Bluegrass Guitar Tabs

From LoveToKnow Guitar

Bluegrass guitar tabs are a great tool for those of you out there who love fast guitar picking, but need a little help figuring out all the licks in your favorite songs. Since bluegrass can get fairly technical, it is essential that students of this music have access to quality tablature. The following article focuses on some of the greatest guitar players in bluegrass music and contains links to where you can find some of their most famous songs on the Internet in tablature form as well as in book form.

Bluegrass Guitar Tabs

Where to Find Bluegrass Guitar Tabs

There are plenty of websites and published books that contain bluegrass guitar tabs, and the sections on great bluegrass guitarists below will take you where you need to go to find specific tabs for specific songs.

Doc Watson

Doc Watson has long been considered one of the greatest flatpickers alive. His techniques have been inspirational for generations of younger aspiring musicians, like Tony Rice, who have taken his initial techniques and expanded upon them. Along with his son Merle, Doc Watson recorded seminal versions of some of the most popular bluegrass songs. The links below will take you to tabs for some of the "best of the best" in bluegrass guitar.

  • Doc’s Guitar - One of the best places for Doc Watson tabs is Doc Watson’s own website. In addition to having information on all things Doc, they have very accurate transcriptions for famous songs like Beaumont Rag, Salt Creek, Old Joe Clark, Gimme Back My Fifteen Cents and Fiddler’s Dream. This website utilizes Sibelius, one of the best innovations to ever come along for guitar tabs on the Internet. To read the tabs, you need to download the free Scorch plugin for your web browser. Once this is installed, you can take advantage of the power of Sibelius by viewing interactive tabs that are published in the highest print quality.
  • Guitare Tab - Guitare Tab has tabs for some additional Doc Watson songs including Matchbox Blues, Walk on Boy, Saint James Infirmary, and Nobody’s Fault But Mine.
  • Mel Bay Presents The Legacy of Doc Watson - If you really want to explore the history of bluegrass music, this book is a great place to learn. Author Steve Kaufman explores Doc’s career from the earliest days providing performance tips in tablature all along the way.

Tony Rice

Tony Rice is one of the greatest contemporary bluegrass guitarists and has been responsible for pushing the limits of the musical form beyond the traditional mountain folk sound. Rice has played with musicians like Norman Blake and Jerry Garcia and has worked to fuse bluegrass with jazz. The tabs to some of his most famous recordings can be found below.

  • The Tony Rice Tab Page - The best place for Tony Rice tabs on the Internet is The Tony Rice Tab Page. This exceptional site is passionately dedicated to documenting this great musician's work. Numerous tab versions of songs are present here including More Pretty Girls Than One, Buttons and Bows, My Favorite Things, Why You Been Gone So Long and Big River.
  • Tony Rice Guitar Book – This print book features tabs for over 20 Tony Rice songs including Way Downtown, Nine Pound Hammer, John Hardy and many more.

Ricky Skaggs

Ricky Skaggs is another amazing musician who, in addition to the guitar, plays the mandolin, fiddle and banjo. While always preserving the roots of bluegrass music, Skaggs has also branched out in his career and has performed and recorded with the likes of Bruce Hornsby and Phish. he even recently recorded with the rock band The Raconteurs.

  • 911 Tabs – 911 Tabs has nearly 200 tabs for Ricky Skaggs tunes, including Cajun Moon, Wildwood Flower, Pig in a Pen and many, many more.
  • Chloride – Chordie has tabs for a number of classics by Ricky Skaggs including Bury Me Beneath the Willow, Lonesome Dove, I'm Tired and more.

Norman Blake

Norman Blake was one of the most important figures in the bluegrass revival movement in the 1970s, and his nearly half-century career has produced some of the most memorable versions of classic bluegrass songs.

  • Country Tabs – Country Tabs has transcriptions of two classics: Man of Constant Sorrow and Northern Wind.
  • Guitare Tab – You Are My Sunshine and The Constitution March can both be found tabbed out at Guitare Tab.

Compare Versions

While you're exploring the above tab sites, an interesting exercise is to learn versions of the same song as different artists perform it. One of the greatest things about bluegrass music is that everyone records the standards. For example, when you look at how Doc Watson does a particular song in relation to how Ricky Skaggs performs it, you can really get a sense of the two artists' individual styles. Soon enough, your own voice will develop, and you can add your touch to the history of this great American musical style.

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