At the heart of country guitar playing is a technique called, “Hybrid” picking.
It’s a very dynamic technique allowing the guitarist to pick lower notes and pluck higher notes with their fingers.
Double-stops, single notes and ghosted notes are all fair game using the fingers.
Hold the pick between your thumb and first finger. This leaves your second and 3rd fingers to pluck the strings.
Generally, you’ll use your second finger for single note lines, and your second and third fingers for double stops.
Many phrases in this course utilize hybrid picking so work hard on this one!
For Example 2, I’m using my 1st finger for the last eighth note in the phrase.
I’m also keeping the “A” as a pedal tone throughout example 3, which is palm muted to separate the upper lines better.
Hybrid picking feels a little awkward at first if you’re not used to it. Practice the technique slowly with a metronome and you’ll gain confidence.
Example 1:
E |----------------------------| B |--------------------—-------| G |----0-----0-----0-----0-----| D |----------------------------| A |-0-----0-----0-----0--------| E |----------------------------|
Example 2:
E |---------------------------| B |-0----0-------------------—| G |-0----0-------0------------| D |---------------------0-----| A |-0----0----0----0----------| E |---------------------------|
Example 3:
E |--------------------------------------------------------------| B |----7---5----------—----------------------7-----5-------------| G |----7---5h6---------------2----2--4------7-----5h6------------| D |---------------7----5------4----4--5--------------------7----5| A |0---0---0---0---0----0----0----0----0----0----0----0----0----0| E |--------------------------------------------------------------|
E |------------------| B |------8----7------| G |-4s7------7-------| D |------------------| A |-0------0---------| E |------------------|
Want To Learn More …
In my experience with guitarist I found a lot of newer players assume that learning how to play country guitar is much easier than other types.
Reality is that this couldn’t be further from the truth. It actually requires a lot of practice and dedication to get to a level to play comfortably.
If you sit and listen to some real country songs you may be able to hear difficult picking patterns that require a lot of skill to play.
Country is one genre of guitar that I like to tell students to really immerse themselves into all types of country music to get a real feeling or how the music should be played.