Thanks for the welcome, Marion and M.Ted. I certainly agree that my method book doesn't give the full definition, but M.Ted is right--the author is just introducing the concept of an alternating bass fingerpicking style--(and it sure is fun!). The first alt.bass song is Banks of the Ohio, and the next one is Crawdad. Really fun stuff. There seems to be a lot of murder ballads out there...

Anyway, I've really enjoyed The Acoustic Guitar Method, mainly because of the songs that David Hamburger uses to teach the concepts. It's all roots music. While the arrangements are obviously simple, they are a blast to play, and I can look up the songs here on mudcat and learn tons more about their history and usually about a million more verses than what are printed in my book.

Mudcat has been a great find!

happy Monday all,
shane