Honky Tonk Guitar: Lead Edition | The TrueFire Collection

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If you’re holding down the lead guitar role in a country-western band, you'll need to command a wide variety of classic and modern country soloing techniques, across the full spectrum of country and honky tonk grooves and feels. Matthew Lee’s Lead Edition of Honky Tonk Guitar will deliver all of the fretboard goods you’ll need to perform at the highest level! Learn more or start the course with membership

Course Details
28 Lessons
3 Hour+ Runtime
Tabs (gpx, pdf)
Playalong Tracks
HD+ Video
90 day guarantee
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Meet Matthew Lee

Matthew Lee has been involved in the Nashville music scene for over a decade. In his time in Nashville, he's played thousands (yes thousands) of gigs at the various clubs down on the Lower Broadway scene and has developed his own style and approach to the art of country guitar playing. In addition to his many live performances Matthew has been featured on many recording sessions with several artists, been and band leader for a National Touring act, played on the Grand Ole Opry, and been featured on both radio and television. His unique style of blending country/western/swing/slide/bends and many other techniques and sounds has set him apart from the ever growing and very competitive Nashville scene. In this channel he will discuss many of the different ways he approaches music and the guitar and how to apply many of the concepts to your playing to bring out the best you have to offer while sounding unique but still true to who you are as a player. His teaching style is a well-crafted brew of experience, technique, academic and most important from the heart.

Rhythm Curriculum

Skills to Meet Your Country Rhythm Ambitions

  • Bending
  • Chicken Pickin'
  • Doublestops
  • Hybrid Picking
  • Merlody Composition

Soloing Curriculum

Required Skills to Solo with the Best

  • Improvisation
  • Phrasing and Movement
  • Left and Right Hand Techniques
  • Hammer-ons, Pull-offs, and Slides
  • Performance Skills

Includes

Full Suite of Supplemental Content

  • 28 Video Lesson
  • 10 PDF Music Charts
  • 6 MP3 JamTracks
  • 10 Guitar Pro Tabs
  • Over 3hrs of Soloing Techniques

Honky Tonk Guitar: Lead Edition

Classic and Modern Country Lead Guitar Soloing Techniques

You’ll start your honky-tonk learning journey start by working on single-note lines and chromatic approaches over a train beat. Next, a focus on double-stops over a Country Shuffle feel. Matthew presents more soloing performance studies diving deep into open string lines, straight minor grooves, chicken pickin' chops for an Outlaw Country feel, modern country rock approaches with repetitive licks, and finally, pedal steel licks over an Americana groove. Matthew has also included a segment on Gear & FX to help you dial in a killer honky-tonk sound. It’s all here in Matthew Lee’s Lead Edition of Honky Tonk Guitar!

Matthew will explain and demonstrate all of the key concepts and approaches along the way. This course offers 28 lessons covering 3+ hours of material in step-by-step, digestible presentation.

Lessons in this Course
1

Honky Tonk Guitar: Lead Edition: Introduction

Hey, I'm Matthew Lee. Welcome to Lead Edition of Honky Tonk Guitar!<br><br>If you're holding down the lead guitar role in a country-western band, you'll need command of a wide variety of classic and modern country soloing techniques across the full spectrum of honky tonk grooves and feels.<br><br>I play a minimum of 200 gigs a year supporting recording artists and established bands performing everywhere from Nashville honky tonks to venues and concert halls in virtually every state.<br><br>In this course, we'll focus on soloing techniques for the most commonly encountered country-western feels including country shuffles, train beats, outlaw grooves, country rock, straight minor feels, and Americana.<br><br>All of the performances are transcribed and you'll be able to sync the tab and notation to the video using TrueFire's learning tools. You can also loop or slow down the videos so you can work with the lessons at your own pace. All of the backing tracks are included to work with on your own.Ready to get started?<br><br>Grab your guitar, and let's go!

2:59 Runtime

0.0 Difficulty

2

Honky Tonk Guitar: Lead Edition - Trainbeat Feel & Single Note Lines: Demonstration

Before we get started, let's define what a "trainbeat" is. Typically, you'd have a "boom-chick-boom-chick" kind of feel. The drums are simple, and the bassist is basically playing a 1-5 pattern.<br><br>It's a fun feel to solo over, and it gives us lots of different options to use. A great approach is to keep things simple, using just single note lines.

3:05 Runtime

3.0 Difficulty

3

Honky Tonk Guitar: Lead Edition - Trainbeat in A: Overview

Here's a simple and effective way of using single note lines over a basic progression in the key of A. The main focus is to connect the lines with easy articulations like slides and hammer ons/pull offs. We'll repeat the solo twice, and I included an alternate ending lick.

4:48 Runtime

3.0 Difficulty

4

Honky Tonk Guitar: Lead Edition - Trainbeat in A: Performance

Here's a simple and effective way of using single note lines over a basic progression in the key of A. The main focus is to connect the lines with easy articulations like slides and hammer ons/pull offs. We'll repeat the solo twice, and I included an alternate ending lick.

0:53 Runtime

3.0 Difficulty

View this Lesson
5

Honky Tonk Guitar: Lead Edition - Trainbeat in A: Breakdown

Here's a simple and effective way of using single note lines over a basic progression in the key of A. The main focus is to connect the lines with easy articulations like slides and hammer ons/pull offs. We'll repeat the solo twice, and I included an alternate ending lick.

13:37 Runtime

3.0 Difficulty

6

Honky Tonk Guitar: Lead Edition - Shuffle Feel & Double Stops: Demonstration

In the next tune, we're covering a shuffle groove. This is a common feel across country and blues, so if you're just checking out country guitar for the first time, here's a great place to start.

10:42 Runtime

3.0 Difficulty

7

Honky Tonk Guitar: Lead Edition - Country Shuffle in D: Overview

In this solo over a shuffle we focus on more advanced concepts like double stops, chicken picking, and bending techniques. This is a very commonly used progression in classic country shuffles and your main focus on this solo is to connect the various techniques to create a melodic using a mixed bag of country techniques. Watch out for phrasing and fingerings to achieve best results.

4:30 Runtime

3.0 Difficulty

8

Honky Tonk Guitar: Lead Edition - Country Shuffle in D: Performance

In this solo over a shuffle we focus on more advanced concepts like double stops, chicken picking, and bending techniques. This is a very commonly used progression in classic country shuffles and your main focus on this solo is to connect the various techniques to create a melodic using a mixed bag of country techniques. Watch out for phrasing and fingerings to achieve best results.

0:41 Runtime

3.0 Difficulty

9

Honky Tonk Guitar: Lead Edition - Country Shuffle in D: Breakdown

In this solo over a shuffle we focus on more advanced concepts like double stops, chicken picking, and bending techniques. This is a very commonly used progression in classic country shuffles and your main focus on this solo is to connect the various techniques to create a melodic using a mixed bag of country techniques. Watch out for phrasing and fingerings to achieve best results.

18:48 Runtime

3.0 Difficulty

10

Honky Tonk Guitar: Lead Edition - Straight Minor & Open String Lines: Demonstration

Variety is essential to playing the guitar, so let's focus now on changing our tone up a bit. We're going to adopt a "cowboy movie" sound, and with it we're going to try out some open string lines and minor ideas to really let it shine.

3:50 Runtime

3.0 Difficulty

11

Honky Tonk Guitar: Lead Edition - Straight Minor Vibes: Overview

This solo has a more minor tonality so the note choices will be a bit different. I start you off with a pick up and develop melodic lines blending many of the country techniques you may find yourself using over a straight feel. Plenty of playing against the grain style á la Danny Gattton in this one.

7:11 Runtime

3.0 Difficulty

12

Honky Tonk Guitar: Lead Edition - Straight Minor Vibes: Performance

This solo has a more minor tonality so the note choices will be a bit different. I start you off with a pick up and develop melodic lines blending many of the country techniques you may find yourself using over a straight feel. Plenty of playing against the grain style á la Danny Gattton in this one.

0:56 Runtime

3.0 Difficulty

13

Honky Tonk Guitar: Lead Edition - Straight Minor Vibes: Breakdown

This solo has a more minor tonality so the note choices will be a bit different. I start you off with a pick up and develop melodic lines blending many of the country techniques you may find yourself using over a straight feel. Plenty of playing against the grain style á la Danny Gattton in this one.

17:17 Runtime

3.0 Difficulty

14

Honky Tonk Guitar: Lead Edition - Outlaw Country & Chicken Pickin': Demonstration

This next groove is an outlaw groove, which is basically a four on the floor feel, made famous by Waylon Jennings. Let's talk a bit about what we can do over this kind of track and how to approach it.

6:27 Runtime

3.0 Difficulty

15

Honky Tonk Guitar: Lead Edition - Outlaw Groove in E: Overview

A typical outlaw feel in the style of Waylon Jennings is a four on the floor groove. In this solo we explore pedal steel bends and use the entire neck to play over this very commonly used progression over this feel. Repetitive licks and lots of bending with chicken picking is shown in this solo and should add lots of licks to your outlaw vocabulary with ideas shown in this solo.

8:59 Runtime

3.0 Difficulty

16

Honky Tonk Guitar: Lead Edition - Outlaw Groove in E: Performance

A typical outlaw feel in the style of Waylon Jennings is a four on the floor groove. In this solo we explore pedal steel bends and use the entire neck to play over this very commonly used progression over this feel. Repetitive licks and lots of bending with chicken picking is shown in this solo and should add lots of licks to your outlaw vocabulary with ideas shown in this solo.

0:42 Runtime

3.0 Difficulty

17

Honky Tonk Guitar: Lead Edition - Outlaw Groove in E: Breakdown

A typical outlaw feel in the style of Waylon Jennings is a four on the floor groove. In this solo we explore pedal steel bends and use the entire neck to play over this very commonly used progression over this feel. Repetitive licks and lots of bending with chicken picking is shown in this solo and should add lots of licks to your outlaw vocabulary with ideas shown in this solo.

15:39 Runtime

3.0 Difficulty

18

Honky Tonk Guitar: Lead Edition - Modern Country & Pedal Tone Licks: Demonstration

This next tune is taken from modern country, where we're adding in some edginess, taking more notes from rock guitar in what we'll play.

6:56 Runtime

3.0 Difficulty

19

Honky Tonk Guitar: Lead Edition - Modern Country Rock in G: Overview

This solo has two distinct sections and is designed for guitar players interested in writing their own material for instrumental use. It's got a more modern rocked out vibe and use of various rhythmic elements in the first section. The second part is more about how to approach a solo idea within the framework of this mock "instrumental", Note that the tonalities change from major in the first section to minor in the solo. Rhythm is a key component to playing country and we discuss all techniques used in this ABA form .

5:10 Runtime

3.0 Difficulty

20

Honky Tonk Guitar: Lead Edition - Modern Country Rock in G: Performance

This solo has two distinct sections and is designed for guitar players interested in writing their own material for instrumental use. It's got a more modern rocked out vibe and use of various rhythmic elements in the first section. The second part is more about how to approach a solo idea within the framework of this mock "instrumental", Note that the tonalities change from major in the first section to minor in the solo. Rhythm is a key component to playing country and we discuss all techniques used in this ABA form .

1:32 Runtime

3.0 Difficulty

21

Honky Tonk Guitar: Lead Edition - Modern Country Rock in G: Rhythm: Breakdown

This solo has two distinct sections and is designed for guitar players interested in writing their own material for instrumental use. It's got a more modern rocked out vibe and use of various rhythmic elements in the first section. The second part is more about how to approach a solo idea within the framework of this mock "instrumental", Note that the tonalities change from major in the first section to minor in the solo. Rhythm is a key component to playing country and we discuss all techniques used in this ABA form .

6:03 Runtime

3.0 Difficulty

22

Honky Tonk Guitar: Lead Edition - Modern Country Rock in G: Lead: Breakdown

This solo has two distinct sections and is designed for guitar players interested in writing their own material for instrumental use. It's got a more modern rocked out vibe and use of various rhythmic elements in the first section. The second part is more about how to approach a solo idea within the framework of this mock "instrumental", Note that the tonalities change from major in the first section to minor in the solo. Rhythm is a key component to playing country and we discuss all techniques used in this ABA form .

13:49 Runtime

3.0 Difficulty

23

Honky Tonk Guitar: Lead Edition - Americana & Pedal Steel Licks: Demonstration

Our final style of country guitar is Americana, looking at how to play along with a singer-songwriter, outlining the melody and bringing it onto the instrument.

7:06 Runtime

3.0 Difficulty

24

Honky Tonk Guitar: Lead Edition - Americana Shuffle Train: Overview

Here's a way to approach an Americana type song. We use non-diatonic chords in the progression to get out of the key a bit and the licks reflect playing over unique chords that can really add melodic and colorful lines to your playing. All country techniques are used and discussed in this tune. It's also in the sometimes not so guitar friendly key of F.

4:06 Runtime

3.0 Difficulty

25

Honky Tonk Guitar: Lead Edition - Americana Shuffle Train: Performance

Here's a way to approach an Americana type song. We use non-diatonic chords in the progression to get out of the key a bit and the licks reflect playing over unique chords that can really add melodic and colorful lines to your playing. All country techniques are used and discussed in this tune. It's also in the sometimes not so guitar friendly key of F.

0:53 Runtime

3.0 Difficulty

26

Honky Tonk Guitar: Lead Edition - Americana Shuffle Train: Breakdown

Here's a way to approach an Americana type song. We use non-diatonic chords in the progression to get out of the key a bit and the licks reflect playing over unique chords that can really add melodic and colorful lines to your playing. All country techniques are used and discussed in this tune. It's also in the sometimes not so guitar friendly key of F.

12:26 Runtime

3.0 Difficulty

27

Honky Tonk Guitar: Lead Edition - Gear & Tone Tips: Demonstration

Before we wrap up, I'll take you through my rig and talk about what gear I use to get my sound.

8:08 Runtime

3.0 Difficulty

28

Honky Tonk Guitar: Lead Edition: Conclusion

I hope you've enjoyed this course, it's been really fun creating it. Hopefully you've taken a lot away from it, and I appreciate you picking it up. Until next time!

1:42 Runtime

0.0 Difficulty