Aaron JaxonTeaching Bluegrass and Country Guitar

5 Classic Fiddle Tunes Every Guitarist Must Play

9 Dec 2025 · 1 min

Watch on YouTube

1:00

In this instructional YouTube lesson, Aaron Jaxon presents five classic fiddle tunes—Billy in the Low Ground, Lonesome Fiddle Blues, June Apple, Wheel Hoss, and East Tennessee Blues—that he argues are essential for flatpicking guitarists. He notes that while these tunes are less immediately recognizable than staples like Red Haired Boy or Salt Creek, they are widely known at jam sessions. The lesson follows a consistent format: each tune is first played at full tempo, then replayed at half speed with scrolling tablature overlaid on the screen. Viewers are encouraged to adjust the video playback speed if needed. Complete tabs for each tune are provided in the video description and the pinned top comment, ensuring learners can follow along and practice each note accurately.

Chapters

Hey there, it's Aaron Jaxon coming to you today with 5 classic fiddle tunes that I think every flatpicker needs to know. So the tunes that we're going to cover today are going to be Billy in the Low Ground, Lonesome Fiddle Blues, June Apple, Wheel Hoss, and East Tennessee Blues. Now, while these tunes aren't quite as obvious as tunes like Red Haired Boy and Salt Creek and Gold Rush and Big Mon, these are very commonly played tunes, and you can go to pretty much any jam session anywhere and people will know these. The format for this lesson will be the exact same as it was for this lesson, which by the way, you can check this out down in the video description if you you haven't had a chance to watch it yet. All I'm going to do is play each tune up to tempo, and then I'm going to play each tune at half speed. And on the half-speed playthrough, I'm going to put the scrolling tabs on the screen so you can follow along and not miss a single note. Remember, where you're watching this on YouTube, if my slowed-down version is still a little too fast for you, feel free to slow this video down as much as you need to. You can get the tabs for each one of these tunes down in the video description and in the top pinned comment. So let's go ahead and jump into the first tune.