Flying Solo Beginner Country

Genre and Style Guitar Course from Lance Ruby

Country music lies at the core of the American musical tradition, and still lives and breaths in popular music today. But with all of this history and evolution in music, we might ask ourselves, where do we start? Join country guitarist extraordinaire, Lance Ruby, on this musical journey that introduces the core techniques and famous players of the music, all through the lens of simple, digestible licks.

15 Lessons

Complete course with step-by-step lessons and practice examples.

Multi-Camera

Course filmed with 6 cameras for the perfect angles.

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Tabs & Info

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Included

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Full Course Breakdown

Lance takes you through some of the essential melodic and harmonic techniques that populate the toolbox of every great country soloist. In this course, you will cover 3 full solos, each of which is in the style of an iconic country guitarist. Lance will break up each one of these solos into 3 or 4 separate lessons, that give you a specific lick from the solo, as well as an analysis of the techniques and methodology used in each line. Start your journey today, and learn the techniques, theory, and historical uses behind some of country music's most iconic licks.

1

Introduction

Lance Ruby introduces us to "Flying Solo: Beginner Country"!

3:15 Runtime

0.0 Difficulty

2

The Walk Up

In our first lesson, we will look at how the simple concept of chromatics can color up our lines and give us a creative way to outline chord changes.

4:30 Runtime

1.0 Difficulty

3

Double Trouble

One of the major selling points of the guitar is its ability to emulate a wide variety of seemingly unrelated instruments. In this lesson, we will discuss how we can use a combination of double-stops and bends to recreate the famous sounds of a country steel guitar.

7:30 Runtime

1.5 Difficulty

4

Give 'Em the Sixth Degree

Continuing off of the concept of harmony from our last lesson, we will now look at the interval of a 6th. While we'll only be playing two notes at a time, we will hear how this harmony can create simple but beautiful melodies.

4:43 Runtime

1.5 Difficulty

5

The Walk Down

Following up on our last lesson, we will look at another lick that uses the 6th interval on the second and fourth strings. Additionally, we will see how we can use this lick and alter it to work over multiple chords in our progression, so we can highlight the underlying harmonic structure of a song.

4:53 Runtime

2.0 Difficulty

6

Solo 1: Tik Tak

Now that we've introduced bending, 6ths, and chromatics, let's see how we can bring these licks together in a classic and cohesive country solo!

3:53 Runtime

2.0 Difficulty

View this Lesson
7

Run Lester Run!

What's the most famous country lick of all time? In this lesson, we will answer that question and discuss a variation that makes the lick applicable to the modern guitar player's toolbox.

5:06 Runtime

2.5 Difficulty

8

Paisley Twang

Following up from our last lesson, we will look at another iconic lick, this time in the style of one of country music's modern stars: Brad Paisley

4:11 Runtime

2.5 Difficulty

9

Going On a Trip(let)

Do we always play licks in groupings of 2 or 4? In this lesson, we will discuss what makes a triplet, and how we can use it in our playing to diversify the rhythms of our solos.

5:47 Runtime

2.0 Difficulty

10

Chicken Fried Bending

Is there an easier way to skip strings? While this is a cornerstone of many virtuosic styles of lead guitar ranging from metal to jazz, the technique known as hybrid picking or chicken pickin' allows us to achieve this difficult feat with relative ease, all while staying true to the sound of country.

4:43 Runtime

2.5 Difficulty

11

Solo 2: Radio Twang

In this second solo, we will see how our variety of classic country licks can come together to create a distinctly modern style country guitar solo.

2:06 Runtime

3.0 Difficulty

12

Gainfully Employed

In this first lick of our final solo, we will see how we can use a variety of the techniques discussed so far in the course, to create a short repeated phrase that can be used successfully over the major chords in our progression.

5:25 Runtime

2.5 Difficulty

13

Gettin' Around

Following up from our last lesson, we will see how we can use a combination of chromatics, double-stop bends, and 6ths , to traverse over our neck, all while highlighting the underlying chord changes of the progressions.

6:50 Runtime

2.5 Difficulty

14

Anticipation

In this final lick of our last solo, we will take the same double-stop bend lick we've been using throughout the course and create a few simple variations that can be worked over a I-IV-V turnaround in a progression.

7:11 Runtime

2.5 Difficulty

15

Solo 3: Railroad Blues

In our final solo of the course, we will see a culmination of all of the techniques we have introduced and discussed in a cohesive solo that takes place over the famous country feel known as a 'train beat.'

2:34 Runtime

3.0 Difficulty

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  • Playing since 2000
  • 159 lessons at JamPlay
Guitarist and educator Lance Ruby recently opened his teaching studio in Fort Collins, Colorado after earning his Masters of Jazz Studies from the University of Northern Colorado studying with Steve Kovalcheck. A Utah native, Lance completed his Bachelor’s degree in Guitar Performance from Utah State University studying with Corey Christiansen.

Guitarist and educator Lance Ruby recently opened his teaching studio in Fort Collins, Colorado after earning his Masters of Jazz Studies from the University of Northern Colorado studying with Steve Kovalcheck. A Utah native, Lance completed his Bachelor’s degree in Guitar Performance from Utah State University studying with Corey Christiansen. While in Utah, Lance co-founded the soul/funk band Danger 5 and has continued in this project with lead singer Dani Armour. Since moving to Colorado, he joined the Fort Collins based blues fusion band, Musketeer Gripweed. He is a member of the New Orleans funk group Crescent City Connection. Lance has toured with the Randy Burghardt Band, along with Jackson Taylor and the Sinners.
Reviews & Feedback 100/100 with 11 ratings
billjacobson

This course looks and sounds perfect!!!