D Archives

Adding Fills Between Your Chords with Key of D Scales

April 13, 2025September 1, 2017 by Devin

country fill riffs in d guitar lesson bluegrass licks scales

Lesson 12 – Rhythm Fill Riffs and Lead Guitar Course

Course Outline Previous Lesson Next Lesson

Lesson ID: A0133

In this guitar lesson, I’ll show y’all some fun ways to use key of D guitar scales to play country & bluegrass fill riffs. All of the licks we’ll cover today are great for transitioning between chords, and they’re also useful for playing country & bluegrass guitar solos. First, we’ll cover the main scale shapes that you need to memorize. After that, I’ll teach you ten of my favorite country fill riffs in the key of D. My main goal for this lesson is to show you how I visualize key of D scale shapes when I’m improvising key of D riffs. This should be a very useful lesson for the rhythm guitar folks and also for the country & bluegrass lead guitar pickers!

Overview

Guitar Scales

Country Fill Riffs

Your Homework

Member Content

Guitar Scale Charts Fill Riff Tablature Woodtone Strings

Kentucky Waltz Country & Bluegrass Strumming

April 13, 2025August 25, 2017 by Devin

kentucky waltz guitar lesson bill monroe

Lesson 10 – Country & Bluegrass Rhythm Course

Course Outline Previous Lesson Next Lesson

Lesson ID: A0136

In this guitar lesson, we’ll take a look at another strumming pattern used all the time in classic country and bluegrass music. This strumming pattern is in 3/4 time (waltz time) and we’ll count it out by saying “one-two-three, one-two-three, one-two-three, one-two-three”. Beat one will be the down beat and that’s where we’ll pick the bass note string. Then, we’ll down strum on beats two and three. After you learn the strumming pattern, we’ll practice over a couple of chord progressions borrowed from the old classic “Kentucky Waltz” by Bill Monroe. I’ll also show you a few fills you can use to transition between chords.

Overview

Strumming Pattern

Progressions

Chord Fills

Member Content

Listen

Practice picking your country strumming over the song “Kentucky Waltz” by Bill Monroe. Play “Kentucky Waltz” below using the embedded player from Spotify. We’d highly recommend using Spotify for online radio. If you don’t have a Spotify account, click here to sign up free with your Facebook or e-mail.

Backing Track

Member Content

Guitar Tablature Woodtone Strings

Old Grimes in the Style of Chris Eldridge

April 13, 2025July 12, 2017 by Devin

old grimes bluegrass guitar lesson tablature

Lesson ID: A0130

“Old Grimes” has become popular at bluegrass jams largely due to Chris Eldridge and Julian Lage. I reached out to Chris and he said it’s a traditional tune that he learned from Jesse Cobb, his old bandmate in the Infamous Stringdusters, who may have learned it from Matt Combs in Nashville. In this guitar lesson, I’ll teach you the main guitar melody for “Old Grimes”. Download the tablature below the lesson video.

Lesson Overview

Flatpicking Break

Chord Progression

Member Content

Listen to Old Grimes

Eric Moore & Friends

This is a nice version of “Old Grimes” performed by Eric Moore and his friends Mark and Bryan. Big fan of Eric’s YouTube channel — he regularly posts traditional bluegrass tunes on guitar that y’all would enjoy. Subscribe to Eric’s YouTube channel to watch more of his videos.

Audio – Chris Eldridge and Julian Lage

Practice “Old Grimes” with Chris Eldridge and Julian Lage using the embedded player from Spotify. We’d highly recommend using Spotify for online radio. If you don’t have a Spotify account, click here to sign up free with your Facebook account or with an e-mail address.

Video – Chris Eldridge and Julian Lage

Practice along with Chris Eldridge and Julian Lage in this video from Fretboard Journal. You can also download some great music from Chris Eldridge and Julian Lage here and check out their 2017 Grammy award winning album Mount Royal that features “Old Grimes”.

Backing Track

Old Grimes Guitar Tablature Woodtone Strings

Country & Bluegrass Rhythm Fill Riffs in D

April 13, 2025June 6, 2017 by Devin

easy country bluegrass fill riffs in d guitar lesson

Lesson 11 – Rhythm Fill Riffs and Lead Guitar Course

Course Outline Previous Lesson Next Lesson

Lesson ID: A0127

In this guitar lesson, we’ll take a look at how to play country and bluegrass rhythm fill riffs in the key of D. I’ll teach you six of my favorite fill riffs in the key of D and we’ll practice them with a nice country and bluegrass rhythm progression. We’ll also talk about the guitar scales we’re using here in the key of D to get this country and bluegrass sound. Download the practice progression tablature below the video.

Lesson Overview

Fill Riffs

Video Start Time	Lesson Topic
00:00 min	Progression Overview
01:21 min	Fill Riff 1
03:31 min	Fill Riff 2
05:33 min	Fill Riff 3
08:38 min	Fill Riff 4
10:58 min	Fill Riff 5
12:48 min	Fill Riff 6
15:27 min	Country & Bluegrass Strumming Technique

Guitar Scales

Practice Progression

Member Content

Guitar Scale Charts Practice Tablature Woodtone Strings