In this instructional YouTube lesson, Aaron Jaxon teaches three bluegrass position‑shifting runs in the key of C and shows how to combine them into a single, extended "monster" run that travels from the open string up to the 10th fret and back down. He explains the rhythmic framework (16th‑note subdivision, most licks entering on the "and" of beat 4, with the third run starting on beat 1), demonstrates left‑hand techniques such as slides, pull‑offs, pinky up‑stroke slides, and chromatic movements, and references stylistic influences like Tony Rice, Brian Sutton, Doc Watson, and Trey Hensley. Throughout, he emphasizes economical, fluid left‑hand motion, encourages slow practice before tempo, and points viewers to tabs in the video description and pinned comment. The lesson serves both as a technical primer for moving across the neck and as a foundation for learning more complex bluegrass leads.
Chapters
Today I'm going to show you some bluegrass position shifting runs out of C that are going to get you moving all over the guitar neck and shredding bluegrass licks like an absolute legend. All right, stick around. Hey there, it is Aaron Jaxon coming to you today, and what I've got for you today is a really fun Bluegrass flatpicking lesson. I'm gonna give you 3 bluegrass position shifting runs out of C, and then we're gonna combine all of those together in one monster run that takes you from the open string up to the 10th fret and all the way back down again. These are a lot of fun to learn, but we do these for a couple of different reasons. Our picking hand gets most of the attention in bluegrass for good reason, because this style requires a lot out of our picking hand, but the left hand is important too. So So you want to learn how to position shift using your left hand in an economical, smooth, and fluid manner. But this is also a great primer before going in and learning a bunch of different bluegrass leads, because now you know how to move up and down the guitar neck in a fluid way. And if you haven't had the chance to yet, make sure you check out this video right here. I did this a couple of weeks ago, and it's the same idea that we're covering in today's lesson. In this one, I did it in the key of G instead of doing it in the key of C. So be sure and check that video out. As always, you can get tabs for this lesson down in the video description and in the top pinned comment. All right, so let's go into this first bluegrass position shifting run in C. Okay, so this first little lick will go like this.
Okay, let's try that one again.
Okay, so a few things on this. So the timing on this— I think this is the case with all of these licks— come in on the and of beat 4. So 1 and 2, e and, 3, e and, 4, e and, e and, e and, e and. Okay, and again, I tab these out and I count these as 16th notes. And the reason that I do that is because that is how these ideas fall rhythmically in the context of the music. I know a lot of people in bluegrass do 8th notes, and that's fine, I'm not knocking that, but for me personally, I like to just kind of get straight to the 16th notes because they're 4 notes a beat, and that's how we're going to be playing this in the context of the music. So, but anyway, back to the original point here, um, these licks start on the and of beat 4. 1 and 2 and 3 and 4. Okay, so I love that little lick there, um, and we're just kind of going from our open string, starting off with our kind of C run, sliding up 5th fret, doing a pull-off right there, and then sliding back down with the index finger, and then Okay, so it's got a very, you know, Tony Rice, More Pretty Girls Than One kind of feel.
Okay, also play that a little more up to tempo, you know. Okay, okay, so take that as slow as you need to there, but that's our first little position shifting lick or position shifting run out of C there.
Okay, so let's go into the next one here, and what we're gonna do, we're gonna take that same idea, we're just gonna build on it just a little bit, and it's gonna go like this.
Okay, pretty cool.
Let's try that one again. Okay, one more time there.
We'll do—
okay, so we start off in the same way that we did on that first lick with that C run again on the and of beat 4. 1 and 2, e and a, 3, e and a, 4, e and a. And everything is the same, okay? But then right here, after we— now this is very important— pinky finger, 5th fret of the, um, 1st string. We're gonna pick that and we're hitting it with an upstroke, which, pinky finger, and we're hitting it with an upstroke, and then we're gonna slide that pinky from the 5th fret up to the 8th fret. Okay, so when you kind of isolate that whole movement, it's, it's awkward and kind of uncomfortable. We're doing a big slide with our pinky finger from the 5th fret to the 8th fret, which are pretty big frets, and we're doing it with an upstroke. But then that puts our hand in this kind of 5th position to kind of, you know, C major blues scale idea there. Okay, so you got to remember that right there. When— whenever we— make sure your pinky finger hits that, and then Okay, so again, starting off the same way that we started off the first run, but then we bring in our pinky finger and we're doing a big position shift to get us a little further up on the neck with that idea. Okay, and if you play that lick a lot faster, it ends up having like a Brian Sutton feel to it, like, you know, that kind of a thing. You'll hear Brian use phrases like that. All the time, but you don't have to play it fast. You can take it as slow as you need to. Okay, so that was our second little position shifting run. Let's do the third one, and that's going to go like this. Okay, one more time here. Okay, and I love this little run here because we're going to start off, and I think rhythmically speaking it does the same thing, and a beat 4. 1 and 2 and 3 and 4. Nope, I am wrong. It's— this one actually does start right on the downbeat, on beat 1. 1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and, uh, and we just come in with those 16th notes right there. So I like this because it starts with our little, which is out of our kind of C triad. We'll use that a lot, like you hear Doc Watson do. Billy Strings does that a lot, but you can— so we use that a lot in bluegrass out of that little kind of root inversion triad right there. But for this idea, we'll do a little— we'll add some chromaticism. And then let's bring this ring finger up, and we're going to kind of slide up into like our C major pentatonic blues scale, slide into like the second, uh, kind of blues scale pattern, and then slide down back to that first kind of blues scale pattern, and then we're going to position shift down to like a C minor blues scale, kind of.
Okay, so again, we'll do—
okay, and I'll sometimes hear, uh, Um, I'll sometimes hear Trey Hensley use ideas like this. I mean, a lot of players use ideas like this, but I'll sometimes hear him using, um, ideas that sound similar to this, you know, things along those lines there. But one more time on this third one here. That last little— you can pick that, you can pick all of that, or you can experiment with doing a pull-off right there. Either one will work. Okay, so there's 3 position shifting runs out of C. The first one. All right, our second one, which is going to move a little further up on the neck.
And then our third one.
Okay, now we're going to combine all 4 of those together from one monster run that takes us from the open string up to the 10th fret and back down again. That one's going to go like this. Okay, so we added a little extra at the end there, but all we're doing on that is what we're essentially Um, starting off with that first— or I'm sorry, with the second idea that we did. And the second idea, the first half of the second idea is the same as the first. So we're doing the first and the second there. And right here we're sliding up into our third position shifting idea, and then we're kind of going back to the first. And I'm gonna throw in our little—
and that's just—
okay. And so that is the fourth idea, kind of combining all of those together there. So there's some really, really cool stuff here. One more time, just for a little bit of context, let me play that fourth lead idea up to tempo and with a backing track. Okay, so there you have it. And again, check out the tabs. I've got all the pick strokes written out there for you. And again, I like to show these to students. That way they can start to use their left hand— honestly, their left and right hand together in a fluid, economical manner to get you playing you know, some of these bluegrass runs that require you to move up and down the neck. It gets us unstuck from these kind of first 3 or 4 frets, which happens a lot in bluegrass. And it's also a great primer for learning other bluegrass leads. So, you know, kind of get these down. You can practice these as slow as you need to. And then from there, start to get creative with these. See if there's some places where you can, you know, apply these and, you know, put them into tunes that you're jamming on or tunes that you're working on, all that kind of good stuff. Use your creativity there and, you know, put these ideas into your vocabulary and start to use that in the music that you're playing. So again, check out the tabs, um, down in the video description and in the top pinned comment. Check out some of these other videos right here, um, for a little bit of a deeper dive on some of this kind of bluegrass lead stuff. As always, thank you for hanging out, and I will see you next time.
