In this guitar lesson, we’ll work on some flatpicking in the style of Molly Tuttle using a common “I-IV-V” chord progression that we’ll borrow from the song “White Freightliner Blues” by Townes Van Zandt. Molly Tuttle adds her own twist to this song and we’ll take a look at how she uses chord embellishments, crosspicking, and fill riffs to spice up her bluegrass rhythm guitar playing.
In this guitar lesson, we’ll work on our flatpicking technique using a variation of the melody from the song “Wheel Hoss” written by Bill Monroe. The flatpicking arrangement in this lesson is inspired by how David Grier plays “Wheel Hoss” on guitar and we’ll study how to use this flatpicking arrangement as a practice drill to work on your pick accuracy and speed across all six strings of your guitar.
In this guitar lesson, you’ll learn some important crosspicking patterns and alternate chord voicings that will spice up your rhythm and lead guitar. First we’ll work on the crosspicking patterns and we’ll practice them using key of G open chords (G, C, and D). Then we’ll take a look at how you can play the G, C, and D chords at different locations up the guitar neck using alternate chord voicings. We’ll practice crosspicking over these new chord voicings and you’ll also learn some nice chord embellishments and licks that will make your crosspicking sound great.
In the second half of this lesson, we’ll work on some George Shuffler style crosspicking. George Shuffler was basically the pioneer of the crosspicking style in bluegrass music and he used a signature Down Down Up crosspicking pattern in most of his playing. We’ll work through an entire crosspicking progression in the style of George Shuffler to give you some different crosspicking ideas that you can use in your own country bluegrass rhythm and lead guitar. After you watch the lesson videos, practice your country bluegrass crosspicking with the two full-length backing tracks that are available with this lesson.
In this guitar lesson, you’ll learn how to play an easy country and bluegrass guitar lick that sounds great over the C major chord when you’re soloing in the key of G. Then we’ll practice using the lick in a guitar solo over a 12 bar chord progression. As we’re working through the guitar solo, you’ll learn how to use bluegrass licks effectively to play powerful solos that follow a song’s chord progression. Later in the lesson, we’ll also talk about the guitar scales for playing country and bluegrass guitar solos and we’ll go over some easy improvising techniques. After you watch the lesson, practice your guitar solo improvising using the three bluegrass backing tracks in the key of G that you’ll find on this guitar lesson post.
