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Licks and Tricks

How to Play a Solo in C for Bluegrass and Country

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Lesson ID: A0175

In this guitar lesson, you’ll learn how to play a guitar solo in C for bluegrass and country. First we’ll play through the solo arrangement at a slow pace with tablature on the screen. Then we’ll break down the entire solo line by line and we’ll cover some helpful techniques for improvising solos in C. After you learn the guitar solo arrangement, practice along with the country & bluegrass backing track in the key of C.

Overview

Playthrough with Tablature

Full Breakdown

Video Start Time Lesson Topic
00:00 min Measures 1 through 4 and Soloing Tips
08:30 min Measures 5 through 8
14:26 min Measures 9 through 12 (Available to CGO Members)
20:00 min Measures 13 through 16 (Available to CGO Members)
26:08 min Practice the Solo With Me (Available to CGO Members)

Backing Track

Member Content

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Ten Different Ways to Play the Bluegrass “G Run”

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Lesson ID: A0170

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” .

Lesson Overview

Build-a-Break Flatpicking Guitar Licks for Cripple Creek

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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

Member Content

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Country Guitar Lick Library

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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.