The classic “G run” is the most important part of bluegrass guitar. Learning different variations of the G run will improve your soloing and backup rhythm guitar. In this guitar lesson, we’ll work through ten different examples of how to play the standard bluegrass G run on guitar. All of the bluegrass G run examples in this lesson come with tablature. The first G run we’ll cover is the most common G run that guitar players use at bluegrass jams. We’ll also look at different signature G runs used by the great bluegrass pickers over the years — Del McCoury, Tony Rice, Norman Blake, and Doc Watson. Later in this bluegrass guitar lesson, we’ll get some practice using G runs with the chord progression to “Will the Circle be Unbroken” .
Licks and Tricks
Build-a-Break Flatpicking Guitar Licks for Cripple Creek
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.
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 |
Country Guitar Lick Library
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.
Using Country & Bluegrass Licks to Build a Solo
In the previous guitar lesson in this course, I showed you five of the most common ways to build a guitar solo and we talked about several techniques that will help you improvise better guitar solos. We also discussed the first type of solo in detail — the melodic guitar solo.
In this guitar lesson, you’ll learn about the second type of guitar solo where we’ll play stock country & bluegrass licks over the top of a standard chord progression. First, I’ll teach you four stock country and bluegrass guitar licks. We’ll talk about how to use these licks to play a hard-driving guitar solo in a country and bluegrass style. Then, I’ll show you some more of my favorite lead guitar improvising techniques. As you’re studying the concepts in this lesson, be sure to also check out the Bluegrass Lick Library and Guitar Scale Charts that we have available at Country Guitar Online. After you complete this lesson, practice your country & bluegrass improvising over the backing track to “Will the Circle Be Unbroken” in the key of G. Lesson tablature is available for download below the video.