Trading Solos: Country

Let's dial in our guitar tone. I've decided to go with a good versatile sound for the entire course, something more modern and with more overdrive. If you want something more classic, clean up the sound and get rid of the compression and slap.

First, let's talk about the compression: Use this sparingly. I'm using it to just take some of the peaks off of the highs when I chicken pick and to bring up the volume on all the good harmonic information. If you're using a tweed or brown Fender amp, you can get away without using compression since those amps have more "sag" (the term sag is used when an amp natural compresses).

I'm also using a boost pedal to drive the amp on the way in; this is great for quieter situations or when you need more volume for a solo. I do use a little bit of slapback delay to add some depth, meaning my delay is set to one quick repeat. I set the delay to be about half the volume of my attack.

For outlaw country and 70's country, I keep a phase pedal on the board. This was a popular effect for those styles, and it's still a cool sound! You should also keep an overdrive and tremolo pedal around. Overdrive can be good to have for more modern country, and the trem is nice to have around so you can dial it in without messing with your amp's tremolo. Remember, the depth of your tremolo will be affected by how hot or cold you bias your amp.

I'm using D'Addario strings 10-46. For more classic country, I might use flatwounds, or for a super spanky sound similar to Albert Lee or James Burton, I'll use 9's. I use Lollar pickups in my tele and I'm almost always on the bridge pickup, unless I'm playing Western swing or jazz.

Our first track is a classic country track in the key of G. The progression is G-G-G-G-A7-D7-G-G. We'll go around two times for solos. Our comping will be relatively simple and our soloing will be more limited to flatpicking, legato lines and simple chord voicings.

The acoustic guitar is really driving the rhythm, so we have to make sure we're complimenting that. We'll use major 6th chords and dominant 7th chord shapes in our first approach of playing four on the floor. We're just strumming quarter notes, but accenting beats 2 and 4. I'm also pulsing the fretting hand to keep the chords from ringing into each other.

Our second approach will use lap steel voicings. Because a lap steel guitar is tuned to a major 6th chord, it only makes sense that we use inversions of a major 6th chord. I'm using four note inversions on the top four strings, but I'm only grabbing three strings at a time. You can approach any of these voicings from a half step underneath or move any of the voicings down a whole step to turn them into a dom 9th chord.

Let's talk about some soloing ideas. The first idea is to use the lap steel voicings we were comping with as a solo technique. Half step approaches, slides and chromatically connecting major 6th chords to dom 9th chords are all gonna sound great with these shapes.

Our second soloing idea is the use of diminished chords. You can play these chord shapes and move them a minor third in any direction or arpeggiate them. Here's where you can use them: G-G#dim-A7, A7-A#dim-D7 and D7-D#dim-G.

Our last idea is a turn off of chord tones. A turn is an ornamentation of a chord tone. We start on the chord tone and then play a diatonic step above and pull off to the chord tone. Then, we slide down to a half step underneath and back up to the chord tone. You can do this on the root, 3rd or 5th.

In this preview, you can check out how these soloing concepts are being used and they work with the different rhythmic approaches.

Let's take all of our soloing and comping ideas and put them to use by trading solos. I'll kick it off and solo two times through the progression while you play rhythm for me, and then I'll just play rhythm while you solo. Let's get started!