there are a couple of flatpick instrumentals, Goddess Waltz and Sara’s Dance, which demonstrate that Dan has picked up a thing or two while running the magazine. Another instrumental, Spring Valley, is done here as a lovely mandolin tune.

Miller has a pleasant voice, again owing a bit to the influence of John Prine and, as is often the case, delivers his original material with conviction. All in all, this is a comfortable album of homespun songs.

Special kudos to Brad Davis, who played so many of the instruments, engineered in his BDM Studios, and co-produced with Miller. It’s long been established that Brad is a monster in every area of music, and his work here does nothing to diminish that record.

Going Through A Phase can be purchased on CD from The Flatpicking Guitar Mercantile, and as a download from CD Baby, where audio samples for all 12 tracks can be found. It will also be available in iTunes in the next few days.