I became aware of the Dropped D tuning in 1960. It literally exploded my playing. Just by lowering the sixth string down a tone – from E to D, my guitar sounded so much fuller. The tuning seemed to open up the fingerboard whether playing in the Keys of D, G or A. An alternating bass sounded huge and dynamic. Over the last 60 years I, as well as guitar playing friends, have explored playing in Dropped D. From folk and gospel to blues and early jazz to Celtic melodies and O’Carolan compositions to original instrumental compositions. This collection covers a lot of musical terrain. There’s plenty of musical notes, styles, techniques in these pages. Travel slowly and try to absorb the arrangements one by one. The constant throughout is the Dropped D tuning. Includes access to online audio. Including titles Folk & Gospel Death Come Creeping Green, Green Rocky Road Will The Circle Be Unbroken Little Sadie What A Friend We Have in Jesus Amazing Grace Country Blues Careless Love Big Road Blues Canned Heat Blues St. Louis Blues Blues in D Slow Blues in A Sportin’ Life Blues Celtic Melodies & American Fiddle Tunes Pretty Girl Milking A Cow The Blarney Pilgrim Midnight On The Water The South Wind Last of Callahan Rights of Man Drunken Wagoner The Music of Turlough O’Carolan Sheebeg An Sheemore Planxty Irwin Blind Mary Carolan’s Concerto The Guitar of Joseph Spence Brownskin Girl Coming In On A Wing And A Prayer Classic Ragtime The Entertainer Maple Leaf Rag Magnetic Rag Red Carpet Rag Novelty Instrumentals from the Ragtime Era Hard Hearted Hannah The Cat and The Dog Classical Compositions Pavane for the Sleeping Beauty Minuet in D Minor Golliwog’s Cakewalk Jazz The Original Jelly Roll Blues St. Thomas Tintiyana Original Compositions When the Springtime Comes Again Yazoo Basin Boogie Ms. Josephine Ayres Tightrope Catwalk Requiem for Patrick Kilroy One simply cannot talk about people of importance to this genre without tipping the hat to the most masterful musician, teacher, musicologist, producer, folklorist and preservationist of the traditional blues. By now, Stefan Grossman is a venerated, iconoclastic and respected acoustic blues figure of mega-proportions. He came out of the vibrant Greenwich Village, New York, 1960s scene around Washington Square, where so many American folk and blues musicians launched their careers. His friend and occasional collaborator, Steve Katz, formerly of the Even Dozen Jug Band, the Blues Project and Blood, Sweat & Tears, once half-jokingly told this writer: "There we were, all these New York Jews playing the black blues." Indeed, the blues had a strong influence on young New Yorkers during the folk revival. These musicians, Stefan Grossman, Happy & Artie Traum, Danny Kalb, and many others, in turn had a powerful influence on the acceptance of the blues by the American baby boomer generation at large; and, they significantly helped to launch the folk, roots & blues revival, thereby reinvigorating the careers of many original blues musicians whose careers had waned. Many people know Stefan Grossman as the paramount teacher and entrepreneur in what has become the world's largest "blues school", Stefan Grossman's Guitar Workshop. He is one of the most skilled guitarists in the genre, having been a student of Rev. Gary Davis in New York City. He also picked up lessons directly from Mississippi John Hurt, Son House, Skip James, Mississippi Fred McDowell, and others.