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Worried Blues

worried blues guitar solo break
Lesson ID: A0164

“Worried Blues” is an old song from the early 1900s written by a country blues musician named Frank Hutchinson. Hutchinson was best known for playing slide guitar with the guitar held in his lap. His song “Worried Blues” has been recorded by several artists over the years, including a popular fingerstyle arrangement by Doc Watson.

In this guitar lesson, you’ll learn how to play a country and bluegrass flatpicking arrangement of “Worried Blues”. This arrangement is in the key of G and we’ll play it with a nice mix of “Carter Style” boom chick strumming and country blues flatpicking licks. First I’ll teach you two complete instrumental breaks that have a nice bluesy country sound. Then we’ll work through the “Worried Blues” chords and lyrics. After you learn the guitar breaks, practice your flatpicking with the “Worried Blues” backing track in G.

Overview

Instrumental Break 1

Video 1 – Playthrough with Tablature

Video 2 – Full Breakdown

Video Start Time Lesson Topic
00:00 min Tablature Line 1 Breakdown
04:51 min Tablature Line 2 Breakdown
10:18 min Tablature Line 3 Breakdown
14:49 min Practice Along with Me

Instrumental Break 2

Video 1 – Playthrough with Tablature

Video 2 – Full Breakdown

Video Start Time Lesson Topic
00:00 min Tablature Line 1 Breakdown
05:21 min Tablature Line 2 Breakdown
08:51 min Tablature Line 3 Breakdown
11:56 min Practice Along with Me

Chords & Lyrics

Video Start Time Lesson Topic
00:00 min Rhythm Overview
00:56 min Worried Blues Chord Progression
02:16 min Chords and Lyrics
04:33 min Bass Line Walk Example
06:29 min Chords and Lyrics Continued
09:44 min Song Ending
10:44 min Strumming Patterns and Rhythm Tips

Backing Track

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Build-a-Break Flatpicking Guitar Licks for Cripple Creek

build a break cripple creek bluegrass flatpicking guitar licks
Lesson 9 – Bluegrass Guitar Solo Improvising Course
Lesson ID: A0163

This is part two of a mini lesson series on playing lead guitar in a country and bluegrass style. In part one, you learned how to play two guitar breaks for “Cripple Creek” using the song’s traditional melody. In this guitar lesson, you’ll learn eight extremely useful flatpicking guitar licks and I’ll show you three easy ways to use these flatpicking licks to spice up your country and bluegrass guitar solos. The concepts in this lead guitar lesson will help you improvise a hard-driving bluegrass guitar break over “Cripple Creek” and these concepts can also be applied to a ton of other country and bluegrass songs.

Overview

Using the Licks

Flatpicking Licks

Video Start Time Lesson Topic
00:00 min Bluegrass Lick 1
03:08 min Practice Lick 1 with “Cripple Creek”
06:19 min Bluegrass Lick 2
09:11 min Practice Lick 2 with “Cripple Creek”
10:53 min Bluegrass Lick 3
13:12 min Practice Lick 3 with “Cripple Creek”
14:35 min Bluegrass Lick 4
16:57 min Practice Lick 4 with “Cripple Creek”
17:48 min Bluegrass Lick 5
20:11 min Practice Lick 5 with “Cripple Creek”
20:53 min Bluegrass Lick 6
24:23 min Bluegrass Lick 7
28:37 min Bluegrass Lick 8
30:57 min Extra Tips for Using Bluegrass Licks

Backing Track

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Cripple Creek Traditional Guitar Breaks

cripple-creek-guitar-lesson-traditional-break
Lesson 8 – Bluegrass Guitar Solo Improvising Course
Lesson ID: A0162

This is Part One of a two-part lesson series where we’ll work on lead guitar improvising in a country & bluegrass style. In this guitar lesson, you’ll learn how to play two guitar breaks for “Cripple Creek” using the song’s traditional melody.

Then, in the Part Two of this “Cripple Creek” lesson series (coming soon), I’ll show you several different ways that you can use bluegrass guitar licks and crosspicking to modify the traditional melody to make your guitar solo breaks sound more interesting. Both of the guitar lessons in this two-part series will help you add that hard-driving bluegrass sound to your bluegrass guitar breaks.

Overview

Melody 1

Video 1 – Playthrough with Tablature

Video 2 – Full Breakdown

Video Start Time Lesson Topic
00:00 min Breakdown – Measures 1 through 5
05:35 min Breakdown – Measures 6 through 9
07:31 min Recap – A Part
08:12 min Breakdown – Measures 10 through 13
11:09 min Breakdown – Measures 14 through 17
12:05 min Practice the Entire Break with Me
13:46 min Your Homework

Melody 2

Video 1 – Playthrough with Tablature

Video 2 – Full Breakdown

08:02 minBreakdown – Measures 10 through 13

Video Start Time Lesson Topic
00:00 min Listen to the Entire Break
00:50 min Breakdown – Measures 1 through 5
05:30 min Breakdown – Measures 6 through 9
10:44 min Breakdown – Measures 14 through 17
12:44 min Practice the Entire Break with Me
14:53 min Backing Track Practice Tip

Backing Track

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Country Guitar Lick Library

cgo-country-guitar-lick-library-overview

Our Bluegrass Lick Library has been really popular, so I’m putting together a Country Guitar Lick Library that will cover a bunch of country artist signature licks. I’ll be adding several more country guitar licks to this library in the coming weeks in between recording the full-length guitar lessons.

I just posted the first six guitar licks in the style of Brad Paisley, and below you can watch a sample of Brad Paisley Guitar Lick 1. You can find the Country Guitar Lick Library at the top menu under “Lessons” and I’ll also add a link below this video. Later, I’ll post country guitar licks in the style of Merle Haggard, Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, Hank Williams, and more. If you have an artist you’d like me to cover, you can send me your request in the Country Guitar Lick Library community forum thread.