Hey, how’s it going this is Darren Goodman with Guitar Control, in this video lesson I will show you how to play an “Easy Country Blues Riff” by yours truly. I really dig the sound of country blues and listen to it, when I started trying to play it, I realized that it was a lot harder than I thought, it’s going to be, to do it, so I came up with this, and originally it was sort of an exercise to kind of help my right hand for getting the picking down and stuff, but after a while I just started sounding better, and better, and better. So I thought maybe it would be something good to help you guys out too.
It really sounds good, it’s fun to play, and it’s like the licks I dig, are the ones that sound harder than they really are, so when you’re playing it, it’s looks like you’re doing a lot of sounds and you’re doing it a lot, but it’s really pretty simple once you get the basic technique down.
Check the image above to follow the chords and tabs.
The first thing I want you to do here is look at what we’re doing with our picking hand, it’s got the base note just open the sixth string, so it’s just got this base groove going on, so that’s your low melody and the higher notes we’re doing the third fret of your high e, and the open high e, and then the third fret of the b string, second fret of your g string, open g string, second fret of your d string, and open a string.
It’s all stuff out of the first position of the minor pentatonic scale of the first pattern open strings. So first thing we have two base notes and then we go to the third fret of that high e, and just give it a slight bend, and then picking it like you can use your thumb and your first finger, but I tend to use my thumb and middle finger. I just always use it for whatever reason, just maybe because my middle finger is longer than my first finger and it seems to be my to, go to, and then on my left hand I’m using my second finger to do these notes, the reason why I use my first finger is to move my hand position a lot.
Now I’m using my second finger for everything, I still have to move my hand position but again my second finger is much more comfortable for me. For you, maybe rather use your first finger, it doesn’t really matter whichever way is easier for you to have the two bass notes.
Two bass notes, band, one bass note, and then we go to the third fret of your b string and do that same bend then follow that with the open first strings, now when you’re picking these higher notes you can add authentic Country Side by kind of popping the string. I mean you don’t want it to be really hard, but in that way it will give a little bit more of a dynamic.
After, we follow that with two bass notes going to the second fret of g string, I’m going to pick that and slide to the fourth fret and follow that with the open first string and then sneak in two more bass notes. Back to the second fret of the g string bass note on the sixth string, and then to the second fret on the d string, that’s another e your octave, and then one more open a low e, and then you’re a string open, do a hammer on to the second fret, and roll your finger down to pick up that e again, and on the second fret of the d string, and start over.
So as you can see, it’s easier to play after you get going with it than it looks like it initially. If this is something that’s completely new to you, you might struggle with a little bit of first. I mean I’ve been playing for a long, long, time and when I first try to do this, I didn’t think I’d be able to get the timing right, but with lots of practice I’ve finally got it down.
Something else you can do isn’t actually on the tabs, but it’s fairly simple to do. Let me show you how you treat this kind of regular blues, like one, four, five, e, a, and b. I like playing it twice with the bass note, the low e. Now, just play it again but use your bass note on the a string and then back to the low e again, anyway that’s all I’ve got for you today.
I hope you enjoyed and you got something out of it, if you like this video makes sure to give me a thumb’s up and leave a comment down below. If there’s anything that you would like to see either I or one of the other instructors at Guitar Control doing a future lesson let us know. Be sure to subscribe on our You Tube Channel and we’ll see you in our next video lessons, thanks for watching.
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