Basics of Country Guitar

Series Summary

Are you looking to mix up your guitar playing style? This is the video series for you. Our expert knows the ropes, has played in some top bands, and is ready to sit down and show you some inside information on how to play country guitar.

Watch as our expert shows you what he knows about the trade. Learn the different rhythms and picking styles that will have you sounding like a country superstar. Also check out the many different guitar licks that will give you that authentic country and western sound. He will even show you how to play the style the Chet Atkins utilized. Tune up that guitar partner and prepare to dig into these videos and come out playing some hot lead country guitar.

Video Transcript

"Hey! This is Josh from The Mother Truckers talking about country lead guitar. For me, my approach towards country lead, I came from a blue's background so I kept seeing the blue's pentatonic scale every where and also I knew my major scales and I tried to blend them together. Country lead guitars mostly leans twards the major sound but if you just take it note for note, it doesn't have any balls so I think what a lot of players did is they sort of outlined some of the major scale so instead of going, they would use this instead so you could get that more bluesier sound. So you could use those sort of bluesy runs without it sounding too major or too poppy. So that is sort of the approach I've used trying sometimes to edit out some of the color notes and that way I can use a lot of the same bluesmix, same positions. Like here's your classic pentatonic and here's your classic major. Now I felt comfortable in the blues and you can basically do the same thing in country, not just in major position. That was a little sloppy but obviously you have to keep conscious of which note you are landing on in the blues. so i wouldn't land on that same, because that's a 6th note. So if I want to resolve, I have to keep aware of where my E notes are. Stick with the major scales but try not to stick to them too literally and put some bends and a little blues inflection and a little jazz anticipation and you will have a pretty cool sound. "