Drop D Country Guitar Riffs

April 13, 2025March 29, 2018 by Devin

Lesson 17 – Rhythm Fill Riffs and Lead Guitar Course

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Lesson ID: A0149

In this country guitar lesson, you’ll learn how to play six intermediate country guitar riffs in drop D. We’ll also have three easier drop D riffs for the newer country pickers. I’ll play the drop D licks with tablature and give you a full breakdown along with some helpful music theory tips. After you learn the licks, practice along with our jam track and also test them out over “Modern Day Bonnie and Clyde” by Travis Tritt.

Lesson Overview

Six Intermediate Riffs

Intermediate Riff 1

Intermediate Riff 2

Intermediate Riff 3

Intermediate Riff 4

Intermediate Riff 5

Intermediate Riff 6

Three Easy Riffs

Easy Riff 1

Easy Riff 2

Easy Riff 3

Using the Riffs

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Jam Track

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Travis Tritt

Practice with Travis Tritt

Once you get these drop D country guitar riffs up to speed, try to play them over the song “Modern Day Bonnie and Clyde” by Travis Tritt using the embedded player from Spotify. The chord progression is similar to our jam track progression, but just a bit quicker. 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. Also, check out Travis Tritt on iTunes. He’s got a ton of other great songs to choose from.

Intermediate Riffs TAB Easy Riffs TAB Woodtone Strings

Beaumont Rag

April 13, 2025March 14, 2018 by Devin

Lesson ID: A0147

“Beaumont Rag” is a swingy flatpicking guitar standard that originated as a fiddle tune near Beaumont, Texas. The exact origins are unknown, but many believe it was composed by a fiddler in Smith’s Garage Fiddle Band named Samuel Peacock. It was first recorded by Smith’s Garage Fiddle Band in 1928, and since then, it has become one of the most recorded ragtime tunes by country fiddlers across the world. Today, “Beaumont Rag” is a popular bluegrass standard for flatpicking guitarists.

In this guitar lesson, you’ll learn how to play a traditional flatpicking break for “Beaumont Rag”. This arrangement will really help you work on your crosspicking and right hand pick control. When you play it at a slow speed, it’s a great song for beginner guitarists to learn, and when you speed it up, it’ll get pretty technical for the more advanced pickers. Download “Beaumont Rag” guitar tablature below the video.

Lesson Overview

Playthrough with Tablature

Full Breakdown

Video 1 – Learn the A Part

Video 2 – Learn the B Part

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Optional Ending

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Backing Track

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Beaumont Rag Guitar TAB Optional Ending TAB Woodtone Strings

12 Bar Blues with a Country Twang

April 13, 2025March 13, 2018 by Devin

Lesson 16 – Rhythm Fill Riffs and Lead Guitar Course

Course Outline Previous Lesson Next Lesson

Lesson ID: A0148

In this country guitar lesson, you’ll learn how to play a variation of the 12 bar blues that has a country & bluegrass twang. In both arrangements below, we’ll use triplets to spice up our country fills and we’ll also replace strumming with crosspicking in certain measures to make our rhythm sound even more country. These country 12 bar blues progressions are in the key of G and you can use the fill riffs that we’re studying in this guitar lesson with a bunch of other country & bluegrass songs. Pay close attention to how we’re structuring each country guitar lick around the rhythm chords.

Lesson Overview