The Best Tune For Building Flatpicking Technique?- Learn Bill Monroe's "Wheel Hoss"

Hey y'all, it's Aaron Jaxon coming to you today with a bluegrass flatpicking lesson that I really think that you're going to get a lot out of. So today I'm going to be showing you how to play the classic Bill Monroe fiddle tune called Wheel Hoss, or I think sometimes the way Bill Monroe called it, Wheel Horse. So this is a really cool tune that also forces you to really get your picking technique down. Because the way this tune is, if you play it on a mandolin or a fiddle, it's actually a lot easier than it is on guitar. Because when you play it on fiddle or mandolin, the main melody is played just across two adjacent strings. But on guitar, we have to— we have to do a bunch of cross picking in order to execute the melody here. So this is a great just fiddle tune to add to your bluegrass repertoire, and it's also really great for developing your picking technique. So as is always the case with my lessons here, you can get the tabs for this down in the video description and in the top pinned comment. So let's jump in here and let's learn the A part here. Now really, there's, there's really only one phrase that you have to learn for the A part, and it just repeats it 4 times because, um, I for this lesson, I just want to stick to the basic melody. There's a ton of different recordings by a lot of great musicians of this tune, and they play a whole bunch of like amazing hot licks through there. That's not really the purpose of this lesson. I want to give you just the basic melody here so you can get the technique down, you can get the timing, you can add this to your repertoire. And then later on, if you want to, you know, just lick it up over this tune, you can do that. But, um, right, so let's, uh, let's start with the A part here, and it's going to go like this. We're going to do Okay, if you can get that down, um, you've got the A part. It just— it really just does that 4 times. Okay, so, um, And that's basically the A part. It just takes that main phrase there and repeats it 4 times. But let me kind of jump in and kind of just analyze the, the, the main melody. So what we're going to do here, um, so really on your left hand, just like you're holding a G chord with, uh, not the old Tony Rice you know, one that, you know, leaves out that major third. But definitely, so, you know, right here on the 3rd fret of the 6th, pointer finger on the 2nd fret of the 5th. And with our pick, let's do down on the 6th, up on the 5th, down on the 4th, up on the 3rd. So we're just doing cross picking through the 6th, 5th, 4th, and 3rd strings. Down, up, down, up. And then we're gonna jump over here and we're gonna do— and that's just 3, 2, 3, and then 3rd string open and with the pick just down, up, down, up.

So we'll do—

okay, and then we'll come back over here, we'll do— okay, so same, same deal. And then after that hit the, um, the 3rd fret of the 4th string. I think we'll hold that out for— I think that's an 8th note where the rest of the notes are 16th notes.

Okay, so we've got—

all right, and then we're going to come back and we'll do— we'll do that again, and then 3rd fret of the 4th with a down pick up on the 3rd string open, and then we'll do— okay, so again, just kind of the main melody to the A part of Wheelhouse here. We'll do And you can just repeat that 4 times, and that is the main melody to the A part of Wheelhouse. Now I'm taking just a little bit of liberty with this, but I'm trying to stick as close to the original fiddle melody, um, as I can on the guitar here. Now I've linked down in the video description to what I think is the original recording, uh, the original Bill Monroe recording. It's got twin fiddles. I think it's Kenny Baker and Bobby Hicks. It might be some, some different players, but I think it's Kenny Baker and Bobby Hicks doing twin fiddles on this. Um, and again, you can find a ton of different recordings and live recordings of people playing this. There's a really cool one, I think, of the, like, of the Punch Brothers doing this with, like, David Greer. It's freaking amazing. Um, and, uh, but anyway, this is just, uh, I'm trying to stick to the, to the main melody here. Now, that being said, um, that this right here, that requires a lot out of your picking hands, okay? We're doing like cross picking across 4 strings, and then at the end we're coming up a little fiddle sounding thing. So what I did at the beginning of the video here was I played that twice.

I did a—

and then I went to this little part.

I did— okay.

And what that is, that just kind of gives your picking hand a little bit of a break while still honoring the melody. So So I— where that comes in the A part, do the main section that I was showing you twice. Okay, do that twice. And then after that, if you want, you know, if you want to modify the melody just a little bit, we can do—

okay, again.

And then after that, we just go back to the main melody here. Okay, so one more time, let me go all the way through the A part, and I'll— the, the third time through, I'll go to that little modified part an octave up there. So we'll do That again.

Now we'll change it up. Back to the melody.

Okay, now for the B part here. So I, um, again, I'm trying to stick to the original fiddle melody as best I can, but I've kind of come up with my own little way of playing this that I think, um, it, it's, it, um, it kind of makes it a little bit easier. Because again, this tune makes a whole lot— it really dawned on me whenever I started playing mandolin. I started playing mandolin after I started playing guitar, and, uh, I, I had worked on Wheelhouse on guitar. I'm like, man, it's a tough tune. And then when I went to play it on mandolin, I was like, oh, this makes sense now. Um, but we're playing it on guitar, so, um, it's, it's a little, it's a little wonky in places here. But, um, let me just go through the B part here and just kind of show you what I'm going to do.

So we're going to do Okay, and we just play that twice, I think.

Yeah, just twice. So, um, again, I think the way the— like, the original fiddle melody, it's like And you can play it that way if you want to, but I know sometimes that, that stretch— I mean, that's like a, that's like a freaking Eddie Van Halen stretch, okay? So what I've done is, um, at the beginning we'll do the almost sounds like a Chuck Berry thing. I'm just sliding from that second fret to the third fret, down, down, up, down, and then And that is, I'm sliding my ring finger from the 6th fret to the 8th fret on the 2nd string, and then hitting the, uh, 7th fret on the 1st string. And then to keep going, so I'm almost doing a little floating lick there. So slide from 6 up to 8 with a down, pick the 7th fret of the 1st, back to the 8th fret of the second string with a down, and then we'll do the first string open with an up. Okay, so, okay, I just find that's a little easier, and I like the way that little open string sounds as opposed to like— I just like that a little bit better. You can do the other way if you want, but I've got it tabbed out like this on the tabs. But, and then to keep going here, we're gonna do— so again, down here, almost a little floating lick, like, and that is 3rd fret of the 2nd string with a down pick, 5th fret of the 3rd string with an up pick, and then 2nd string open with a down pick. And then we'll do 2nd fret of the 3rd string with an up pick, and then 3rd string open with a down pick.

All right, okay.

You can hear Tony Rice uses ideas like that. Kenny Smith uses a lot of ideas like that as well. Okay, so this first phrase of the B part of Wheel Hoss, okay. The second phrase will do. Okay, and so what I'm doing there is, um, 3rd fret, 5th fret slide, 8th fret of the 2nd string, 5th fret of the 1st, 8th fret of the 2nd, 5th fret of the 2nd, 8th fret of the 2nd.

Um, okay.

Um, okay, so let me play the first 2 phrases of the B part of Wheel Hoss here for you. It's gonna go like this. Okay, and then we're gonna do, um, so for the, the, um, kind of the last phrase, um, Okay, so with this up here, you want to— and I think what that's going to be, 1-e-and-uh-2, 1-e-and-uh-2. So I think that's like a— I think that note would be like a dotted eighth note. I think 1-e-and-uh-2. Okay, 1-e-and-uh-2, right? Because we're holding it for the full eighth note and then for like a essentially a 16th note. 1-e-and-a-2. That's very important though. You don't want to come in and just do that because that's going to throw the rhythm of the melody off there. Okay, so just remember that. 1-e-and-a-2. All right, and then we'll do, um, so we've already learned that little phrase there.

All right, so again, now we're just going to extend it and we're going to do—

and that is it. And then we just repeat that whole, um, sequence, melody, whatever you want to call it there. We do that twice, and that's the B part of Wheel Hoss. Okay, so, um, again, first phrase of the B part of Wheel Hoss.

Second phrase.

Last phrase. And then you will just play that again, and that's the A part and the B part of Wheelhouse there. So one other thing I needed to talk about with the B part here, rhythmically speaking, because sometimes this throws people off, you know, most of this stuff, most of bluegrass music, not all, but a good chunk of it is in 4/4 time. And Wheelhouse is in 4/4 time, but there's a measure of 3, 4 toward the end of the B part that can throw you off if you're not aware of it. So let me play the rhythm here too, and I'll count out loud. So we'll go—

so B part of Wheelhouse: 1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, 3, 4, 2, 2, 3, 4, 3, 2.

3, 4, 1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3, 4.

Again, 1, 2, 3, 4, 2, 2, 3, 4, 3, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3, 4.

I feel like an idiot singing that fiddle melody while I'm playing rhythm guitar to it, but you get the idea there. And another cool thing, you know, I hope that if you're someone who's learning bluegrass guitar or practices bluegrass guitar that you've got the Strum Machine app. Please have that. It's such a great tool, and you can kind of see how those chords are laid out there in the Strum Machine app. So, all right, one more time, I'm gonna play it kind of up to tempo pretty quick here with a, with a backing track.

So here we go.

Okay, so again, this is just a— it's a, it's a great tune to have as part of your repertoire. It's a great one to pull out at jam sessions, um, you know, especially if you're playing with some fiddle players. Fiddle players love this tune. Um, but it's just really cool because it has a lot of challenging things for us as guitar players that are great for developing your technique and your timing. But it's also a really, really great tune. So again, get the Strum Machine app, practice this as slow as you need to. I've worked on this with students before. We'll play it, man, we'll play it 35 beats a minute, just—

that's great.

Play it as slow as you need to, but get that good clean picking, get your timing solid, and, you know, just kind of get familiar with this tune and add this to your repertoire of bluegrass fiddle tunes. So again, remember Down in the video description, you can get the tabs for this, and I've got the pick strokes and all that good stuff written out for you. You can also get that in the top pinned comment. As always, thank you for hanging out today, and I will see you next time.