The Getting Into Bluegrass Banjo book and CD by Alan Munde is the accumulation of successful teaching concepts developed in his 40 plus years as a professional bluegrass musician and teacher. Munde presents a straight-forward and well-founded course of bluegrass banjo essentials. Designed for those who have never played a stringed instrument to those taking up bluegrass banjo as a second instrument.

Getting Started - Covers the parts of the banjo, hand positions, first picking patterns, pull-offs, hammer-ons, slides, exercise songs, ending with the professional sounding “Levelland Mountain Breakdown.”

Review of Rolls, New rolls, and combinations of Rolls, with Examples – Offers the most used rolls in bluegrass banjo playing with often-played examples of each. The player learns many of the licks used in the style with an example of how to combine them to make a solo.

Roll Logic – How to place a melody into the several different roll patterns.

Tools and Techniques – Helps develop left hand techniques through the use of intervals of thirds and sixths.

Creating Solos to Songs – At the heart of the book is this revealing section with many examples of how to create many, many solos to the song “Jesse James.”

Songs – Put to use all you have learned on these great standards “Ground Hog,” “Wildwood Flower” (two versions),“Nine Pound Hammer,” “Worried Man Blues,” “Lost All My Money,” “Old Country Church,” “Kneel at the Cross,” and “Train 45.”