“Red River Valley” is a traditional folk song and cowboy music standard that was written sometime during the 1800s. The exact song origins are unknown, but many believe it was composed at the time of the 1870 Wolseley Expedition to Manitoba’s northern Red River Valley. This song has been recorded by several artists over the years, including Woody Guthrie, Gene Autry, Roy Acuff, Jimmie Rodgers, and many others.
In this guitar lesson, you’ll learn two instrumentals for “Red River Valley”. We’ll play the first with “Carter Style” boom chick country strumming. The second break will be loaded with bluegrass crosspicking riffs. For the fast learners, I’ll play through the each instrumental at a slow pace along with the tablature. Then I’ll break down each measure in detail and give you some pointers for working on your country rhythm and crosspicking technique. Download the tablature below the video!
| Video Start Time | Lesson Topic |
|---|---|
| 00:00 min | Lesson Overview |
| 01:02 min | Playthrough with Tablature |
| 01:40 min | Full Breakdown with Tablature |
New lesson! Here’s a nice instrumental for “Red River Valley” that I’ve had fun playing the past couple of days. I’ll also be adding some extra videos to this lesson post soon, including a more advanced arrangement, a complete rhythm breakdown with vocals, and a jam track…figured I’d post this instrumental lesson in the meantime. Hope y’all like it!
WOW love your crosspicking variation!! I will tell you that you could charge way more for these lessons. I’ve learned more in the past week on your website than I have in years taking private lessons. Thanks for what you are doing!
Great lesson you have not heard from me lately but still here and learning a lot from you
Finally a website that teaches REAL country!
Another good one! Thanks Devin!
That is a great lesson Devin. So simple, but sounds great. Many thanks.
it would be very good if there was download button
thanks Devin its looks like nice lesson
New crosspicking lesson video! I put together a second arrangement here for “Red River Valley” that’s got some nice country & bluegrass style crosspicking riffs…hope it gives y’all some extra stuff to work on this weekend. Let me know how you like it!
Very good lesson, Can you please take it a step further and do a lesson on Red River Rock ? Red River Rock is good in the open position and up the neck on the 8th or 15th strings. I don’t know why but I’m drawing a blank on what seems like should be easy and can’t find a lesson on it. Please help !
Oh yeah Devin!That’s all!
Another excellent lesson Devin – Thank you much.
Thank you,just what I need,and easy to understand.
I decided to sign up after seeing your tutorials on YouTube. I am 65 and picking up guitar for retirement recreation. So excited to get started! Thank you!
Hi Devin
Is there any chance of a few lessons on old Southern Gospel songs?
Kind regards
Charles
Hey Charles! Sure, have any in mind you’d like to see?
Hi Devin, What is your advice for alternating picking , boom chick, like E to A ect. to hit the right string without looking at the fret board? Thanks, Ken Day
Other than regular practice which is kind of obvious… One thing someone told me when I was starting out: When you practice, when your guitar is sitting on your lap, instead of leaning the guitar back towards you so you can see the fretboard easily, let the guitar sit upright on your lap where you can’t see the frets/strings as easily…this forces you to rely on feel to build the right muscle memory instead of relying on your eyes to pick and fret the right notes. That’s one thing that comes to mind. Also, keep a really relaxed grip on… Read more »
This is the first song I learned on my first guitar (a used Sears guitar from Santa) over 50 years ago. I learned from a Learn Guitar LP record I bought at Sears. The record came with 2 sheets of instructions. We had a huge HIFi cabinet, one of those monstrosities with a TV and a ‘Stereo’ (this was in the ‘60’s). I had to stop, put down the guitar, go open the cabinet, pick up the arm, move it back over to a spot to repeat it, then get back to my spot pick up the huge dreadnought and… Read more »
Great lesson Devin! Finally got the mechanics now it needs a bit of ironing. Love this
Ha! I’m practicing with the backing track at .5 speed and I keep messing up. Practice makes perfect? I guess I’d better keep going! It’s a different animal when you have to keep pace with “the band”. I guess if there’s no backing track, I’d better use a metronome, even though that’s a lot less fun. I’m going to work with “Home Sweet Home” and I’ll have to use a metronome there.
It was very fun I wanted to learn a different way of doing this song !!!
Thank you! The walkthrough with the finger placement is exactly what I needed to get my playing up to speed. I’ve been making playing much harder than it could be because of bad fingering choices. I appreciate the clarity and detail in your explanations! I also love having the option to loop and alter the speed. So helpful! Once this is solid, I’m moving on to the crosspicking version!
Awesome! Glad this one is helping out! Thanks Patti
As a proud Canadian, I’m grateful that you included this one Devin. My friends, who I play both arrangements for, tell me it reminds them of learning to sing it in public school all those years ago.
Great lesson and tablature! I had to learn it all in the key of G for the sake of jam sessions