Country Guitar Lessons

Hi guys! Again, we will continue with the "Licking Up the Modes" series. We are now on to the 5th mode, otherwise known as Mixolydian or Mixo for short. Mixolydian is based of the 5th deg...

This first lick uses notes only out of the C mixolydian scale.  It starts with a C7 arpeggio decending from the 3rd which moves into an Em7b5 arpeggio. The C7 arp includes all the ess...

In lick number two you can start hearing the country flare that I threw in there. Licks 3 and 4 will also have more of a country vibe. I will admit, I did not stick to strictly notes from m...

Lick three is a typical country lick. Players lick Brad Paisley, Johnny Hiland, and others use this same type of idea. It's basically playing 3rd intervals on the G and B strings. They desc...

The final lick utilizes even more notes that are not within mixolydian. Specifically notes out of the C minor blues scale. This is common for country and blues. It helps with the ambiguity t...

Now, it's time to apply these licks and ideas to the backing track. Have fun!

Hey guys, I've been on a hiatus from metal over the past while and decided to throw something a little different at y'all for  this time - country lead playin'! Country lead playing i...

So to start, a really important and often overlooked approach is to play in "diads". Diads are any grouping of two notes within a key. We'll be sticking to the key of G major for the time be...

This technique mimics the sound of a pedal steel guitar and is super frequent in country guitar soloing. Again, within the confines of G major, let's break down each position within the key,...

Double-Stop: The act of playing two notes simultaneously - two separate strings are "stopped" by the fingers. A technique drawn from many types of bluegrass music, double-stopping feat...

Now it's time to try out some of those licks! Have fun with the jam track!

Next-Level StrummingCountry Feel Exercise 1:Let's change gears a bit and try out some cool country rhythms. This one in particular can be played at various tempos and can work in many diffe...

Hi folks! Thanks for checking out this tutorial. In this lesson, I’m providing a number of example licks, in the style of ‘country-rock’. Though these runs may have a dist...

This example is based around the E Minor Blues Pentatonic box, which works over both G Major, and its relative minor, E minor! In this case, we will of course be thinking of G as the pitch o...

This example should sound fairly familiar to any of you that have ever heard 'chicken pickin'.  We start with a bend and then a very common chromatic walk down, and then end the lick wi...

This example is the most challenging of the three in this tutorial, in terms of technical ability. I'd describe this as a mix between a cliche country lick (the first half), and a Greg Howe ...

Thanks for tunin' in to this tutorial! Practice hard, be creative, and we'll see you next time.

Greetings guitar slingers! Welcome to this look back at the previous tutorial. We will use the TT-Zop tutorial as a starting point to head on into some Country guitar playing, so if you hav...

In this example, I expand upon the main rhythm idea, adding arppegiated ideas with hammer-ons and pull-offs that are so typical for Country guitar playing. You will also find the G-arpeggio ...

Example 3a is yet another variation of the main rhythm idea. I included a short lick as a turn-around in the end. Try grooving along on the main rhythm, and throw in any of these variations ...

In this example you will find some double stop bending, typical in country guitar playing. Even though this tutorial is not aimed towards this technique (The bending part of Country needs a ...

In this example, I use the A major (F#min) pentatonic, and incorporate open strings as well (thus expanding the scale a bit). You recognize the beginning "roll" from example 2. Pay attention...

And here' s the final example for you! Here I have once again taken inspiration from the TT-zop solo, part 1. Check it out here, in case you missed that one! This one has a slightly more "...

Time to put your cowboy hats on, folks! It's time for a country twangin' lick. Be sure to use your bridge pickup to get a sharp, crisp sound for riffs like these. You can also try adding a ...