Country Learning Pathway

Grade 4. Pickin' It up a Notch

Dive deeper into the 5 pillars of country guitar, and emerge a truly intermediate country guitarist.

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‍Day 1. Pentatonic – Position 4

Explore how breaking up the pentatonic scale into different chunks fuels new creative potential.

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‍Day 2. Pentatonic – Position 5

Master the pentatonic scale by tackling its most symmetrical position.

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‍Day 3. How to Play the Harmonized Major Scale

When you reach this point, you’ll already have a firm grasp on triads for your I, IV, and V chords. In Day 3, we’re going to dive deeper into triads and check out the other chords that the major scale gives birth to.

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‍Day 4. The Harmonized Major Scale (Middle Strings)

Guitar playing lends itself to pattern-based comfort, which can be a blessing and a curse. Today, you'll expand your knowledge of inversions to make your ear as strong as your shape recognition.

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‍Day 5. Pedal-Steel Bends – Major

Bends are all about adding some sparkle to the harmonic content of a tune. Today you’ll work on pedal-steel bends with a major tonality.

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‍Day 6. Pedal-Steel Bends – Minor

Today, you’ll work on the same concept as yesterday, but we’ll make it minor!

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‍Day 7. How to Play Banjo Rolls

Access a blended lead-rhythm sound by combining your hybrid picking skills with your knowledge of major triads and their inversions through banjo rolls!

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‍Day 8. Hybrid Picking 3rds

Today, you’ll focus on combining hybrid picking with a lick that uses 3rds. Your knowledge of triads will come in handy here.

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‍Day 9. Double-Stop 6ths

Focus on double stops using 6ths. This staple of country music is worth a very deep dive.

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‍Day 10. You Made It! Let's Recap.

Review your hard work from the past nine days and wrap up with a few assessments to benchmark your progress.‍

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Grade 5. Intermediate Country Guitar

Take your country foundation to new heights with a series of lessons designed to grade up your country soloing skills.

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‍Day 1. Combining Pentatonic Shapes 1 & 2

Develop more fluidity and freedom across your fretboard by linking pentatonic positions.

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‍Day 2. Combining Pentatonic Shapes 3, 4, and 5

Join all five pentatonic shapes together and practice moving between them fluidly.

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‍Day 3. Triads - Adding the bVII

Examine the role that the bVII chord in a progression through the lens of triads. This is an iconic country sound to get under your fingers.

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‍Day 4. Introduction to Chromaticism

Learn how chromatic lines can spice up your solos by exploring chromaticism within the major pentatonic scale.

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‍Day 5. Bends from Major Pentatonic

In the world of country guitar soloing, there are pentatonic phrases that you can “copy and paste” from key to key as a way to solo along with chord changes. Today, we’ll look at how bends fit into this idea.

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‍Day 6. Bends From Minor Pentatonic

Focus on the same concept as yesterday but with the minor pentatonic scale.

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Day 7. Honky-Tonk Hybrid Picking

Honky-tonk picking is an incredibly useful technique that you can apply to all sorts of chord progressions. Once you get the picking-hand technique down, you can start to use it to augment your chordal playing.

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‍Day 8. Honky-Tonk Hybrid Picking – Leveling Up

Today, we’re going to spice things up with some additional details by building on everything you practice in the previous lesson.

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‍Day 9. 3rds on All String Sets

Explore string sets you haven’t covered previously while returning to the subject of 3rds. Daniel will show you some common uses for 3rds in country guitar, as well as how you can start to incorporate them into your playing.

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‍Day 10. Final Challenges

Review everything you learned and complete a series of technical challenges to ensure you're ready for grade 6.

Grade 6. Lettin' Loose

Leave the intermediate grade in the dust. This is advanced country guitar.

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‍Day 1. Pentatonic – Up Minor, Down Major (Positions 1, 2)

In this lesson, Daniel will help you access more dynamic sounds in your solos by walking you through a concept called proximity pentatonics.

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‍Day 2. Pentatonic – Up Minor, Down Major (Positions 3, 4, 5)

Continue working on proximity pentatonics as you develop the ability to move in and out of the major or minor pentatonic scales at will.

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‍Day 3. Triads – Harmonized Mixolydian Scale

Take a close look at the harmonized Mixolydian mode and how you can find and incorporate its triads into your playing.

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‍Day 4. Triads – Harmonized Mixolydian Scale on All String Sets

Continue the triadic work you started yesterday. The goal here is to extend your knowledge of Mixolydian triads across all string sets.

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‍Day 5. Bending 3rds

Our journey to transforming you into a bonafide country gunslinger leads us to the subject of 3rds and 6ths – more specifically, how you can incorporate these intervals through bending.

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‍Day 6. Bending 6ths

In today’s lesson, you'll build on top of your work from Day 5. Bending is an important part of the country guitar sound, and the use of 6ths is extensive throughout the style.

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‍Day 7. How to Find a Melody

This lesson is largely about the creative practice of finding a melody across the fretboard. The idea is that we’ll start with a melody in one area of the neck before finding the same melody in other registers, positions, and keys!

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‍Day 8. How to Play Over Chord Changes

Highlighting the chord changes in your solos is an effective way to make your solos sound sophisticated and interesting. Today, you'll tackle the massive subject of chord changes and how to play over them.

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‍Day 9. The Wild West of Chromaticism

Previously, we’ve looked at using chromaticism with our major pentatonic scales. Today, we’re going further down the rabbit hole!

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‍Day 10. Final Challenges

You made it to the level of advanced country shredder! Yee-haw! Recap what you learned, discover next steps, and complete your graduation challenges for grade 6.