This is the first guitar lesson in a series of videos where we’ll be showing y’all how to make your rhythm guitar sound country with hybrid picking. In this lesson, I’ll teach you a really useful hybrid picking pattern that can be applied to a ton of different country songs. This pattern will help get you comfortable using your pick in combination with the middle and ring fingers of your right hand. As we progress through this course, we’ll increase the hybrid picking difficulty and we’ll take a look at several different patterns that sound great in country, bluegrass, and folk music.
Chord Embellishments
Country Fills Up the Neck with 1st Position Scales
In this lesson, we’re going to travel up the neck in the key of G using the 1st position hybrid country guitar scales. I’ll teach you the four main scales you need to learn in the 1st position and I’ll show you how to use these scales to get a country and bluegrass sound out of your guitar. Then I’ll show you some of my favorite country and bluegrass fill riffs in the 1st position key of G.
Wayfaring Stranger in the Style of Johnny Cash
Learn how to play the traditional American folk song “Wayfaring Stranger” in the style of Johnny Cash. First, we’ll break down all the chords and show you some strumming patterns that will make your rhythm sound country and bluegrass. Then, we’ll teach you the chord progressions along with the lyrics. For those of y’all that aren’t interested in singing this song, we’ll also have a nice acoustic guitar arrangement that incorporates the song’s melody. PDF files are available for download below the video! If you like this lesson, you might also like our Classic Country & Bluegrass Strumming Course.
Video Start Time | Lesson Topic |
---|---|
00:00 min | “Boom Chick” Strumming Pattern |
02:06 min | Alternating Bass Line over Am Chord |
03:01 min | Alternating Bass Line over Dm Chord |
03:59 min | Alternating Bass Line over E7 Chord |
05:19 min | Alternating Bass Line over F Chord |
07:41 min | Alternating Bass Line over C Chord |
09:34 min | Two More Strumming Patterns |

Video Start Time | Lesson Topic |
---|---|
00:00 min | Intro Chord Progression |
02:11 min | Verse 1 with Lyrics |
05:33 min | Chorus 1 with Lyrics |
07:31 min | Instrumental Break Chord Progression |
07:57 min | Verse 2 with Lyrics |
08:53 min | Chorus 2 with Lyrics |
09:36 min | Song Ending |
Video Start Time | Lesson Topic |
---|---|
00:00 min | Listen to the Intro with Tablature |
00:50 min | Pickup Measure and Random Tips |
02:11 min | First Half of the Intro – Breakdown with Tablature |
04:44 min | Second Half of the Intro – Breakdown with Tablature |
06:41 min | Make the Intro Fancier with Some Accent Strums |
Short Instrumental Break (over verse progression):
Johnny Cash played “Wayfaring Stranger” with the short instrumental break that you’ll learn in this video. This short instrumental break is basically the verse progression played in a fancier way to incorporate the song’s melody.
Video Start Time | Lesson Topic |
---|---|
00:00 min | Overview |
00:39 min | Listen to the Short Instrumental |
01:59 min | Measures 1 through 5 – Breakdown with Tablature |
03:55 min | Measures 6 through 10 – Breakdown with Tablature |
06:33 min | Measures 16 and 17 – Breakdown with Tablature |
07:06 min | Practice Along with Me |
Long Instrumental Break (verse + chorus):
In this next video, we’re going to play a longer instrumental arrangement over the song’s verse and chorus. The first half will be the exact same as the Johnny Cash “verse” instrumental taught in the previous video. Then, we’ll break down the second half that’s played over the chorus.
Video Start Time | Lesson Topic |
---|---|
00:00 min | Structure of the Long Instrumental |
01:10 min | Listen to the Long Instrumental |
02:23 min | Play Through the “Short Verse Instrumental” |
03:19 min | Instrumental over the Chorus – Breakdown with Tablature |
10:38 min | Practice Along with Me |
Seven Essential Country Strumming Patterns
In the previous lessons of this course, I taught you several important strumming techniques that’ll make your rhythm guitar playing sound country and bluegrass. We covered the basics in lesson one of this series, and then we worked our way up to some fairly complex country bluegrass rhythm in later lessons.
In this guitar lesson, I’m going to show you seven different strumming patterns that will make your playing sound even more country. I’ll break down each strumming pattern in detail and then we’ll practice our country strumming over the classic country song “Write This Down” by George Strait.
Video Start Time | Lesson Topic |
---|---|
00:00 min | Rhythm Guitar Course Recap |
02:32 min | Down Beats and Up Beats – Pick and Strum Direction |
03:58 min | Strumming Pattern 1 |
05:06 min | Strumming Pattern 2 |
08:05 min | Strumming Pattern 3 |
09:50 min | Strumming Pattern 4 |
11:41 min | Strumming Pattern 5 |
14:23 min | Strumming Pattern 6 |
16:00 min | Strumming Pattern 7 |
17:14 min | Creating Your Own Strumming Patterns |
Video Start Time | Lesson Topic |
---|---|
00:00 min | How to Practice |
01:16 min | Intro Chord Progression |
02:22 min | Verse Chord Progression Breakdown |
04:27 min | Verse Chord Progression Playthrough |
05:06 min | Chorus Chord Progression |
06:35 min | Instrumental Break |
06:48 min | Helpful Tips, Bridge, and Ending |
Practice playing the seven strumming patterns we learned in this guitar lesson over the song “Write This Down” by George Strait. This song is great for practicing country rhythm technique because it’s played at a relatively slow pace and it has that classic country sound we’re focusing on in this lesson series.
The embedded player below is brought to you by 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 e-mail.