Guitar World Lesson Builds a Drop-D Bluegrass Piece Around Alternating Bass and Hybrid Picking

Guitar World has published a new acoustic lesson by Richard Barrett built around an unaccompanied bluegrass and folk-blues study in drop D. The core task is keeping an alternating bass line even while adding chords and double-stops above it, with Barrett recommending pick-and-fingers hybrid technique, a thumbpick or fingerstyle according to the player’s sound and instrument.

The arrangement moves through D7, D5, G5, Em9 and an open-string F6/9 voicing whose third is omitted. Barrett also points out the bars where the bass pattern shifts, recommends separating bass notes from the upper voices during practice, and connects the sound to Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, John Renbourn, Bert Jansch and Alison Krauss & Union Station.