jaymzmaximum
Verified buyer
04/02/25
Bill is the best!
Been waiting 30 years for a video by Bill. This is great! Thank you!
30 Hot Rod Guitar Licks You MUST Know
Learn must-know hot rod licks inspired by the genre's greats.
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About this course
Named “Titan of the Telecaster” by Guitar Player Magazine, Bill Kirchen co-founded Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen, one of the first Rock and Roll bands to infuse their honky-tonk sound with pure, blood-and-guts country roots and Western swing.
Bill’s trademark guitar work on their Top Ten hit, Hot Rod Lincoln, sparked a celebrated 40-year career playing with the likes of Nick Lowe, Emmylou Harris, Doug Sahm, Elvis Costello and many other popular artists. We’re very excited to welcome Bill to the family with his first TrueFire course, 30 Hot Rod Guitar Licks You Must Know!
”I've been a working guitarist for close to 50 years now and I’m excited to share 30 of my favorite ‘hot rod’ guitar licks from a variety of styles ranging from rockabilly and country to roots rock and swing. As we work through the 30 licks, I’ll also show you the techniques that I use all over the fretboard to pull them off and make them sound authentic. We’ll work with great rhythm tracks over the whole course and you’ll be able to hear them and practice them in a real musical context.”
You’ll learn a variety of techniques and creative approaches from Bill’s treasure chest of timeless Hot Rod licks including triplet hammer-ons, turnarounds, intros, outros, hybrid picking, alternating bass, Bo Diddley-style grooves, pedal steel bends, chicken pickin’ and of course, Bill also shows you his signature licks from Hot Rod Lincoln!
Bill demonstrates all of the licks over rhythm tracks and then breaks them down, note-by-note emphasizing the key concepts and techniques employed in the performance of the lick.
All of the licks are tabbed and notated for your practice, reference and study purposes. You’ll also get Guitar Pro files so that you can loop and/or slow any section down as you work through the lessons. Plus, Bill generously includes all of the rhythm tracks for you to work with on your own.
Grab your guitar and lets crank our hot rods up with Bill Kirchen!
Bill’s trademark guitar work on their Top Ten hit, Hot Rod Lincoln, sparked a celebrated 40-year career playing with the likes of Nick Lowe, Emmylou Harris, Doug Sahm, Elvis Costello and many other popular artists. We’re very excited to welcome Bill to the family with his first TrueFire course, 30 Hot Rod Guitar Licks You Must Know!
”I've been a working guitarist for close to 50 years now and I’m excited to share 30 of my favorite ‘hot rod’ guitar licks from a variety of styles ranging from rockabilly and country to roots rock and swing. As we work through the 30 licks, I’ll also show you the techniques that I use all over the fretboard to pull them off and make them sound authentic. We’ll work with great rhythm tracks over the whole course and you’ll be able to hear them and practice them in a real musical context.”
You’ll learn a variety of techniques and creative approaches from Bill’s treasure chest of timeless Hot Rod licks including triplet hammer-ons, turnarounds, intros, outros, hybrid picking, alternating bass, Bo Diddley-style grooves, pedal steel bends, chicken pickin’ and of course, Bill also shows you his signature licks from Hot Rod Lincoln!
Bill demonstrates all of the licks over rhythm tracks and then breaks them down, note-by-note emphasizing the key concepts and techniques employed in the performance of the lick.
All of the licks are tabbed and notated for your practice, reference and study purposes. You’ll also get Guitar Pro files so that you can loop and/or slow any section down as you work through the lessons. Plus, Bill generously includes all of the rhythm tracks for you to work with on your own.
Grab your guitar and lets crank our hot rods up with Bill Kirchen!
What you'll learn
- Execute a hybrid picking technique
- Use hammer-ons and pull-offs effectively
- Create rich sound with minimal chord movement
- Execute a two-part blues/country lick
- Understand minor third usage in blues phrasing
Release date: 05/12/2016 • 1h 31m runtime
Sample lessons
Hot Rod
Lick 4
Popcorn
Lick 8
Truckin'
Lick 13
Keep It Together
Lick 23
What's included
32 lessons • 30 charts • 30 Jam Tracks
30 Hot Rod Guitar Licks
Welcome! We'll use a big umbrella for this course, 30 Hot Rod Guitar Licks You Must Know, covering music from rock and roll, country, rockabilly, surf, blues, and swing. The common ground here is riffs, solos, and rhythms with drive and excitement, often with a little attitude and swagger. We'll spend a lot of time on the fat strings at the low end of the guitar, where the twang lives. We'll learn useful riffs, bends, and double-stops up the neck. There's good mechanical information here as well, right and left hand strategies that can make difficult sounding licks suddenly doable.
I've been a working guitarist for close to 50 years now, playing my own material under my own name, while also working with some other very interesting and creative artists. I love this stuff, and am extremely happy to give other guitarists the keys to the kingdom. So grab your guitar, climb on board, and we'll crank this hotrod up!
I've been a working guitarist for close to 50 years now, playing my own material under my own name, while also working with some other very interesting and creative artists. I love this stuff, and am extremely happy to give other guitarists the keys to the kingdom. So grab your guitar, climb on board, and we'll crank this hotrod up!
Boogie Shuffle
This is a classic rock 'n' roll and country guitar bass string lick. Arthur "Guitar Boogie" Smith had a great big hit with this instrumental in 1945 called "Guitar Boogie", based on the piano boogie-woogies of the day. This is ground zero for this course.
Drivin' Shuffle
Arthur Smith's "Guitar Boogie" had an acoustic sound and a swing country feel. In the following decades, it appeared on records by many different artists as a rock 'n' roll song, usually as "Guitar Boogie Shuffle". Here's a simple hard-driving variation that uses double hammer-ons. We'll put some shoulder into this one.
Rolling Shuffle
This next "Guitar Boogie" lick also uses hammer-ons in a triplet pattern, giving it a looping feel. All three of these patterns rely on a rigorous down-up with the right hand. The goal is to integrate this alternating picking pattern with the hammer-ons without losing the groove.
Hot Rod
This is my guitar hook from our Commander Cody hit, "Hot Rod Lincoln". A couple of challenges here: moving between from 2nd to 4th position, and getting that left-hand pinky up to speed. And it's all about the groove. It's got to subtly swing, and the only way to do that is to stick to the alternating right hand. May the Forearm of Doom be with you.
Hot Rod in F
I met the great singer songwriter Ian Tyson a couple years ago, and he asked me if I played "Hot Rod Lincoln" in E or F. It had never even occurred to me to try it in F, but he was on to something. Country picking down in 1st position in F and Bb opens up new possibilities not available with the "cowboy chord" keys. Here you have the 3rd and the 6th of two of the chords on open strings. No pinky needed. In fact, you can play dang near the entire lick with one finger. Try it!
Piano Roll
This is based on a piano boogie-woogie. For the piano's left-hand bass line, we'll play a major pentatonic scale. It changes chord position on the neck between it's 2nd and 3rd degrees. This movement repeats in all three chords. You can take this left-hand shift between the 2nd and 3rd scale degrees and use it all over the fingerboard. It's an extremely useful way to understand and move through the various "CAGED" shapes of a chord or key.
+ 25 more lessons
Reviews
13 results
kinneycw
Verified buyer
12/09/24
Review for 30 Hot Rod Guitar Licks You MUST Know
Bill Kirchen breaks down impossible sounding licks and techniques in a way that makes them easy to understand and approachable. This was an extremely enjoyable course.
Stratcat22
Verified buyer
09/12/24
Fun, super practical, and easy to apply techniques, delivered in great detail from the amazing Bill Kirchen. What's not to like?
serfcook
Verified buyer
08/12/24
All good. Bill Kirchen’s 30 licks are very good. I’ve seen him live n met him, a great guy n he rips in his own style. Being a Tele guy it’s right in my zone. Be aware, this may look easy but it’s not!
Brian
06/20/24
Gift of a Lifetime - Excellent
Great video instruction! All licks are excellent.
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