You and your students are welcome to download these free files to print and share.

Videos and Books for Use by Teachers

Pete’s 10 instructional videos and two bestselling books have helped launch thousands of pickers. Here’s how teachers can use them to enhance their teaching:

  • Observe and coach students playing along with jam video, address problems
  • Assign excerpts of video to learn for next lesson
  • Suggest and demo content to learn directly from a video.

For Beginners and New Jammers on all instruments

Bluegrass Slow Jam for the Total Beginner
Just Right for the Brand New Picker! A Super-Easy, No-Fail Play-Along Session with Pete “Dr. Banjo” Wernick Anyone, with any instrument, can get into this bluegrass jam session, even if you’ve never tried it before. All you need to know are four basic chords (G, C, D and A) to play along with the band.

Bluegrass Jamming, A Guide for Newcomers and Closet Pickers
Seventeen bluegrass standards at moderate speeds, a soloing opportunity in each song, chords clearly shown, many pointers on the how-to’s and etiquette of bluegrass jamming. Lyric book included.

Intermediate Bluegrass Jam Session
Intermediate Bluegrass Jam Session includes 22 full-length songs at medium tempos, with two soloing opportunities each song, as well as many tips applicable to jamming at higher skill levels.

Bluegrass Songbook
140 classic songs. The only book with instruction on bluegrass singing, including bluegrass harmony, and many pages of tips from the all-time greats! Valuable quotes from top bluegrass singers including Flatt, Stanley, Monroe, Martin, Waller, McReynolds, Dickens, Rowan, Allen, many more!

JAM Songbook
* 39 favorites (all 39 represented on a free online playlist, for ear-learning)
* Chords presented in numbers only, allowing reader to choose the key
* Underlinings of syllables that go with beats, to help reader phrase lyrics correctly
* Short teaching sections about transposing, song leading, jam etiquette
* Full section showing chords and finger positions for all bluegrass instruments
* Just $10 each and discounts available for quantity orders

For Use by Banjo Teachers

Get Rolling: Ultra-Easy No-Fail Intro to Bluegrass Banjo
Any new banjo player, even a child, will be playing along almost immediately with Pete on over twenty well-known songs. Basic strum and 3-finger roll technique, plus simple chord changes, yields good-sounding music. Two of Pete’s students help out by showing the basics of playing together.

Beginning Bluegrass Banjo 
Best Seller! Two-hour video + tab. Months’ worth of learning, just $30.00. A step-by-step method based on 20 years teaching. Split-screen closeups, fast/slow repetitions make video learning best!

Bluegrass Banjo
A clear, complete course from the easiest chords, songs and beginning rolls to advanced licks and instrumentals. 143 pages with many photos, 43 tablatures. Includes CD with examples, standard licks, moderate speed play-along favorite songs, presented in easy, intermediate, and advanced versions.

Bluegrass Banjo Backup, Basic Level
This recent video release by Pete has two hours of backup banjo instruction, using many excerpts from the Bluegrass Slow Jam and Bluegrass Jamming videos. After each excerpt, Pete shows very clearly how the patterns and licks are done. All moves shown are also in an accompanying tab booklet.

Make Up Your own Banjo Solos (Part 1 and Part 2)
Learn how to create convincing banjo solos, both “on the fly” in jam sessions and with more precision in your practice time. Here’s the alternative to total dependence on tab and memorizing other people’s arrangements.

Branching Out On The Banjo (Part 1 and Part 2)
Patterns, techniques, and a “road map to the banjo neck” will give everyone from experienced beginners to advanced players new ways of spinning out your own licks, or learning those of the masters. The emphasis is on do-able, good-sounding, versatile ideas that work in both solos and backup.


Watch a Wernick Method class, and hear what the students and teacher say! Thanks Fred Boettger, for a fun 4-minute report.