If you like homegrown handpicked music, you will love The Austin Pickin Ranch. At The Austin Pickin Ranch, we love bluegrass music and the instruments that play it. We see bluegrass as a gateway music to all other music. If you can play bluegrass, it’s a short leap to playing any style of music.At the Austin Pickin Ranch, you can watch, listen, enjoy, hone your musical skills or learn a new instrument. It is intended for amateur and professional musicians to enjoy and learn. Instructo-tainment…it’s the way of the future!!I’m Ritchie Mintz. I picked up guitar at age 8 and banjo at 12. By 15, I was teaching both. I have taught all the bluegrass instruments to hundreds of people. My pickin’ buddy, Ned Alterman, and I wrote Bluegrass Bass, which was published and released in 1977. That book became the classic standard for bass instruction that taught three generations of bass players. That book is now back as Bluegrass Bass – 21st Century Edition ($60 + Shipping & handling) includes theory, technique and interviews with the world’s top bassists. The Towne & Country Review Live CD is included with Bluegrass Bass – 21st Century Edition. The book features the chord charts and instructions how to play all the songs on the CD. You can play along! Enjoy this free sampler of Bluegrass Bass – 21st Century Edition before you order. I also wrote Conversational Bluegrass Banjo – How To Speak Fluent 5-String And Pick Like A Pro ($60 + Shipping & handling). It is the banjo instruction method that is how I learned and how I teach. This is a revolutionary method for learning 5-string banjo. There is no TAB! I teach by the right hand rolls, which are the vocabulary of playing bluegrass banjo. Learn your rolls from my book and you will speak Conversational Bluegrass Banjo. Then, you’re pickin like a pro! If you struggle with TAB or if you want to find out what TAB is trying to tell you, this book is for you. Enjoy this free sampler (which includes your first roll!) before you order Conversational Bluegrass Banjo – How to Speak Fluent 5-String And Pick Like A Pro.
Get a great deal by buying both books. See our order page. Great gifts for any musician (or future musician) in your life. |
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Towne & Country RevueIn my Boulder days, my many friends and banjo enthusiasts knew me as The Big Banjo From Boulder. I played in many bands but the hottest and most enduring band was The Towne & Country Revue (T&CR for short). In November 1977, T&CR recorded a rowdy party at Mountainears Studio. The fun we had was infectious and everybody who heard us caught the fever. You can hear the exuberance of those days on T&CR Live at Mountainears. Most of my music students came to the store for lessons after watching us play live. (The very same instruction methods that I used in those days are Now today, through the miracle of digital technology, you can hear The Towne & Country at its hottest and coolest. If you want to pick like a pro, it’s all on the T&CR CD. I consider T&CR Live at Mountainears to be the companion disk to both Bluegrass Bass – 21st Century Edition and my new revolutionary Ready to Order? |
 Check out the covers and liner notes. (PDF) The Towne & Country Revue received the Hapi Skratch Award in 2003 |