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Using Country & Bluegrass Licks to Build a Solo

how-to-improvise-with-bluegrass-guitar-licks-a0160
Lesson 7 – Bluegrass Guitar Solo Improvising Course
Lesson ID: A0160

In the previous guitar lesson in this course, I showed you five of the most common ways to build a guitar solo and we talked about several techniques that will help you improvise better guitar solos. We also discussed the first type of solo in detail — the melodic guitar solo.

In this guitar lesson, you’ll learn about the second type of guitar solo where we’ll play stock country & bluegrass licks over the top of a standard chord progression. First, I’ll teach you four stock country and bluegrass guitar licks. We’ll talk about how to use these licks to play a hard-driving guitar solo in a country and bluegrass style. Then, I’ll show you some more of my favorite lead guitar improvising techniques. As you’re studying the concepts in this lesson, be sure to also check out the Bluegrass Lick Library and Guitar Scale Charts that we have available at Country Guitar Online. After you complete this lesson, practice your country & bluegrass improvising over the backing track to “Will the Circle Be Unbroken” in the key of G. Lesson tablature is available for download below the video.

Overview

Playthrough with Tablature

Guitar Solo & Improvising Tips

Backing Track

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Common Types of Country & Bluegrass Guitar Solos

will-the-circle-be-unbroken-guitar-solo-lesson-a0159
Lesson 6 – Bluegrass Guitar Solo Improvising Course
Lesson ID: A0159

In this guitar lesson, you’ll learn some of the most common ways to play country and bluegrass lead guitar solos. First, I’ll show you five of the best ways to create a guitar solo and we’ll talk about different techniques you can use to improvise better lead guitar solos. Next, we’ll get some ear training practice while we learn the basic guitar melody for “Will the Circle Be Unbroken”. Finally, I’ll show you some nice ways to transform a basic guitar solo melody into a fancier country and bluegrass solo — these techniques will work for soloing over just about every country and bluegrass song. After you master the solos, practice your lead guitar improvising over our “Will the Circle Be Unbroken” backing track in the key of G. Also check out our collection of bluegrass guitar licks for some more lead guitar improvising ideas.

Overview

Types of Solos

Playthrough with Tablature

Video 1 – Basic Melody Solo Playthrough with Tablature

Try to use this video to do some ear training…play the video, look away from the screen, and see if you can pick out the melody on your guitar. Don’t worry about learning the basic melody exactly as I play it — as long as you’re close, you’ll be ready to learn more improvising tips under the “Extra Improvising Tips” lesson tab just above this video.

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Video 2 – Fancier Melody Solo Playthrough with Tablature

In this video, we’re going to make the basic solo melody sound a little fancier by adding extra melody notes and by adding a couple of tasteful bluegrass guitar licks. Under the “Extra Improvising Tips” lesson tab, we’ll discuss the fancier melody solo in more detail.

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Extra Improvising Tips

Extra Improvising Tips

In this video, we’ll talk about some different ways you can transform a basic melody into an interesting country & bluegrass guitar solo. We’ll also talk about how to use bluegrass guitar licks in a solo. After you watch this video, try using some of the bluegrass licks in our Bluegrass Lick Library to improvise guitar solos over our bluegrass backing track for “Will the Circle Be Unbroken”.

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Backing Track

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Tennessee Stud Riffs and Strumming

doc watson flatpicking guitar lesson
Lesson ID: A0158

In this guitar lesson, we’re going to work on country & bluegrass flatpicking in the style of Doc Watson. First, I’ll teach you how to play some catchy guitar riffs similar to what you’ll hear in Doc’s arrangement of “Tennessee Stud”. Next, I’ll break down a few Doc Watson style strumming patterns and we’ll take a look at some chord progressions that you can use for practice. After you learn the guitar riffs and strumming patterns, practice your Doc Watson style flatpicking over “Tennessee Stud”. Doc plays this song at a pretty fast pace so I’d recommend you begin practicing at a comfortable pace and then slowly increase your speed in increments. Overall, this is a great guitar lesson for developing accurate pick control.

Overview

Playthrough with Tablature

Riffs & Strumming

Practice Progressions

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Listen

Practice with Doc Watson

Practice this lesson’s strumming patterns and riffs over Doc Watson’s arrangement of “Tennessee Stud” using the embedded player from Spotify. We’d highly recommend using Spotify for online radio. If you don’t have a Spotify account, click here to sign up free with your Facebook account or with an e-mail address.

Hot Bluegrass Guitar Licks & Improvising Tips

bluegrass-lead-guitar-lesson-wreck-of-old-97
Lesson 5 – Bluegrass Guitar Solo Improvising Course
Lesson ID: A0157

In this guitar lesson, you’ll learn several barn-burning bluegrass guitar licks that’ll turn some heads at your next bluegrass jam. We’ll also talk some more about how to use bluegrass licks, how bluegrass licks are structured around common bluegrass chord progressions, and how you can combine bluegrass licks to create catchy bluegrass guitar solos. By the end of this guitar lesson, you should be able to play a nice bluegrass guitar solo break over the bluegrass standard “Wreck of the Old ’97”.

Licks & Tricks

Video Start Time Lesson Topic
00:00 min Lesson Overview
01:07 min Bluegrass Lead Guitar Improvising Tips
08:41 min Bluegrass Lick 1 over G Chord
10:21 min Bluegrass Lick 2 over C Chord
11:36 min Bluegrass Lick 3 over G Chord
12:41 min Helpful Tip for Improving Your Pull-offs

Playthrough with Tablature

Guitar Scales

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Backing Track

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