Learn Country
Guitar
It’s no wonder why so many people want to learn country guitar. Country music is a
wide and diverse genre of very popular music. Within it are several of its own sub-genres, and
playing styles. All these different styles of Country have one thing in common: the guitar as
defining a big part of its sound, including both electric and acoustic guitars. So let’s take a
look at what’s required to learn country guitar!
One of the great things about the guitar is that it’s pretty easy to learn its
basics. To learn country guitar, you may wish to start off using a six string acoustic guitar. A
Dreadnought model is always a popular choice. Its big sound played with a pick can be heard over
the rest of the band, and is a great instrument for accompanying singers pining for lost loves.
Another model of large body guitars that can be used to learn country guitar are the Jumbos. These
are set up a little differently than Dreadnoughts. If you are thinking about single line picking
and playing solos this guitar may be a better choice.
Regardless of the model of the guitar you choose to learn country guitar on, its
fundamental techniques are the same. Make sure you learn the open chords as fast as possible. These
fifteen or so chords played around the first three frets of the guitar will get you strumming
through many different songs in no time at all!
You’ll want to learn some basic strumming patterns as well. They’re not that hard
and four or five patterns under your fingers will take you a long way. All you have to be able to
do is repeatedly count to four in a steady even manner at different speeds, and match your
strumming against that counting.
While you learn country guitar, add some depth to your playing skills by learning
some bass line patterns to go along with those chords and patterns. To start with, all you’ll need
to do is once again count to four, and play the root of the chord on beats one and three, while
strumming on beats two and four. If you know a few chords already, try this alternating between a C
chord and a G chord.
As you learn country guitar, you may want to learn how to improvise solos. If this
is the case, start learning your major pentatonic scales as soon as possible - they are a part of
the country sound. These scales, really patterns as far as the guitarist is concerned, give you the
notes to use for soloing over a particular chord.
If you already know your minor pentatonic scales from playing the Blues, you
already know these patterns and to learn country guitar, you just need to adjust your orientation
as to the root-note.
For example, consider an E minor pentatonic scale. It contains five notes repeated
over the range of the guitar: E-G-A-B-D. We think of the root-note or focus of this scale to be the
pitch E. In the Blues we use it for solos over an E7 chord, creating the Blues
sound.
The G major pentatonic scale is: G-A-B-D-E with the root-note as G. It has exactly
the same notes are our E minor scale above, but we use it over a G major chord and focus on the
note G. Cool!
To learn country guitar and the stylistic features of Country music, you can study
different licks, but more importantly, listen to the music. Listen to a lot of the music. This
activity will get the sound of the style in your head while you learn to transfer it to your
fingers. Have fun!
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