Take a journey into the world of bluegrass flatpick virtuosity in this Masters in Mechanics double feature!

This month we’re taking you on a trip to Winfield Kansas for the 2007 National Guitar Flat Pick Championships. Bluegrass is a unique world where mechanical standards, competition, and creativity work together to produce amazing players like Carl Miner. Carl won the whole thing as a teen, and placed second twice, including the year we interviewed him.

Carl’s musical arrangements are consistently a cut above, and were easily (in our humble opinion) the classiest pieces in the contest that year. His flawlessly consistent technique, as you’ll see under the camera, is entirely based in crosspicking. And for this reason it’s quite different from most rock and metal players in the same way that we’ve seen in Steve Morse’s playing.

The downloads include three hours of the contest itself — over two hours of first round contestants, as well as the complete finals and winners. Slow motion clips and tablature are ready to go. Analysis chapters, plus one final tablature example, will arrive shortly.

UPDATE: We now have a second interview with Carl! This one comes with even more musical examples, plus an awesome analysis feature. Find links to each, plus the bundle that gets you both at once, below.