Some call it country guitar with a dash of rock, blues and jazz. Others call it modern Nashville-style guitar. We call it Big Twang and no one's better qualified to help you get a grip on the style than our very own bona fide master twanger, Joe Dalton.

Video Introduction

Click below for a sample video from the course

About the Guitar Lesson Plan

Interactive Video Guitar Instruction

Derived in part from "country" guitar, twang is really a modern hybrid of blues, country, rock and jazz guitar. Players like Albert Lee, Arlen Roth, Danny Gatton, Johnny Hiland, Ray Flacke, Leon McAuliffe, Brent Mason, Chet Atkins, Scotty Anderson, Red Volkaert, James Burton and Jimmy Bryant all have their own classic Big Twang signature sound and technique. But today, contemporary players across all styles have incorporated twang influences in their signature sounds.

Ever hear one of your favorite blues, rock or jazz players throw out a cool pedal steel lick or two into their solos? That's Big Twang. Dig that chicken picking stuff so many modern blues players spice their stuff up with? That's Big Twang. Western swing, rockabilly and country-fried bends and pulls are also part of the Big Twang. Whatever your preferred style may be, Big Twang will broaden your vocabulary of phrases, colors and techniques to draw from and distinguish your sound.

You will work through a wide variety of rhythm and soloing parts across five distinct Big Twang grooves that Dalton has prepared to illustrate the diversity of the style. Key learnings include mastering the many different attacks required with the picking hand along with the essential "touches" required from the fretting hand. As you work with the material Dalton will cover hybrid picking, chicken-picking, pull-offs, hammer-ons, double-stops, pedal steel emulation, ending, slides, pluck 'n cluck, staccato and legato effects, tips for crafting a good solo, syncopation, vibrato and tons of other tricks of the twang trade.

All in all, Big Twang delivers enough solid material to keep you busy in the shed honing your own Big Twang thang!

About Your Instructor

Joe Dalton

When country guitar master Joe Dalton picks up a six-string; everyone listens. A phenomenon that has followed Joe since he was a snot nosed kid in the 5th grade. Having picked up his first instrument at age 5, Dalton should have been considered a musical prodigy if it weren't for the plain fact that he was only one of the latest branches to sprout from a very musical family tree with a legacy that spans decades. His great-grandfather conducted the City of Rome Orchestra in Italy; his grandfather was the leader of the New York Philharmonic; his father is solely responsible for bringing mallets into the U.S. Army Band Corps; his brother teaches at the Boston Conservatory...we could go on, but you get the point, right? Musical prowess runs through his veins; it's the nucleus of his existence.