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Old Joe Clark

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Lesson ID: A0221

In this lesson, you’ll learn how to play one a flatpicking guitar arrangement for the traditional fiddle tune “Old Joe Clark“. This mountain ballad was popular among soldiers from eastern Kentucky during World War I and afterwards. Its lyrics refer to a real person named Joseph Clark, a Kentucky mountaineer who was born in 1839 and murdered in 1885.

After you learn the flatpicking break, practice along with the “Old Joe Clark” backing track that accompanies this guitar lesson. Also, be sure to navigate to the “Bonus Bluegrass Licks” tab below to learn a few common bluegrass licks that work well with this song when you’re improvising. “Old Joe Clark” guitar tablature is available for download below the lesson video.

Lesson Overview
Playthrough with TAB
Bonus Bluegrass Licks

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Backing Track

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Red Haired Boy

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Lesson ID: A0220

In this guitar lesson, you’ll learn how to play a nice bluegrass flatpicking arrangement for “Red Haired Boy”. This song is one of the most common fiddle tunes played at bluegrass jams. NOTE: We’re going to play “Red Haired Boy” using key of G chords and scales, but we’ll capo the 2nd fret so technically this is in the key of A.

After you learn the flatpicking break, practice along with the “Red Haired Boy” backing track that comes with this guitar lesson. “Red Haired Boy” guitar tablature is available for download below the lesson video.

Lesson Overview
Playthrough with TAB

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Full Breakdown

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Backing Track

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Arkansas Traveler

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Lesson ID: A0219

In this guitar lesson, you’ll learn how to play one of the most common bluegrass standards called “Arkansas Traveler” in the key of D. We’d highly recommend learning this song if you ever go to bluegrass jams, and even if you’re not into playing fiddle tunes on guitar, it’s a really good song to use for working on your pick control and accuracy.

After you learn the flatpicking arrangement, practice along with the “Arkansas Traveler” backing track that comes with this guitar lesson. The lesson tablature is available for download below the lesson video.

Lesson Overview
Playthrough with TAB

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Full Breakdown

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Backing Track

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“Dear Mr. Arizona” Cowboy Waltz by Soonka

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Video lesson coming soon! In the meantime, find the guitar tablature for Instrumental Breaks 1 and 2 below. Click the download button in the top right corner of the PDF viewer to download a print-friendly tab sheet.

IMPORTANT NOTE: There’s an unusual B7/F# chord in this song (chord chart in tablature). Learning this B7/F# chord and practicing this song has made me a better guitar player so wanted to share!

The B7/F# is your standard B7 chord, you just need to move your middle finger from the 5th string to the 6th string (same fret). That’s it! It’s a chord shape that I wasn’t used to landing on, and playing through this song using this chord shape helped expand my rhythm guitar skills. It’s useful especially for adding country baseline walks to your rhythm guitar.

READ SOONKA’S STORY BEHIND THE SONG:

There’s a cool story behind this song that you can read in the description of Soonka’s video on YouTube here ➜ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u2eeFlYdy88

Be sure to LIKE & SUBSCRIBE to Soonka on YouTube — more song performances coming soon!

Listen to the Song
TABLATURE – Instrumental Break 1

– Instrumental Break 1 starts at 0:59 in the YouTube video.

– DOWNLOAD THE TAB by clicking the small download button (top right corner of PDF viewer).

TABLATURE – Instrumental Break 2

– Instrumental Break 2 starts at 2:06 in the YouTube video.

– DOWNLOAD THE TAB by clicking the small download button (top right corner of PDF viewer).