My father was a banjo player. He had a book titled, “How To Play the 5-String Banjo” by Pete Seeger. Known as “The Red Book” – even after it came out as a green and blue cover.

In that book was a page of several songs that required 3 chords.

C, F, & G7. Those who play will recognize, the 1, 4, 5 progression – basically, I was learning everything I needed to know to become a rock star!

My First Guitar

We also had a beautiful Guild classical guitar. I still have the guitar.

And a Mel Bay book of chords. From the Mel Bay book of chords, I learned to tune the guitar and learned those 3 chords… The “F” chord being the most challenging even in it’s 4 string version.. Anyone remember that first bar chord?

The first song I learned was the Crawdad song (“You Get a line and I’ll get a pole, honey.”). Yesterday, when I discovered the passing of Pete Seeger, I recorded this short video tribute and thank you. Enjoy!
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R4RDArG1R1g]