Bryan Sutton is definitely one of the best flatpickers alive today. He plays with a uniquely smooth tone even when he’s picking super fast, and one of the ways he does this is with sweep picking. In this lesson we’ll go over an awesome bluegrass sweep picking lick that Bryan Sutton uses regularly in his flatpicking.
In this lesson you’ll learn two intermediate country guitar riffs. The great thing about these riffs is that you can play them separately or you can combine them to make one longer guitar solo. The goal here is that we’re continuing to expand your “bag of licks” so you’ll have several licks you can pull from when you’re trading lead back and forth at jam sessions. The more country/bluegrass licks you know the better you’ll be able to improvise your own guitar solos.
| Video Start Time | Lesson Topic |
|---|---|
| 00:00 min | Lesson Overview |
| 00:30 min | Riff #1 Play Through with Tablature |
| 01:28 min | Upward Pull-Off |
| 02:38 min | Traditional Flatpicking Style |
| 03:03 min | Riff #2 Play Through with Tablature |
| 03:53 min | Both Riffs Combined |
| 05:17 min | Played at Top Speed |
Guitar ending riffs are extremely important in bluegrass. If you’ve ever been to a bluegrass jam session, you already know how all the bluegrass musicians will repeat the same chord progressions over and over as they take turns playing their solo breaks. At some point the song has to end, and that’s where ending licks like this one come in handy!
After you’re done here