Last lesson, we used the hybrid country and bluegrass scale to improvise with fill riffs over the song “Cripple Creek”. We went over the chord progression, some beginner nice fill riffs, and some more advanced fill riffs for the intermediate players.
Rhythm Breakdown
| Video Start Time |
Lesson Topic |
| 00:00 min |
Instrumental Break Chord Progression |
| 01:59 min |
Verse Chord Progression |
| 04:42 min |
Strumming Overview |
| 06:00 min |
Alternating Bass Line |
| 09:08 min |
Strumming – Pick DU Pick DU |
| 10:28 min |
Strumming – Pick DU Pick UDU |
| 12:19 min |
Strumming – Pick D Pick D Pick Pick Pick U UDU |
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Intro & Instrumental Break Chord Progression
G G G G | G G C C | D D D D | G G G G
G G G G | G G C C | D D D D | G G G G | G G G G
Verse Chord Progression
G G G G – G G | C C C C | D D D D | G G G G
G G G G – G G | C C C C | D D D D | G G G G
Strumming Pattern Ideas
Pattern 1
Pick D Pick D — we’re calling this one the “boom chick” pattern
Pattern 2
Pick DU Pick DU — hear this one in action at 08:45 in the video above
Pattern 3
Pick DU Pick UDU — crank it up a notch with this one at 10:28
Pattern 4
Pick D Pick D Pick Pick Pick U UDU — hear a sample at 12:19
Instrumental Breaks
Scroll down on this tab to watch three different instrumental break guitar lesson videos — beginner, intermediate, and advanced. The beginner break is a combo of the “boom chick” strumming pattern and a nice melodic bass line. The intermediate version adds a little more complexity to the beginner break. The advanced version is tricky but I’d recommend trying to learn it if you’re a beginner to intermediate player because it’ll push your pickin’ to the next level!
Video 1 – Beginner Instrumental Break
| Video Start Time |
Beginner Break Topic |
| 00:00 min |
Overview |
| 02:01 min |
Measures 1 and 2 |
| 04:37 min |
Measures 3 and 4 |
| 07:00 min |
Measures 5 and 6 |
| 09:22 min |
Measures 7 and 8 |
| 11:00 min |
Measure 9 |
| 11:56 min |
All the way through for practice |
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Video 2 – Intermediate Instrumental Break
| Video Start Time |
Intermediate Break Topic |
| 00:00 min |
Measures 1 and 2 |
| 03:12 min |
Measures 3 and 4 |
| 04:45 min |
Measures 5 and 6 |
| 07:01 min |
Measures 7 and 8 |
| 08:24 min |
Measure 9 |
| 08:59 min |
All the way through for practice |
Video 3 – Advanced Instrumental Break
| Video Start Time |
Intermediate Break Topic |
| 00:54 min |
Measure 1 |
| 05:05 min |
Measure 2 |
| 07:12 min |
Measure 3 |
| 08:52 min |
Measure 4 |
| 11:11 min |
Measure 5 |
| 12:46 min |
Measure 6 |
| 15:02 min |
Measure 7 |
| 15:23 min |
Measure 8 |
| 17:28 min |
Measure 9 |
| 18:02 min |
Recap |
| 20:05 min |
All the way through for practice |
Short Fill Riffs
In this video, I’ll show y’all 16 awesome country/bluegrass sounding fill riffs. These’ll be short fills that you can play over C and G chords. They sound great with “Honey, You Don’t Know My Mind” or you can use them with any other song in the key of G. I’ve added some scale charts to the next tab for reference. Each fill riff in this video is built around the 5th position key of G hybrid country/bluegrass scale. Visualize the scale as you learn each fill so you can start piecing together where these notes are coming from.
| Video Start Time |
Lesson Topic |
| 00:00 min |
Fill Riff Overview |
| 01:58 min |
Four Beginner C Chord “2e&a” Fill Riffs |
| 04:15 min |
Four Intermediate C Chord “2e&a” Fill Riffs |
| 07:17 min |
Four Beginner G Chord “2e&a” Fill Riffs |
| 10:07 min |
Four Intermediate G Chord “2e&a” Fill Riffs |
pretty cool devin! i am still picking away. actually having to go back and refresh on some things. mostly needing to slow down, and get cleaner. thanks again! oh by the way i was wondering at your level what is most challenging to you?
Thanks Bob! Yep, that’s me too…always working on technique to get the cleanest pickin I can. Pretty sure it’ll be a lifetime goal. Man, that’s a good question…the thing that challenges me the most is probably getting the speed that I want. A lot of the bluegrass flatpicking legends I admire like Tony Rice and Bryan Sutton are crazy fast pickers. One day I’d love to have their speed and accuracy…just gotta keep on practicing!
The old go slow to get fast really applies across the board.
I teach skiing and the absolute best I ski is after I’ve taught
day in and day out going over basics slowly slowly picking out
all the tips and technics and then when I finally get to go free
then I explode and the pain of slowing down pays off big.
Thanks Devin great stuff.
That’s awesome…yeah, crazy how it actually works. The slower you practice everything the faster you can get..build up that muscle memory the right way. I’ll have to try that out next time I go skiing. It’s been a while but I used to go every year..favorite place to ski is Crested Butte, CO. Such a nice area. Thanks a lot for the note – Devin
thanks to you devin i can’t put my guitar down to go deer hunting….lol…..aw what the heck my freezer is full anyway!
Pretty nice weather for hunting right about now..but it’s hard to set that guitar down sometimes! Especially when stuff starts coming together. Really glad you’re putting the videos to good use! I bow hunted a lot growing up…haven’t been in a while but still have friends and family that help me stock the freezer each year. Bet you have some big deer up your way.
Awesome lesson! The riffs that you have in there are sweet! Keep the good work up
Very nice arrangement of this song. I’ll be getting on this tonight!
Really nice lesson. I especially like the intermediate instrumental. Good stuff!
Very cool rhythm and great lesson!
What strings do you use? They sound really nice : )
Thanks! They’re Elixer Nanoweb Mediums (Phosphor Bronze). I’ve tried a ton of different brands and these are the best I’ve found so far.
Nice one Devin
Thank you so much getting slowly great stuff
Awesome! Glad it’s helping out. We’ll be adding more lessons to this course soon!
Really cool lesson series, Devin. I’m learning more from this than I’ve learned anywhere else throughout 20 years playing. Lessons 5, 7 and now 8 have been particularly enjoyable as I love learning the longer riffs. Bit of a step up with the advanced riff here but I’m up for the challenge!
Couple of quick questions if you’d be so kind. 1) I’m starting to listen to lots more country/ bluegrass to help inspire my own learning/ playing. Really love Gillian Welch and David Rawlings. Have you any other recommendations for that old, woody acoustic style that they do?… Read more »
Thanks Wayne! Man, really glad you’re learning a lot from the series. This has been my favorite series to record so far on the site…still planning to add more lessons to this series soon. I might split it up into Volumes or something like that…Volume A will be this group of videos covering the key of G…then maybe Volume B/C/D to cover different keys/scales down near the nut. I really like Gillian Welch and David Rawlings also…actually have been getting several requests to do some David Rawlings style lessons. I’ll plan on putting some videos together in this style. They… Read more »
Gillian Welch and David Rawlings, aside from Doc Watson, are the reason I play music. Please, for the love of god, do some lessons covering their songs.
Cool stuff Devin very interesting to play…thanks for the challenge!
Hi Devin,
Loved the “2e&a” C and G chord fill bonus lesson! Perfect for a song I’m doing soon that has some dead space in some of the vocal phrases ending over C and G chords. The short little riffs give my guitar accompaniment some much needed interest in those spots. I’d love to find some similar riffs in E, A, and D. Are there any other lessons on your site where I might find some? Thanks!
Hey Hank,
That’s a great idea for future lessons in the Rhythm Fill Riff Course. In Lesson 11 of that course (https://countryguitaronline.com/country-bluegrass-rhythm-fill-riffs-key-of-d/) you’ll find some cool riffs in D but they’re a bit longer riffs than what you’ll find in this chord fill bonus lesson. Several more Fill Riff Course lessons are on the way so I’ll plan on putting together some similar riffs in E, A, and D for you. Thanks for the idea!
Devin
Hey Devin, I really enjoyed this lesson. However, it would be really great if you could also include an entire play through(through all verses). It would answer some questions. For instance, there is an instrumental intro, and 3 instrumental breaks. Do you suggest playing them all the same way?
Hey James – Glad you like the lesson! I think it would probably be your call as far as playing all the instrumental breaks the same way…I’ll usually play it a little differently each time but that usually involves improvising around that main “Advanced” break in the lesson. Sometimes I might play the very first instrumental break stripped down kind of like the easier break you’ll hear in the lesson. Then each instrumental break might get a little more complicated to make the song more interesting. I love the old classic songs like this because they’ve been recorded by a… Read more »
Fantastic lesson! Very helpfull to me , thanks man!
hey , are you from belgium ? !
No i’m from Rotterdam , the Netherlands . And you ?
belgium , not far away from the seaside ! i might pop in the netherlands soon or later ! let s catch up for a session ! https://www.tfoa.eu/nl/ , i found this website , they got nice stuffs in it , have a look honestly ! nice to meet you by the way
Great idea ! Yes i have seen that they have a lot of beautifull guitars over there
cassarta11@gmail.com , send me an e mail when you ve got time to arrange something ! by seeing verboom , i told myself , this man might be belgian :p
I wil ! I wish i was from Belguim when it comes to Beer
let s get it done !
which one is your favorite
You have a great knack for this musical style. I like it
Well that didn’t work, I was just inserting an image- SORRY- I don’t know how to delete that.
My questions was: Isn’t the G Maj scale incorrect on this? If I am looking at the other G major scale correctly- there should not be a fingering on the 4th fret of the G string. Is that correct?
Hey Scott! Not sure what happened on the first image embed haha. I can delete it. The 4th fret G string is the same note as the open B string… so if you’re wanting to practice the scale up and down, you’ll want to choose either the 4th fret G string or the open B string since it’s a duplicate note in the chart, but I like to show the 4th fret G string in the chart just because that note is available to play in this G major scale position..sometimes I’ll use the open B string and sometimes the… Read more »
Hey Devin, thanks for the clarificataion
When i picked up the guitar a year or two ago i saw your sight but wasn’t sure i was really ready for cash investment as was at ground zero. I made use of Justin Guitar who does everything free/donation and learned a bit. After a year of plucking the Guitarmastery blues course popped up out of nowhere and I ended up subscribing, my first purchase, Charlie was great and Eddie who ran the Country guitar was great and more inline with where i hoped to go, they really helped with the theory and getting my speed up with scales… Read more »
great very usefull Devin!
Devin, I have a question for you. I’m working with the pick down up pick up down up strumming pattern. When you play the second measure GGCC do you split that pattern in half between the G and C. What I mean is pick down up on G and pick up up down up on C or do you just play the first half of the pattern for both G and C.
thanks
Sean