thom81
Verified buyer
07/23/25
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Play Country Guitar 4: Rhythm Principles
Ignite Your Country Guitar Rhythm Chops with this Country Learning Path Core Course
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TrueFire
Educator
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About this course
Welcome to Play Country Guitar 4: Rhythm Principles for intermediate to late Intermediate students of Country guitar.
This Country Learning Path core course is presented by 5 top TrueFire educators: Jason Loughlin, Johnny Hiland, Joe Dalton, Robbie Calvo, and Jim Campilongo.
The Rhythm Principles curriculum is comprised of select Country guitar lessons from the educators’ existing TrueFire course libraries.
Guitarists spend 90% of their time on the bandstand playing rhythm guitar behind vocals and other musicians’ solos, which is why it’s critical to develop solid rhythm skills. Having command of a wide range of chord voicings, rhythm patterns and creative approaches is what distinguishes great players from the mediocre, and it’s also the number one reason that other musicians will want you in their band or invite you back to the jam. The video guitar lessons in this core course will equip you with the technical and creative skills you need to take your rhythm guitar playing to the next level.
Play Country Guitar 4: Rhythm Principles is organized into 2 sections. In the first section, you’ll work through 15 lessons from a variety of TrueFire country guitar educators who will present essential rhythm concepts and techniques. In the second section, you’ll play your way through 8 rhythm performance studies applying many of the techniques and concepts from the first section. The educators will demonstrate the rhythm performances and then break them down for you emphasizing the techniques in play.
When you’ve completed the lessons here in Rhythm Principles, you’ll find more lessons focused on country rhythm guitar in Rhythm Approaches, also a Play Country Guitar 4 core course.
The educators demonstrate all of the key examples over jam tracks (where and when applicable) to simulate a real-world application, in a musical context. All of the key examples are also tabbed and notated for your practice, reference and study purposes.
You’ll also get Guitar Pro files so that you can play, loop or slow down the tab and notation as you work through the lessons. Plus, you’ll have all of the available jam tracks to work with on your own.
Take as much time as you need to work through each video guitar lesson before moving on to the next lesson. If you want to dig deeper or wider into any of the topics covered in this core course, check out the recommended supplementary courses in your learning path where you’ll find more examples, techniques and insight from top TrueFire educators.
Grab your guitar and let’s get started!
This Country Learning Path core course is presented by 5 top TrueFire educators: Jason Loughlin, Johnny Hiland, Joe Dalton, Robbie Calvo, and Jim Campilongo.
The Rhythm Principles curriculum is comprised of select Country guitar lessons from the educators’ existing TrueFire course libraries.
Guitarists spend 90% of their time on the bandstand playing rhythm guitar behind vocals and other musicians’ solos, which is why it’s critical to develop solid rhythm skills. Having command of a wide range of chord voicings, rhythm patterns and creative approaches is what distinguishes great players from the mediocre, and it’s also the number one reason that other musicians will want you in their band or invite you back to the jam. The video guitar lessons in this core course will equip you with the technical and creative skills you need to take your rhythm guitar playing to the next level.
Play Country Guitar 4: Rhythm Principles is organized into 2 sections. In the first section, you’ll work through 15 lessons from a variety of TrueFire country guitar educators who will present essential rhythm concepts and techniques. In the second section, you’ll play your way through 8 rhythm performance studies applying many of the techniques and concepts from the first section. The educators will demonstrate the rhythm performances and then break them down for you emphasizing the techniques in play.
When you’ve completed the lessons here in Rhythm Principles, you’ll find more lessons focused on country rhythm guitar in Rhythm Approaches, also a Play Country Guitar 4 core course.
The educators demonstrate all of the key examples over jam tracks (where and when applicable) to simulate a real-world application, in a musical context. All of the key examples are also tabbed and notated for your practice, reference and study purposes.
You’ll also get Guitar Pro files so that you can play, loop or slow down the tab and notation as you work through the lessons. Plus, you’ll have all of the available jam tracks to work with on your own.
Take as much time as you need to work through each video guitar lesson before moving on to the next lesson. If you want to dig deeper or wider into any of the topics covered in this core course, check out the recommended supplementary courses in your learning path where you’ll find more examples, techniques and insight from top TrueFire educators.
Grab your guitar and let’s get started!
What you'll learn
- Understand essential country rhythm guitar techniques
- Learn multiple rhythm approaches
- Learn to practice rhythm parts methodically
- Develop personal rhythm guitar style
- Develop comprehensive rhythm guitar skills
Release date: 09/14/2016 • 2h 21m runtime
Sample lessons
Double Stops 1
Part 1
Chicken Pickin': Rhythm 1
Performance
Chicken Pickin': Rhythm 1
Breakdown
Chicken Pickin': Rhythm 2
Performance
What's included
38 lessons • 21 charts • 12 Jam Tracks
Play Country Guitar 4: Rhythm Principles
Welcome to Play Country Guitar 4: Rhythm Principles for intermediate to late Intermediate students of Country guitar.
This Country Learning Path core course is presented by 5 top TrueFire educators: Jason Loughlin, Johnny Hiland, Joe Dalton, Robbie Calvo, and Jim Campilongo.
The Rhythm Principles curriculum is comprised of select Country guitar lessons from the educators' existing TrueFire course libraries.
Guitarists spend 90% of their time on the bandstand playing rhythm guitar behind vocals and other musicians' solos, which is why it's critical to develop solid rhythm skills. Having command of a wide range of chord voicings, rhythm patterns and creative approaches is what distinguishes great players from the mediocre, and it's also the number one reason that other musicians will want you in their band or invite you back to the jam. The video guitar lessons in this core course will equip you with the technical and creative skills you need to take your rhythm guitar playing to the next level.
Play Country Guitar 4: Rhythm Principles is organized into 2 sections. In the first section, you'll work through 15 lessons from a variety of TrueFire country guitar educators who will present essential rhythm concepts and techniques. In the second section, you'll play your way through 8 rhythm performance studies applying many of the techniques and concepts from the first section. The educators will demonstrate the rhythm performances and then break them down for you emphasizing the techniques in play.
When you've completed the lessons here in Rhythm Principles, you'll find more lessons focused on country rhythm guitar in Rhythm Approaches, also a Play Country Guitar 4 core course.
The educators demonstrate all of the key examples over jam tracks (where and when applicable) to simulate a real-world application, in a musical context. All of the key examples are also tabbed and notated for your practice, reference and study purposes.
You'll also get Guitar Pro files so that you can play, loop or slow down the tab and notation as you work through the lessons. Plus, you'll have all of the available jam tracks to work with on your own.
Take as much time as you need to work through each video guitar lesson before moving on to the next lesson. If you want to dig deeper or wider into any of the topics covered in this core course, check out the recommended supplementary courses in your learning path where you'll find more examples, techniques and insight from top TrueFire educators.
Grab your guitar and let's get started!
This Country Learning Path core course is presented by 5 top TrueFire educators: Jason Loughlin, Johnny Hiland, Joe Dalton, Robbie Calvo, and Jim Campilongo.
The Rhythm Principles curriculum is comprised of select Country guitar lessons from the educators' existing TrueFire course libraries.
Guitarists spend 90% of their time on the bandstand playing rhythm guitar behind vocals and other musicians' solos, which is why it's critical to develop solid rhythm skills. Having command of a wide range of chord voicings, rhythm patterns and creative approaches is what distinguishes great players from the mediocre, and it's also the number one reason that other musicians will want you in their band or invite you back to the jam. The video guitar lessons in this core course will equip you with the technical and creative skills you need to take your rhythm guitar playing to the next level.
Play Country Guitar 4: Rhythm Principles is organized into 2 sections. In the first section, you'll work through 15 lessons from a variety of TrueFire country guitar educators who will present essential rhythm concepts and techniques. In the second section, you'll play your way through 8 rhythm performance studies applying many of the techniques and concepts from the first section. The educators will demonstrate the rhythm performances and then break them down for you emphasizing the techniques in play.
When you've completed the lessons here in Rhythm Principles, you'll find more lessons focused on country rhythm guitar in Rhythm Approaches, also a Play Country Guitar 4 core course.
The educators demonstrate all of the key examples over jam tracks (where and when applicable) to simulate a real-world application, in a musical context. All of the key examples are also tabbed and notated for your practice, reference and study purposes.
You'll also get Guitar Pro files so that you can play, loop or slow down the tab and notation as you work through the lessons. Plus, you'll have all of the available jam tracks to work with on your own.
Take as much time as you need to work through each video guitar lesson before moving on to the next lesson. If you want to dig deeper or wider into any of the topics covered in this core course, check out the recommended supplementary courses in your learning path where you'll find more examples, techniques and insight from top TrueFire educators.
Grab your guitar and let's get started!
Essential Concepts
In this first section, you'll work through 15 lessons from a variety of TrueFire country guitar educators who will present essential rhythm concepts and techniques including chord voicings, arpeggiation, fills, bass movement, rhythm patterns and much more.
TIP! When you start to work on rhythm parts, remember that the number one thing you should be concerned with is staying in time! This might sound obvious, but sometimes it is easy to get distracted by trying to get a cool move or technique down and we forget about keeping it in time!
So always work on a rhythm part slowly at first, using a metronome to make sure the whole thing is staying in time. If you find one part where you keep losing time, then stop and just work on that part until you get it solid. Remember, rhythm is built from the ground up - so make sure you lay the foundation of a groove before you start to worry about all the fancy stuff!
TIP! When you start to work on rhythm parts, remember that the number one thing you should be concerned with is staying in time! This might sound obvious, but sometimes it is easy to get distracted by trying to get a cool move or technique down and we forget about keeping it in time!
So always work on a rhythm part slowly at first, using a metronome to make sure the whole thing is staying in time. If you find one part where you keep losing time, then stop and just work on that part until you get it solid. Remember, rhythm is built from the ground up - so make sure you lay the foundation of a groove before you start to worry about all the fancy stuff!
Basic Country Forms
Basic Country Forms - Concept 1 is a video guitar lesson presented by Jason Loughlin and is sourced from Country Guitar Survival Guide: Rhythm.
Let's talk about some of the country music forms. We use letters to describe sections of music. For example a verse of a song might be called an A section and chorus might be called the B section. One of the more popular is the A A B A form. This form can be found in jazz and American popular songs. It's typically a thirty two bar form. The B section is also called the middle eight. You may think of it as the bridge. Bluegrass forms may look like A A B B or A B. We also see variations on a 12 bar blues form. Most country tune are very simple harmonically drawing from the I, IV, V in a key. Typically, your first A section will end with a V chord to bring you back to another A section. The second A section will end with a dominant I chord to lead you into the B section. B sections start on a the IV chord mostly and end on V to set up the last A section. Thousands of great songs have been written to this form with little variation. Try analyzing your favorite tunes and see what you find. I think you'll be surprised how many of the follow the same form. There is a common substitution that finds it's way into many country tunes and that's called the secondary dominant. This achieved by treating any chord as a tonic and playing the dominant chord that leads into it. We do this to prolong the tension before resolving to the tonic and it also takes us out of key for a moment which could be a breath of fresh air or the lift a tune needs to keep it propelling forward. If we stack secondary dominants we create something called a cycle. A tune like Cannonball Rag is a good example of this. This works for any chord but the I chord since the dominant of the I chord can already be found in the key. It's most commonly found before the V chord.
Let's talk about some of the country music forms. We use letters to describe sections of music. For example a verse of a song might be called an A section and chorus might be called the B section. One of the more popular is the A A B A form. This form can be found in jazz and American popular songs. It's typically a thirty two bar form. The B section is also called the middle eight. You may think of it as the bridge. Bluegrass forms may look like A A B B or A B. We also see variations on a 12 bar blues form. Most country tune are very simple harmonically drawing from the I, IV, V in a key. Typically, your first A section will end with a V chord to bring you back to another A section. The second A section will end with a dominant I chord to lead you into the B section. B sections start on a the IV chord mostly and end on V to set up the last A section. Thousands of great songs have been written to this form with little variation. Try analyzing your favorite tunes and see what you find. I think you'll be surprised how many of the follow the same form. There is a common substitution that finds it's way into many country tunes and that's called the secondary dominant. This achieved by treating any chord as a tonic and playing the dominant chord that leads into it. We do this to prolong the tension before resolving to the tonic and it also takes us out of key for a moment which could be a breath of fresh air or the lift a tune needs to keep it propelling forward. If we stack secondary dominants we create something called a cycle. A tune like Cannonball Rag is a good example of this. This works for any chord but the I chord since the dominant of the I chord can already be found in the key. It's most commonly found before the V chord.
Common Chord Voicings
Common Chord Voicings - Concept 2 is a video guitar lesson presented by Jason Loughlin and is sourced from Country Guitar Survival Guide: Rhythm.
I'll show you all the open chord otherwise known as cowboy chords and then we'll learn movable versions. These moveable version of the chords are what make up the CAGED system. We will leaning on this heavily to help visualize chords, chord tones and rhythmic patterns. This is a great shorthand approach to seeing arpeggio notes. We will also learn some jazz chord shapes so we can play country swing, countrpolitan and cowboy tunes. I'll show you maj 6th, dom 7th and min 7th chords. For each chord we'll learn a voicing off of both the 6th and 5th string. This will help our progression to have good voice leading and keep you from having to jump all over the neck.
I'll show you all the open chord otherwise known as cowboy chords and then we'll learn movable versions. These moveable version of the chords are what make up the CAGED system. We will leaning on this heavily to help visualize chords, chord tones and rhythmic patterns. This is a great shorthand approach to seeing arpeggio notes. We will also learn some jazz chord shapes so we can play country swing, countrpolitan and cowboy tunes. I'll show you maj 6th, dom 7th and min 7th chords. For each chord we'll learn a voicing off of both the 6th and 5th string. This will help our progression to have good voice leading and keep you from having to jump all over the neck.
Hybrid Picking
Hybrid Picking - Concept 3 is a video guitar lesson presented by Jason Loughlin and is sourced from Country Guitar Survival Guide: Rhythm.
Hybrid picking is just another way to say pick and fingers. It's one of the must have techniques for country guitar. By being able to use you fingers you can incorporate all the spankiness you want. It's also a great way countrify a rhythm that might not be country to begin with. I'll show you a couple exercises to build strength, rolls and a couple ideas for grabbing double stops out of common shapes.
Hybrid picking is just another way to say pick and fingers. It's one of the must have techniques for country guitar. By being able to use you fingers you can incorporate all the spankiness you want. It's also a great way countrify a rhythm that might not be country to begin with. I'll show you a couple exercises to build strength, rolls and a couple ideas for grabbing double stops out of common shapes.
Arpeggiation
Arpeggiation - Concept 4 is a video guitar lesson presented by Jason Loughlin and is sourced from Country Guitar Survival Guide: Rhythm.
Here's one of the easiest ways to get movement into your rhythm parts. Great for ballads and waltzs. You're just outlining the notes that make up the chord. It sounds best when you establish a picking pattern. There are an infinite number of ways to do that. We'll look at a couple simple patterns. Try to mindful of voice leading your chords. The smoother your transitions are the more your part will marry with the rest of the rhythm track.
Here's one of the easiest ways to get movement into your rhythm parts. Great for ballads and waltzs. You're just outlining the notes that make up the chord. It sounds best when you establish a picking pattern. There are an infinite number of ways to do that. We'll look at a couple simple patterns. Try to mindful of voice leading your chords. The smoother your transitions are the more your part will marry with the rest of the rhythm track.
Embellishing Chord Shapes
Embellishing Chord Shapes - Concept 6 is a video guitar lesson presented by Jason Loughlin and is sourced from Country Guitar Survival Guide: Rhythm.
Now were are going to learn how to add color and interest to our chord shapes. The first way we can embellish a shape is by envisioning a scale over top of our shape. There are three scales you see often in country music- The major scale, major pentatonic and the blues scale. I'll demonstrate how to see what notes are available to you when you are playing a chord. Another way to add embellishment to a chord is by using a half step approach, diatonic approach or chromatic approach. This can work on single notes, double stops or the full chord.
Now were are going to learn how to add color and interest to our chord shapes. The first way we can embellish a shape is by envisioning a scale over top of our shape. There are three scales you see often in country music- The major scale, major pentatonic and the blues scale. I'll demonstrate how to see what notes are available to you when you are playing a chord. Another way to add embellishment to a chord is by using a half step approach, diatonic approach or chromatic approach. This can work on single notes, double stops or the full chord.
+ 31 more lessons
Reviews
5 results
rapsidy
Verified buyer
03/27/25
Its a good start
Loved the course gets you STARTED in the country direction, instructor is easy tno learn from and explains things well, just be ware its a tater and not a full course , hence I only gave 4
cuerel
Verified buyer
02/03/23
Very good course on the way to better guitar player
Very good course on my way to Country Guitar player.
wholmer
12/24/20
Essential rhythm the right way!
These lessons will get you on the right path for a solid foundation right from the start. I know, I’ve taken a LOT of self-taught courses over the years and kept realizing I had holes where I missed some techniques. The many different rhythms presented here are going to expand your horizons!
BillPitcher
Verified buyer
05/26/19
Easy
Makes it very easy!
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