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Country Strumming in the Style of Randy Travis

classic country bluegrass strumming series lesson 2
Lesson 2 – Country & Bluegrass Rhythm Course
Lesson ID: A0103

In the previous lesson of this course, I taught y’all one of the most important strumming patterns in country and bluegrass music. We also discussed how to use alternating bass notes with several different chords and we practiced strumming with a common country and bluegrass chord progression.

In this lesson, we’re going to practice this country strumming pattern using the song “Forever And Ever, Amen” by Randy Travis. This song is a great practice tool because it’s played at a relatively slow pace and the lyrics aren’t too difficult to learn. We’ll go over all of the song’s chord progressions and I’ll give you some important strumming tips as we work through the lesson.

Lesson Overview

Chords & Strumming

Video Start Time Lesson Topic
00:00 min Overview
01:38 min Alternating Bass Line over the D Major Chord
02:48 min Alternating Bass Line over the G Major Chord
03:31 min Alternating Bass Line over the E Major Chord
04:34 min Alternating Bass Line over the A Major Chord
05:10 min Alternating Bass Line over the B Minor Chord
06:07 min Counting the Strumming Pattern

Chord Progressions

Video Start Time Lesson Topic
00:00 min Intro Chord Progression
01:58 min Verse 1 Chord Progression Without Singing
03:44 min Verse 1 Chord Progression With Singing
05:27 min Chorus 1 Chord Progression Without Singing
07:05 min Chorus 1 Chord Progression With Singing
08:07 min Instrumental Break
08:47 min Verse 2 and Chorus 2 Recap
09:23 min Ending Chord Progression

Intermediate Breakdown

Video Start Time Lesson Topic
00:00 min Intro Chord Progression
00:51 min Verse 1 Chord Progression With Singing
02:28 min Chorus 1 Chord Progression With Singing
03:23 min Instrumental Break
04:04 min Verse 2 and Chorus 2 Recap
04:41 min Ending Chord Progression

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Listen

Listen to “Forever And Ever, Amen” by Randy Travis below using the embedded player from Spotify. I’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.

 

Intro to Classic Country and Bluegrass Strumming

easy classic country bluegrass strumming pattern
Lesson 1 – Country & Bluegrass Rhythm Course
Lesson ID: A0102

This is the first lesson in a series of videos where I’ll be teaching y’all a ton of my favorite classic country and bluegrass strumming patterns. In this lesson, we’re going to start with the basics and learn one of the most important strumming patterns used in country and bluegrass music. We’ll break down the pattern in detail and then I’ll show you how to use it with several common open chords. After that, I’ll give you some info on the chord numbering system, and finally, we’ll practice the strumming pattern using a really common country and bluegrass chord progression in four different keys.

Video Start Time Lesson Topic
00:00 min Lesson Overview
01:19 min The Basic Strumming Pattern
02:07 min Alternating Bass Notes
04:29 min Country and Bluegrass G Chord Hammer-On
06:42 min Using the Pattern with Common Guitar Chords
09:32 min How to Count the Strumming Pattern
11:48 min Let’s Use the Pattern with a Country and Bluegrass Chord Progression
16:29 min Practice Along with Me
17:51 min Changing Keys Using the Chord Numbering System

How to Mix Country Crosspicking with Your Strumming

country and bluegrass crosspicking patterns guitar lesson
Lesson ID: A0098

In this guitar lesson, we’ll show you some country and bluegrass crosspicking patterns that’ll help you improve your pick control. After we learn the patterns and discuss proper technique, we’ll go over how you can mix these patterns with your country strumming to spice up your rhythm guitar playing.

Video Start Time Lesson Topic
00:00 min Crosspicking Overview
01:25 min Crosspicking Pattern 1
03:31 min Pick Direction
04:21 min Crosspicking Pattern 2
05:17 min Proper Technique
06:47 min Changing Chords
08:07 min How to Mix Crosspicking with Country Strumming
15:38 min Shifting to Different Strings
16:48 min Intermediate Crosspicking/Strumming Rhythm

Country Bluegrass Chord Embellishments with Triplets

country bluegrass chord embellishments with triplets
Lesson 9 – Rhythm Fill Riffs and Lead Guitar Course
Lesson ID: A0097

Till now in this series, we’ve learned the 5th position scales in the key of G that are used to create country and bluegrass style fills. We combined all these scales into one “hybrid” scale and applied it to different chord progressions. Most of the riffs we studied were played with eighth notes and sixteenth notes.

In this lesson, we’re going to add a bit more rhythm variety to our country and bluegrass fills with triplets. I’ll give a brief overview of triplets in the first video below. If you’d like to read more about triplets, you can head over to our triplets music theory page. In the second video of this post, I’ll teach you six nice triplet style chord embellishments that you can play over the G, C, and D chords. In the third video, we’ll run through a chord progression example you can use for practice.

Overview

Video Start Time Lesson Topic
00:00 min Lesson Overview
03:14 min What’s a triplet?
06:09 min Using Triplets with Country and Bluegrass

Chord Embellishments

Video Start Time Lesson Topic
00:00 min Overview
00:28 min Sixteenth Note Country & Bluegrass Rhythm
01:51 min Syncopated Rhythm Breakdown
05:29 min G Chord Embellishments with Triplets
10:39 min C Chord Embellishments with Triplets
15:45 min D Chord Embellishments with Triplets
18:40 min Practice with a Chord Progression

Practice Along

Video Start Time Lesson Topic
00:00 min Progression – Rhythm Only
00:58 min Progression with the Chord Embellishments
04:00 min Practice Along with Me

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