Flatpicking Insanity!-Learn David Grier's Epic Tune "Impulsive"

Hey there, it's Aaron Jaxon coming to you today with a really cool lesson that I'm very excited to share with you. So I'm going to be showing you how to play David Greer's original bluegrass flatpicking tune called Impulsive. Now I have been playing this style for a long time. I've learned a lot of tunes, I've learned a lot of solos, and straight up, this is one of the trippiest freaking tunes I have ever learned, um, but I love it. I love the melody to it. I love the way it sounds. I've always loved this tune. And, um, what's really cool about this tune though is it takes a lot of these elements, or most of these elements, that David Greer is known for, um, in his playing, which are like slides, cross picking, hammer-ons and pull-offs, just all of that really cool classic David Greer stuff. And it's all like jam-packed into this tune here. So that's why I wanted to show this with you. Also, I mean, this tune is challenging for sure, but what I've got for you down in the video description and in the top pinned comment, you can get the tabs for this, uh, with the pick strokes written out and all that good stuff. And I've also got a link to a custom backing track that I made for this tune inside of the Strum Machine app. And what you can do, um, you'll get the tabs and the link to my custom backing track in the Strum Machine app. You just hit that link, it will open it up in the Strum Machine and you can practice this tune at any tempo that you want. You can practice it at 30 beats a minute or 130 beats a minute if you want to. And if you're a guitar player who's either learning this style or who has been playing it for a long time and is just trying to get better, you should absolutely have a subscription to the Strum Machine. They don't sponsor any of my videos, but it's just an amazing resource. 14-day free trial, and then after that it's like $5 or $6 bucks a month, which is a total freaking steal. So make sure that you get a subscription to the Strum Machine app. And again, you can get the tabs and a custom backing track for this and practice this tune at whatever tempo that you want. Okay, let's jump into the lesson. Okay, so this song follows a traditional AA BB fiddle tune format. And so real quick, let me just go through the A part here of Impulsive. All right, so it's going to go like this. We're going to do Okay, so that is all the way through the A part that he plays. And again, um, on this, I want to make sure that I cite my sources. I'm, I'm going off of the original recording. I think the original album is called Panorama. I've got it linked down in the video description if you want to check that out. I think there's a bunch of recordings on YouTube of him playing this live where he, you know, deviates from it a little bit, but I'm referencing the original recording, the first solo that plays on the original recording. So that was the A part. What you want to do with this tune is get that first phrase of the A part down. If you can get that first phrase, you've pretty much got the A part. He just goes through that first phrase 4 times, and he just kind of embellishes on it the 3rd and 4th times. But if you can get that first phrase down, you've basically got that. And that's gonna go like this. So that first phrase, we're gonna do Okay, so a lot of slides and a lot of like pull-offs and hammer-ons. Now I want to go through that again, and I'm going to call out the pick strokes. Again, on the tabs I've got all the pick strokes written out there for you, so if you want to, you can, you know, get those tabs, pull those up. And follow along with what I'm about to do here. But again, I'm going to play that phrase, I'm going to call out the pick strokes as I'm playing it. So it's going to go like this. We're going to do—

ah, we'll do down, hammer, down, up, slide, up, down, up, slide, up, down, hammer, down, up, down, up, hammer, up, pull-off, up, down, down, pull-off, down, pull-off, down, slide, down.

Okay, playing and calling out pick strokes with a bunch of slides and hammer-ons and pull-offs requires a lot of zen-like focused attention. Let's try it again. All right, so again, just the first phrase of this A part. Remember what I was saying? If you can kind of get this first phrase you've, you've really got the A part of this tune down because he just plays that 4 times, and on the 3rd and 4th time he just embellishes on just a little bit. So just get this first phrase down here. And one more time, I'm gonna play it again, but I'm gonna call out these pick strokes, okay?

So we're gonna do down, hammer, down, up, slide, up, down, up, slide, up, down, pull-off, down, up, down, up, hammer, up, pull-off, up, down, down, pull-off, down, pull-off, down, slide down.

So that's the key, is just getting that first little phrase up. And play that as slow as you need to. Again, I'm going to give you the link to my custom backing track for this tune in the Strum Machine app, and you can play this as slow as you need to. Okay, just Okay, just get that again as slow as you need to. Now he plays that phrase right there exactly like I showed you twice in a row. He does, you know, okay, he plays that twice, and then when he jumps into it the the third time. So all of that is exactly the same as we played the first and second times through. He's just gonna change up this last little phrase just a little bit. Instead of doing— he's gonna do—

that's it.

And I think all of that is picked except for that slide at the end.

Just down, up, down, up, down, up, down, slide up.

Okay, and then he's gonna play one more time, and then again he's gonna kind of embellish just a little bit on this. We're gonna do So it's just this phrase right here that instead of, um, he'll do So that's the A part there. Okay, one more time, let me go through this whole A part here, and, um, I'll play it nice and slow here for you.

And we'll do— play that same phrase again.

Same phrase, but we'll embellish the last part right here. Last time, change it.

Okay, so there we go.

Again, just a couple little embellishments on the third and fourth times through this, but it's mostly just that main little phrase there. Let me do that one more time, just the main phrase of the A part of Impulsive here, and I'll call out those, those dreaded pick strokes again.

So we'll do Down, hammer, down, up, slide, up, down, up, slide, up, down, pull-off, down, up, down, up, hammer, up, pull-off, up, down, down, pull-off, down, pull-off, down, slide, down.

Okay, and then just again practice that main phrase as slow as you need to. Even slow, it's trippy. But it's just got some great, um, little passages and phrases. And again, just so many elements that David is so well known for— slides and hammer-ons and pull-offs and crosspicking and all that cool stuff. But again, that's kind of step one right there. Just get that main phrase down, get it as slow as you need to. And again, you've got the tabs for this lesson and you've got the link to my custom backing track in the Strum Machine. You can practice this at whatever freaking tempo that you want to. I'd recommend starting slow. Okay, so that's the A part to Impulsive. Okay, so now let's jump into the B part of Impulsive. It'll go like this. We'll do We'll just play that again. Okay, so, um, really what it is is there's one kind of big phrase and he just plays it twice on the B part. And we're gonna do Okay, so, um, he's throwing a lot of cross picking in here, but again, we've got a lot of slides and other cool ideas there. So this first part, and I like to do that with my ring and pinky finger on my left hand.

You know, you could do it But I like to use that because— so after we, we're gonna do—

and I'm gonna speak relative to the capo here, so that's hammer-on from 1st fret to the 2nd fret. Okay, and then he throws in some cross-picking after that, so we'll do Okay, so that's kind of a good place to stop before we go on.

So again, we've got— all right, one more time.

And then we're gonna do— okay, again, I like to use my ring, middle, and ring fingers right there because he does— and then we do a slide. Okay, so let's just kind of go back and just add that, that new part to the rest of it here.

So we'll do One more time, we'll do— and then we're going to end it with—

okay, and that's just Okay, so that's, that's kind of like the first passage of this B part here.

We're doing—

okay, okay, so that's kind of the first passage of this B part here.

Let's keep going. So we're— when we're coming out of—

we'll go back to—

okay, so we've got And then that's basically it for the B part. He just repeats that passage from there. So, um, again, let me kind of make— play the main passage that you need to know for the B part here, and then just remember that you'll just repeat this. You'll just play it twice, and then that's the B part of this. We'll do, um, And then we just play that again. And there we have it. So there's the B part of Impulsive real quick. So real quick, um, let me go through all the A part and all of the B part here. I'll do it nice and slow for you.

So we'll go 1, 2, 3, 4, go.

Play that again. Again.

Change this part.

Here we go into the B part.

We'll do And there we have it. So one more time, let me go ahead and play it up to tempo with a backing track. So like I was saying at the beginning of this video, this is a trippy freaking tune. These are, um, these passages are not, you know, even if you've played a lot of bluegrass and you've, you know, played like a lot of Tony Rice and Doc Watson stuff, this stuff is just, it's, it's very, it's very David. Um, it's slippery, it's, you know, slidey, it's all over the place. So these passages will feel, you know, different from some of the other traditional bluegrass stuff that you've been playing, or at least it does for me. But again, I've got the tabs for you with all the pick strokes out. You can reference this lesson obviously as many times as you want. You can slow this video down. And also I've got the link for you in the Strum Machine app for the custom backing track that I made with this. For, for this tune. So you can practice this at any tempo that you like, no matter how slow, no matter how fast. You can practice this at whatever tempo that you want. So anyway, this is a, this is a fun yet very, very challenging tune. But again, all of those elements that David Greer is known for— the slides, crosspicking— it's all kind of jam-packed into this little tune here. So anyway, check out the video description to get the tabs and the backing track. And also, I've got the original recording links links down below, which that whole album Panorama is just a— it's just an amazing, uh, you know, instrumental bluegrass record from David Greer. So as always, thank you for hanging out, and I will see you next time.