Swing42
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01/08/26
The Classic Stuff
Very useable licks for classic country sounds, these are the foundational approaches well worth learning,
50 Country Masters Licks You MUST Know
50 country guitar licks you MUST know inspired by the genre's greats
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About this course
No other style of popular music demands such guitaristic mastery of right and left-hand techniques as does country guitar and that's why so many blues, jazz and even rock guitarists beg, borrow and steal techniques and licks from the master of country guitar. As with any musical style, studying its history and evolution is key to its understanding and proficiency. So, grab your guitar and jump on Jason Loughlin’s time machine -- he’ll guide you through the history of country music across the fretboards of 34 country guitar masters in 50 Country Masters Licks You MUST Know.
Your trip starts back in the day with Jimmy Wyble’s opening lick fromThe Texas Playboy’s Roly Poly, a tasty gem from Hank William’s Moving It On Over, one of the first chicken pickin’ lick sever recorded from Mr Guitar Chet Atkins, an emulated lapsteel move inspired by Long Gone Lonesome Blues, a must-know Hank Garland lick from Sugar Foot Rag, a double-stop move from the virtuosic Jimmy Bryant, another Chet Atkins trick where he uses a forward roll over three strings, a beauty from Pork Chop Stomp, another from Joe Maphis’ Fire on the Strings, and a cool roll pattern from Merle Travis.
Your time traveling adventure continues with a beautiful turnaround from Hank Garland's Baby Guitar, a Leon Rhodes’ diddy from Honeyfingers, a Scruggs-style banjo lick, a trucker-billy lick from Jimmy Colvard, a Don Rich Wham Bam lick, the opening lick of the famous Waylon Jennings tune Mental Revenge, chicken pickin’ double-stops from the great James Burton, Merle Haggard lickage from Mama Tried, faux-pedal steel lick ala Clarence White, and a signature move from Jerry Reed. OK, take a breather but hurry back... there’s more.
All aboard as Jason demonstrates Roy Buchanan’s brilliant imitation of lapsteel using major 6th chords, tone sweeps and volume swells, more classic chicken pickin’ licks that use the interval of a 6th as a template, more James Burton moves from Emmylou Harris’ cover of Ooh Las Vegas, a bunch of bizarre pedal steel bends inspired by Jerry Donahue, Danny Gatton raking chicken pickin’ chord scales, Albert Lee’s chicken pickin' over triad shapes, and a beautiful lick from Ray Flack's solo on Ricky Skaggs Highway 40 Blues.
The last leg of your journey features another Albert Lee signature double-stop lick, a must-know lick from Pete Anderson’s solo on Guitars and Cadillacs, some killer Brent Mason moves from Hot Wired, double-stop bends from Johnny Hiland, and much, much more from other contemporary masters such as Junior Brown, Kenny Vaughan, Marty Stuart, Redd Volkaert, Vince Gill, Brad Paisley Duke Levine and Jim Campilongo.
All of the licks are presented over a rhythm track and then broken down note-by-note, technique-by-technique. Everything is tabbed and notated, plus you get all of the rhythm tracks to practice with by yourself.
In the words of the late, great Chet Atkins... “Years from now, after I'm gone, someone will listen to what I've done and know I was here. They may not know or care who I was, but they'll hear my guitars speaking for me.”
Your trip starts back in the day with Jimmy Wyble’s opening lick fromThe Texas Playboy’s Roly Poly, a tasty gem from Hank William’s Moving It On Over, one of the first chicken pickin’ lick sever recorded from Mr Guitar Chet Atkins, an emulated lapsteel move inspired by Long Gone Lonesome Blues, a must-know Hank Garland lick from Sugar Foot Rag, a double-stop move from the virtuosic Jimmy Bryant, another Chet Atkins trick where he uses a forward roll over three strings, a beauty from Pork Chop Stomp, another from Joe Maphis’ Fire on the Strings, and a cool roll pattern from Merle Travis.
Your time traveling adventure continues with a beautiful turnaround from Hank Garland's Baby Guitar, a Leon Rhodes’ diddy from Honeyfingers, a Scruggs-style banjo lick, a trucker-billy lick from Jimmy Colvard, a Don Rich Wham Bam lick, the opening lick of the famous Waylon Jennings tune Mental Revenge, chicken pickin’ double-stops from the great James Burton, Merle Haggard lickage from Mama Tried, faux-pedal steel lick ala Clarence White, and a signature move from Jerry Reed. OK, take a breather but hurry back... there’s more.
All aboard as Jason demonstrates Roy Buchanan’s brilliant imitation of lapsteel using major 6th chords, tone sweeps and volume swells, more classic chicken pickin’ licks that use the interval of a 6th as a template, more James Burton moves from Emmylou Harris’ cover of Ooh Las Vegas, a bunch of bizarre pedal steel bends inspired by Jerry Donahue, Danny Gatton raking chicken pickin’ chord scales, Albert Lee’s chicken pickin' over triad shapes, and a beautiful lick from Ray Flack's solo on Ricky Skaggs Highway 40 Blues.
The last leg of your journey features another Albert Lee signature double-stop lick, a must-know lick from Pete Anderson’s solo on Guitars and Cadillacs, some killer Brent Mason moves from Hot Wired, double-stop bends from Johnny Hiland, and much, much more from other contemporary masters such as Junior Brown, Kenny Vaughan, Marty Stuart, Redd Volkaert, Vince Gill, Brad Paisley Duke Levine and Jim Campilongo.
All of the licks are presented over a rhythm track and then broken down note-by-note, technique-by-technique. Everything is tabbed and notated, plus you get all of the rhythm tracks to practice with by yourself.
In the words of the late, great Chet Atkins... “Years from now, after I'm gone, someone will listen to what I've done and know I was here. They may not know or care who I was, but they'll hear my guitars speaking for me.”
What you'll learn
- Use chromatic passing tones to approach chord tones
- Play flashy-sounding country licks that work over up-tempo progressions
- Use rhythmic displacement to create interest by starting phrases on different beats
- Apply lap steel-influenced melodic patterns to guitar
- Adapt organ playing concepts to guitar technique
Release date: 08/01/2013 • 3h 18m runtime
Sample lessons
Hi Ho Silver
Lick 3
Buchanan Bent
Lick 28
Donahue's Nutty Bends
Lick 31
General Lee
Lick 37
What's included
52 lessons • 50 charts • 50 Jam Tracks
50 Country Masters Licks
Welcome to 50 Country Masters Licks You Should know. I've assembled 50 licks from the most iconic country guitarist. To top it off I've put them in chronologically order so can hear the evolution of country guitar playing. We will be looking at country greats like; Leon Rhodes, Jimmy Bryant, Chet Atkins, Merle Travis, Joe Maphis, Jerry Reed, Albert Lee, Danny Gatton, Roy Buchanan, James Burton, Brent Mason, Vince Gill and Brad Paisley. Covering this many players means we also get to see the evolution of styles over the years. The licks we will be leanring will cover a lot of styles like Country, Western Swing, Bluegrass, Bakersfield and Modern Country. Country guitar playing uses so many techniques. This is what makes it so attractive to a lot of guitar players. This course will have you playing many different techniques. We will be using hybrid picking, banjo rolls, pedal steel bends, behind the nut bends, lap steel voicings, flat picking and chicken pickin' to name a few. I'm so grateful to share these licks with you from my favorite country guitarist. These guys really did change the course of country guitar playing in their own ways. Whether you're an intermediate player or a professional who's just looking to get a clear picture of what country guitar playing is all about, you'll will get a lot of information and inspiration out of this course. Every lick in the course comes with standard notation and tab. You also get all the backing tracks so you can play along. So grab you're favorite guitar and let get pickin'!
Pill Bug
This lick comes to us from the great Jimmy Wyble of Bob Wills and The Texas Playboys. This is the opening lick from one of their more famous tunes, called "Roly Poly". It was released around 1945/46. It’s been covered by tons of different people and know as a western swing standard. The opening lick has a neo-classical element to it. It's all played using the G major scale. There is amazing guitar work throughout this entire song. It’s definitely one of those intros in classic country that you are expected to know. There are some pretty incredible lines in the tune and it showcases a very sophisticated way of playing over really common chord changes, which is a key concept at the heart of a lot of western swing music. Jimmy was a great eacher also. His students are Howard Roberts, Howard Alden, Steve Luthaker and Smokey Hormel to name a few.
Out Of My Way
This is a lick that I got from Hank William’s "Moving It On Over". This tune came out in 1947 and kind of foreshodows early rock and roll. It’s a great guitar solo played by Zeke Turner. Zeke Turner played with Red Foley, Earnest Tubb, The Delmore Brothers and The Texas Troubadours. One of the things that is so great about this solo is that he is really addressing all the changes. In a way this whole solo seems to really show the bridge between western swing and country music. I picked this lick to show how Zeke plays over the V chord. He’s basically just walking down the scale with a simple pattern, and ending with some blues-y double stops.
Hi Ho Silver
This is a guitar lick from Mr. guitar himself, Chet Atkins. This comes from Chet’s first hit, called "Galloping on the Guitar" that was cut with Jethro Burns on mandolin in 1947 for RCA. It is one of the first chicken pickin' licks recorded. You can hear a lot of the slapping strings against the frets and utilizing open strings to help spell out a chord’s arpeggio. It has us outlining the arppegios of I and IV chord.
Lonesome Steel
This lick is based on the lapsteel intro to Hank William’s cover of "Long Gone Lonesome Blues". This tune was released in 1950 and was Hank's firt number 1 hit. The B side was "My Son Calls Another Man Daddy". This type of steel intro is using the interval of a sixth, which means two notes that are six scale steps apart. We are moving them through the key and targeting the chord tones of each chord we are playing over. Lap steel players liked to connect these intervals with chromatic passing tones.
Sweet Feet
This lick comes to us from the great Hank Garland, who was a very influential countr rockabilly and jazz guitarist. He has influenced guitar players like George Benson and countless others. This lick is from his first hit, "Sugar Foot Rag". He recorded it when he was only 19 years old. It was released in 1950. Hank actually penned a lot of hits, and co-wrote a lot of things but wasn’t able to get writing credit because he was working at the studio as a session guitarist, and not as a writer. In those days you couldn’t be paid for both jobs. So despite the fact hat he wrote "Jingle Bell Rock" and helped co-write some tunes for Patsy Kline and Roy Orbison he was not allowed to get credit. This one was a huge hit and inspired tons of guitar players to follow in his footsteps. His guitar playing still needs to get more attention in my opinion. He’s truly one of the greats, and one of my heroes as a player. The Gibson Byrdland was developed by Hank Garland and Billy Byrd. Definitely someone you should know and spend some time with.
Chet Rolls
These rolls influence a lot of the open string and cascading ideas that gained a lot of popularity later on with country guitarists. This particular lick is inspired by and taken almost note for note from a lick that Chet plays on "Oh! By Jingo" which was released in 1953 on Stringing Along with Chet Atkins. He also uses this lick in "Tweedle Dee". It’s one that he pulls out pretty often anytime he is playing over G. You can really gauge the popularity of this lick by the fact that it was even popular among players outside of country music and influenced rock players, too. This lick can be heard on Led Zeppelin's "The Song Remains the Same". It's based on a forward roll to approach chord tones from a half step below.
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Reviews
19 results
troubadour3511
Verified buyer
07/11/25
Great course. Good educator.
Catfish J.
Verified buyer
05/28/25
Great course
Excellent presentation of materials. Teacher has a great knowledge of subject matter. Very informative and educational.
Iamed1
Verified buyer
01/30/25
yes, it's a useful one
Solid, would look at other titles
Keith19666
Verified buyer
01/18/25
Highly recommend.
Brilliant, this course has helped me immensely to regain my chops and more. Great teacher as well as a great player.
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