What would happen if we forced a true "rocker" to write a country solo? - We would get a country solo for wannabes.
The advantages of such a solo are many, as an unexperienced country guitarist definately needs a different approach than a western veteran.
In this lesson I give you the most common country techniques - from a rock perspective. Don't miss this oportunity - come along and take one step closer to creating your own unique style: by adding country licks into your playing. Some of these are so simple I promise you will get a few tricks under your fingers right away.
Open string licks, banjo rolls, chicken picking, double stops - you have got it all here!
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Chord Progression:
G major is the perfect key for country guitar - as this scale contains all the open strings. Since a lot of the country sound comes from the use of open strings, I suggest you start learning some of the G scale boxes.
Note: There really is no need to learn all the boxes just for the sake of it. Instead, try pick just one and see if you can come up with some licks/improvisation of your own.
|G---|G---|G---|G---|
|G---|G---|C---|C---|
|G---|--F#|Em--|Em--|
|G---|C---|D7---|D7---|
|G---|C---|D7---|D7---|
|Em---|Am---|Em---|B7Em-D7|
|G---|
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Here follows the
1 - G major box shapes
2 - G major pentatonic box shapes
This kind open string pattern, played in the major pentatonic scale, is something you should be able to find variations around, regardless of your level.
The same concept applies to the major (ionian) scale. This scale gives us a bit more of a sophisticated sound, especially if we leave the open strings ringing as long as possible.
You might also notice that I am doing more of a horizontal vibrato here - as opposed to the bending (up & down) style vibrato. This vibrato actually sounds quite boring - but doing the other version would kill the the open strings (again, we want the to RING).
Another possibility would be to use the whammy bar.
Time for some banjo rolls. This technique is actually borrowed from banjo guitarists.
It consists of one pick strike and then the use of ring- and middle finger. This same kind of speed would be hard to achieve solely with the pick, since we are only playing one note per string.
ps Hope you didn't miss the open, ringing strings here...? ;)
This lick would work well in a rock situation - with a lil' more distortion.
To add a cool effect, we are raking three strings before reaching our "target" note. This facilitates finding the right string with the right hand - while it adds a cool sound. No cons in other words!
As discussed in the "Country Cheating" one-to-one lesson, we can achieve a country sound by simply adding a "wrong" or "forbidden" note. This is a great illustration of this.
This is played over the D7 seventh chord. I like to add a lick that's strictly rhythmic once in a while, as a nice contrast to the more commonly used melodic lines.
Ok - here is where our country solo starts to touch upon something completely different. But hey, we're note here to do things like everyone else, right?
Now, get your chops out and let's do some FREAKIN' SWEAPING!!
If you are not getting this right - you are likely to do the wrong right-hand motion. Study the video very closely.
Also, I am applying slight palm muting to clean things up. And yes you might have guessed it: My sweeping technique isn't quite where it should be , if I need both a clean sound as well as palm muting to play cleanly...
Arpeggios are the most perfect-sounding musical tool. That's why I like to combine them with outside notes - in my opinion this gives an effective contrast.
I hope this lesson will inspire you to go borrow licks and tricks from all sorts of musical styles - and combine them to crreate your own original style. This really isn't as hard as it sounds, it's just a matter of finding the licks that inspires you. In other words: Skip the ones that you think are good for you - and take the ones you know you like!
I'm hooked on playing this! I'm comming from a classical background and I want to play it without useing a pick. In other words, I dont want to leard touse a pick - it's too frustrating to go slow. Do you think I need to use a pick? Will I be able to achieve good picking and strumming and become a rock star without one...?
Love your site. I've learned more here in 10 hours than in 20 yrs selftaught...
Kris did it once again...Now I am like holding my belly because I can´t stop laughing the whole lesson thing is really cool ... started noding with the head and then this one hit in the ending...sounding like its a sample cut from "master of puppets" 1.10min ...don´t get me wrong I love it now you put a big smile on my face again Kris SO WEIRD what does it do there exactly?! i don´t get it
and oh yeah, awesome techniques in this lesson...you really dig Eric Johnson etc. right?