Bryan Sutton Artist Works course anyone?

[Kevin G String]

Hi, I'm not really into bluegrass but have always felt inspired when I see someone who plays it. So I decided to give the BS course a go. I am finding it amazing, he is such a great teacher and comes across as humble and encouraging. I've seen some Tony Rice videos and he seems to have had a very down to earth approach, it's like he wasn't aware of just how good he was.

I've just learned the basic version of Arkansas Traveller and am feeling really pleased because I have found it difficult at times and wasn't sure I'd get it. It's nice when something finally clicks and you wonder what all of the fuss was about.

Just wondering if anyone else has done his course or seen him on guitar camps?

[vashondan2018]

Bryan is a wonderful teacher and very generous with his feedback and genuinely concerned with your progress. The video exchange process always give me more than enough to focus relative to my individual growth and the recordings from members are posted so that you can get many opportunities to learn about what you are working on. There are a kazillion resources on the site for anyone from beginner to advanced.

I had never even thought about Bluegrass before this course and I'm loving the journey. It's taken me a bit to get the right hand technique down but it was worth the journey.

All to say...You can't go wrong with Bryan.

[Special K]

I've been doing Bryan's basic level course for over a year now. I really enjoy it. I like to go at my own pace and Bryan's course lets me do that.

Bryan's monthly messages are encouraging as well.

The only thing I'd say is the tunes are listed in alphabetical order (Arkansas Traveler being the 1st tune listed). Like you, I learned Arkansas Traveler first because it was the 1st tune listed. I learned Arkansas Traveler, but as the 1st song learned, Arkansas Traveler was somewhat challenging (for me).

I found it beneficial to listen to the tunes before trying to learn them to decide which tunes to learn, rather than try them in alphabetical order.

I picked (pun intended) some of the easier (for me anyway) tunes like Jimmy Brown, Give me Back My 15 Cents, and Old Joe Clark to get a base under my fingers.

Red Wing was a good tune for me to play some 8th note runs (the Red Wing tab looked challenging to me at first, but that tune came fairly easily to me). A lot of the tunes have 8th note runs and learning Red Wing early helped me with the more challenging tunes.

Then I sprinkled in some of the more challenging (for me) tunes.

Hope this helps.

Cheers,
Kevin

[Skarsaune]

I'm another Bryan Sutton AW student. Great player AND teacher. Goes way beyond "what finger goes where", lol.

I also attended his guitar camp at the beginning of June. Fantastic experience, tightly focused on flatpicking bluegrass guitar. I will go back if at all possible next year.

For the trifecta, I also saw Bryan play last Saturday in Boone NC. He split sets with Appalachian Roadshow plus played tunes with them. It was Doc Watson Days, so a heavy dose of Doc. Excellent show.

[Skarsaune]

Originally Posted by Special K

I found it beneficial to listen to the tunes before trying to learn them .....

Just a side note, but this is super important. If you want to learn fiddle tunes, listen to a bunch of them. It will help you understand things so much. Then as you start to add tunes to your repertoire, you'll begin to notice common licks / runs, places where you can re-use something, etc.

One more listening note - listen to the originals, ie FIDDLE players. Listening to a hot guitar player blaze on a given tune is great, but it's really important to get the basic melody.