I held an online guitar workshop in November, and the four sessions are up on RonBlock.com, along with two bonus lessons (two more to be added soon). I've shared the elements of guitar playing that have made my lead guitar solos and rhythm a mainstay of Alison Krauss & Union Station for 29 years. Intermediate to advanced.

Topics: Roots and Inflluences - Bill Napier, Larry Sparks, and Clarence White to piano, Bill Monroe, and electric guitar players. We'll move on into some of my solos in a bonus lesson but at the front end we'll look into some of the players that helped create my style.

The Psychology of Playing Well (this is incredibly important)

Right and Left Hand Technique

Tone - Timing - Taste

Rhythm Playing

How I Learned and Continue to Learn the Neck

Make Solos More Moving with Expression

Make Solos More Engaging with Intervals ("doublestops")

Playing the Melody: The Many Ways to Vary a Solo.

Crosspicking

And I'll add more before the starting date.

Plus these freebies and more: Downloads of A Light So Fair: Peaceful Guitar Instrumentals; my Hogan's House of Music instrumental record (I took quite a few guitar breaks on it); a pdf of my Traditional Guitar Workbook with my personal tabs of George Shuffler, Larry Sparks, Bill Napier, Don Reno, Clarence White, and Junior Blankenship. These freebies alone are worth about $47.

When signing up, you'll get a download link for Hogan's House of Music. I'll send you A Light So Fair: Peaceful Guitar Instrumentals, and you'll get an email with a Dropbox link and information for the rest of it.

Russ, kickin' banjoist and staff photographer for Ricky Skaggs, recently shot a bunch of pictures of a few of my vintage instruments, so we made a 2021 calendar. The calendar has release dates for the many records I've played on, and tells where I found some instruments and what recordings they're on. The new run of calendars is going quickly. It's a very limited run, so order yours today!

Cover: 1938 Martin D28, played on Lonely Runs Both Ways and Paper Airplane. Included photos of my Rich & Taylor from So Long So Wrong, 1926 Gibson Granada from Everytime You Say Goodbye, 1963 Fender Telecaster from A Hundred Miles or More, plus others.

A 2 hour private lesson on banjo or guitar via Skype or Zoom. A 2 hour private lesson on banjo or guitar. I've been playing professionally since the early 1980s, and since 1991 with Alison Krauss and many others. I've also taught at bluegrass guitar and banjo camps, taught my own banjo course online, and have rarely given any private lessons.

I'm quite adept at diagnosing problems and advising solutions, since I'm always doing that with my own playing.

We can talk about anything you'd like, from getting a strong tone, developing steady timing, taste, how I study the neck, right hand workouts, transcribing, or whatever you'd like. We'll tailor it to you - the objective is to give you more tools to improve and expand your playing, and we'll give you enough to work on for a good long while. Available at the introductory price for a short time.

When you purchase, you'll get an email shortly after to set up a time for the lesson.

Ron gives a 20-minute lesson on bending banjo strings in a bluegrass context. You'll learn what makes bending sound best, how to learn to do bends accurately, several different ways of practicing timing, a lick, variation, and pentatonic scales.

Notes are included, and tab is included for bends, pentatonic scales, and "Wild Bill Jones," which Ron plays at regular speed at the end. You'll download four pdfs, including the password and instructions to find video.