Hot Country Licks Lesson

Hot Country Licks in G

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  • Hi and welcome to my first country lesson.

    I've always been fan of this style but never really had an opportunity to jam with some good country player. It was nearly 20 years ago when I heard Danny Gatton in "Guitar Player" magazine and got really interested in country techniques. The first real experience I had was at the guitar university with my teacher Lee Hodgson who is a great country master. In this lesson I tried to show you some of my favorite licks which you can hear mostly in Albert Lee's playing. He visited our school several times and did some amazing masterclasses.

    The important technique in this style is hybrid picking combined with open strings. All those open string notes should be played with the "let ring" technique which gives a totally new dimension in country licks. The rest of picking is mainly alternate. In the GP file I left all the marks for the right hand fingering which you need for hybrid picking. Try to use it as much as possible - every time you have an opportunity to pluck the string with the right hand finger just go for it. Now the combination of slides and hammer ons/pull offs plays an important role. The same lick wouldn't sound the same if you pick two notes instead of playing a slide or legato. Read the tab carefuly and get all those techniques as writen. I made this lesson in the key of G as that key gives a lot of opportunities for combining open strings within licks. You might find that I don't pick every note correctly in the slow videos because it's a very different feel when you speed it up. Just rely on the GP file and you'll be fine.

    The main scale used is G major pentatonic. You can of course use G major scale but the more you go for the pentatonic approach the more you'll sound in style. You can also mix blues and minor pentatonic scale but you should always tend to resolve on the major pentatonic. Any chromatic note can be played but always get back quickly in the major shape. You will see that many times when I play minor 3rd interval I imediately resolve on major 3rd note. I approach that major 3rd either with the slide, hammer on/pull off or bending. The same rule applies for the blues scale where I sometimes play the b5 note. Those passing notes are just another ingredient in coloring the lick but remember the major pentatonic is your main base.

    I hope this lesson will help you get some good understanding of this technique. I am open for any questions as always.

    Happy practicing.

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