loutchos
Verified buyer
05/18/26
Cool licks!
Very nice ! I’ve learned a lot of cool licks !
Country Guitar Survival Guide: Lead
Essential lead guitar techniques for modern country
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About this course
Remember the cutting heads scene in Crossroads between Ralph Macchio and Steve Vai? Macchio ultimately kicked the devil in the behind with some blazing classical guitar runs (although most of us felt that Ry Cooder's slide work did the job just as nicely). Well, let's trip out a bit and recast that scene; in addition to the blues, rock and classical styles, we bring in top players from the jazz, metal, fingerstyle and country guitar worlds, and then let them all go at it for a few rounds. Last man standing? No doubt about ... the country dude stays above ground and the rest of the boys hang with Beelzebub for the rest of their days.
No other style of popular music demands such mastery of right and left-hand techniques as does country lead guitar. Mixed with even modest musicality, country lead guitar turns heads and blows minds. That's why so many blues, jazz and even rock guitarists beg, borrow and steal techniques from country players. And many have been known to convert wholeheartedly to the style just to satisfy their hunger for guitaristic challenges on their quest for virtuosity.
Whether you choose to borrow, convert or strengthen your existing country lead chops, Country Lead Guitar Survival Guide from Jason Loughlin will deliver the goods. Jason presents stellar instruction for developing 12 essential skills and techniques that are requisite to the style; Chicken Pickin', Pickin' Triads, Pickin' 3rds, Pickin' 6ths, Banjo Rolls, Open String Licks, Flat Picking, Double Stops, Bending 3rds, Bending 6ths, Pedal Steel Emulation and Lap Steel Guitar Voicings.
Each of the 12 techniques is presented in its own chapter of video lessons. Each chapter includes two instrumental studies featuring that specific technique. The first instrumental study will expose you to the concept and focus on getting you comfortable with how the idea moves on the fretboard while helping you develop the right and/or left-hand techniques required to pull it off. The second instrumental study puts the pedal to the metal and demonstrates the different ways that the technique can be embellished with the left and right hand.
Jason first performs the instrumental study and then breaks it down note-for-note, move-by-move. In the breakdowns, Jason reveals the mechanics of the technique, the concepts associated with it, and the underlying theory. All of the studies are demonstrated (and then practiced by you) over a diverse range of rhythm tracks. All of the teaching is presented in a musical context; no tedious exercises or drawn out explanations -- you will play your way through the Country Lead Guitar Survival Guide, and have a blast doing so!
Whether you choose to cherry-pick some of the techniques or learn them all, Jason and the Country Lead Guitar Survival Guide will impart some serious skills and a whole new range of sounds that you can pull out at your own next head cutting session.
No other style of popular music demands such mastery of right and left-hand techniques as does country lead guitar. Mixed with even modest musicality, country lead guitar turns heads and blows minds. That's why so many blues, jazz and even rock guitarists beg, borrow and steal techniques from country players. And many have been known to convert wholeheartedly to the style just to satisfy their hunger for guitaristic challenges on their quest for virtuosity.
Whether you choose to borrow, convert or strengthen your existing country lead chops, Country Lead Guitar Survival Guide from Jason Loughlin will deliver the goods. Jason presents stellar instruction for developing 12 essential skills and techniques that are requisite to the style; Chicken Pickin', Pickin' Triads, Pickin' 3rds, Pickin' 6ths, Banjo Rolls, Open String Licks, Flat Picking, Double Stops, Bending 3rds, Bending 6ths, Pedal Steel Emulation and Lap Steel Guitar Voicings.
Each of the 12 techniques is presented in its own chapter of video lessons. Each chapter includes two instrumental studies featuring that specific technique. The first instrumental study will expose you to the concept and focus on getting you comfortable with how the idea moves on the fretboard while helping you develop the right and/or left-hand techniques required to pull it off. The second instrumental study puts the pedal to the metal and demonstrates the different ways that the technique can be embellished with the left and right hand.
Jason first performs the instrumental study and then breaks it down note-for-note, move-by-move. In the breakdowns, Jason reveals the mechanics of the technique, the concepts associated with it, and the underlying theory. All of the studies are demonstrated (and then practiced by you) over a diverse range of rhythm tracks. All of the teaching is presented in a musical context; no tedious exercises or drawn out explanations -- you will play your way through the Country Lead Guitar Survival Guide, and have a blast doing so!
Whether you choose to cherry-pick some of the techniques or learn them all, Jason and the Country Lead Guitar Survival Guide will impart some serious skills and a whole new range of sounds that you can pull out at your own next head cutting session.
What you'll learn
- Play arpeggios within flatpicking context
- Use chromatic approach notes to target chord tones
- Use passing tones effectively in scale runs
- Incorporate flat thirds for bluesy flavor in flatpicking solos
- Connect different licks to different chord shapes
Release date: 12/07/2012 • 3h 11m runtime
Sample lessons
Chicken Pickin': Study 1
Introduction
Chicken Pickin': Study 1
Performance
Chicken Pickin': Study 1
Breakdown
Banjo Rolls: Study 2
Performance
What's included
74 lessons • 24 charts • 24 Jam Tracks
Country Survival Guide: Lead Guitar
Welcome to Country Guitar Survival Guide on lead guitar. This is my favorite style of music to play. With all of its sub-genres and the techniques necessary to play it I find it to be a never ending well of inspiration. In my opinion it is the only style that truly embraces and utilizes all aspects of the electric guitar. Not only does country music incorporate elements of blues, jazz and rock, it also employs many unique techniques to pull it all off. It's a hard style of music to master without having a handle on the techniques and concepts that make country guitar playing so distinctive. It doesn't matter whether you're a great jazz player or a shredding demon, if you're not incorporating techniques like chicken pickin' or pedal steel flavored bends into your solos, then you're not speaking the same language. The material in this course will expose you to what I think are twelve essential techniques associated with lead country guitar playing. We will be covering chicken pickin', chicken pickin' triads, pickin' 3rds, pickin' 6th, banjo rolls, open string licks, flat picking, double stops, bending 3rds, bending 6ths, pedal steel guitar bends and lap steel guitar voicings.
Each chapter of this course is dedicated to an essential country guitar lead technique. The chapters are divided into four sections, each of which consists of two instrumental studies. For most of the techniques the first instrumental study will expose you to the concept and focus mostly on how the idea moves on the fret board. The second instrumental study will showcase many of the different ways these techniques can be embellished by the right and left hand. In some cases the sections will be divided into the two most common applications of the technique. All instrumental studies are followed by a breakdown. In the breakdowns, we'll talk about the mechanics of the technique, concepts associated with it and some basic theory.
The course is laid out in what l think is a thoughtful order but feel free to jump around, find a technique that speaks to you and dig in. Have fun with this one. Let's get started...
Chicken Pickin': Study 1
Chicken pickin' is probably the most identifiable sound associated with country guitar. So much so that the name itself is synonymous with country guitar playing. We're starting with this technique because it's the building block of almost every technique to follow in this course. Players like James Burton and Roy Nichols are some of the early pioneers of this technique.
Chicken pickin' is a type of hybrid picking that is extremely percussive. The sound is achieved by muting and popping strings in tandem. The muting can be done with the palm or by releasing tension in the fretting hand. The fingers should pluck hard enough to slap the string against the frets. In this example we'll be applying chicken pickin' to single strings while mixing in bends, hammer-ons and slides.
Chicken Pickin': Study 1
Chicken pickin' is probably the most identifiable sound associated with country guitar. So much so that the name itself is synonymous with country guitar playing. We're starting with this technique because it's the building block of almost every technique to follow in this course. Players like James Burton and Roy Nichols are some of the early pioneers of this technique.
Chicken pickin' is a type of hybrid picking that is extremely percussive. The sound is achieved by muting and popping strings in tandem. The muting can be done with the palm or by releasing tension in the fretting hand. The fingers should pluck hard enough to slap the string against the frets. In this example we'll be applying chicken pickin' to single strings while mixing in bends, hammer-ons and slides.
Chicken Pickin': Study 1
Chicken pickin' is probably the most identifiable sound associated with country guitar. So much so that the name itself is synonymous with country guitar playing. We're starting with this technique because it's the building block of almost every technique to follow in this course. Players like James Burton and Roy Nichols are some of the early pioneers of this technique.
Chicken pickin' is a type of hybrid picking that is extremely percussive. The sound is achieved by muting and popping strings in tandem. The muting can be done with the palm or by releasing tension in the fretting hand. The fingers should pluck hard enough to slap the string against the frets. In this example we'll be applying chicken pickin' to single strings while mixing in bends, hammer-ons and slides.
Chicken Pickin': Study 2
This variation includes some licks inspired by three of my favorite guitarists, Danny Gatton, Chet Atkins and James Burton. Just seeing their names together in a sentence is inspiring. We are going to incorporate double stops and chord shapes into our chicken pickin'. I first heard Chet Atkins rake through a chord on his solo in Yakety Axe. I've since heard Danny Gatton use this technique on countless solos. It's such a great sound and it takes little effort. My favorite combination!
One of the other key licks in this instrumental is one that James Burton uses quite a bit. It has become one his 'calling card' licks. We are going to be bending one note of a double stop and slowly releasing the bend as we pick back and forth between the two notes. James does this with a thumb pick and fingerpick on the index finger. It cuts right through the band. We are going to be learning it with just the flat pick and the index. You can hear James using this lick on a lot of his leads. Check out his solo on Emmylou Harris's version of Ooh Las Vegas.
Chicken Pickin': Study 2
This variation includes some licks inspired by three of my favorite guitarists, Danny Gatton, Chet Atkins and James Burton. Just seeing their names together in a sentence is inspiring. We are going to incorporate double stops and chord shapes into our chicken pickin'. I first heard Chet Atkins rake through a chord on his solo in Yakety Axe. I've since heard Danny Gatton use this technique on countless solos. It's such a great sound and it takes little effort. My favorite combination!
One of the other key licks in this instrumental is one that James Burton uses quite a bit. It has become one his 'calling card' licks. We are going to be bending one note of a double stop and slowly releasing the bend as we pick back and forth between the two notes. James does this with a thumb pick and fingerpick on the index finger. It cuts right through the band. We are going to be learning it with just the flat pick and the index. You can hear James using this lick on a lot of his leads. Check out his solo on Emmylou Harris's version of Ooh Las Vegas.
Chicken Pickin': Study 2
This variation includes some licks inspired by three of my favorite guitarists, Danny Gatton, Chet Atkins and James Burton. Just seeing their names together in a sentence is inspiring. We are going to incorporate double stops and chord shapes into our chicken pickin'. I first heard Chet Atkins rake through a chord on his solo in Yakety Axe. I've since heard Danny Gatton use this technique on countless solos. It's such a great sound and it takes little effort. My favorite combination!
One of the other key licks in this instrumental is one that James Burton uses quite a bit. It has become one his 'calling card' licks. We are going to be bending one note of a double stop and slowly releasing the bend as we pick back and forth between the two notes. James does this with a thumb pick and fingerpick on the index finger. It cuts right through the band. We are going to be learning it with just the flat pick and the index. You can hear James using this lick on a lot of his leads. Check out his solo on Emmylou Harris's version of Ooh Las Vegas.
+ 67 more lessons
Reviews
55 results
tomc10
Verified buyer
04/25/26
Good insight into country style licks
ricklettsongs
Verified buyer
01/14/26
I bought 2 courses - Jazz chord melody and Country Guitar Survival Guide - Lead. I decided to just do one at a time, to give better focus. I am currently doing (and loving) the Jazz Chord Melody course. I should get at the Country Guitar Survival Guide in another week or 10 days.
archtopjazz
Verified buyer
11/17/25
Great course. Jason is a awesome player!
Percy-V
Verified buyer
10/05/25
Super course
I recommend this course if u wanna learn country tips and aleeady have a solid technic package 🫡💪
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