Nashville Country Lead Guitar

Classic country guitar solos book by Larry McCabe

If you love the sound of a twangy, chicken-picked vintage Telecaster or Stratocaster guitar and want to learn the exciting lead guitar style associated with classic truck driving songs, drinking songs, and cheating songs, this book is for you. (The book is not for beginners; basic picking and chording skills are required before attempting these solos.)

The solos in this book sound like the breaks one might hear on classic country recordings by Merle Haggard, Buck Owens, Lefty Frizell, George Jones, and similar artists who defined the exciting honky-tonk sound of the 50s to late 60s, before rampant commercialism eliminated virtually all originality and feeling from popular country music.

Several hundred popular country recordings were researched to come up with the 25 chord progressions in this book. Each progression was found to be common to many songs. A solo incorporating various concepts and techniques was played over each progression. The result is an authentic-sounding collection of 25 country guitar solos through which various ideas can be analyzed. An ambitious and creative guitarist will find many opportunities for applying these ideas to real songs.

The book could have been named Learn Bakersfield Lead Country Guitar Solos (or something like that). The twangy, Fender Telecaster country guitar style actually emerged in Bakersfield, California, in the 1950s. With a 50s Tele (Telecaster) or 60s Tele (Telecaster) guitar and a vintage Fender Deluxe Reverb Amp, the Bakersfield Sound country musicians and bandleaders like Don Rich, Buck Owens, Merle Haggard, Roy Nichols, Lefty Frizzel, Red Simpson, Wynn Stewart, and others would eventually teach the Nashville guitar pickers a good deal about chicken picking and twangy country lead guitar playing.

Please note: This book is a 2007 reprint of Larry McCabe's Country Lead Guitar, formerly published by Mel Bay Publications.

Prerequisite Ability

• Ambitious early intermediate guitarist who wants to learn to play country lead guitar.
• Intermediate guitar player.

User Profiles

• Serious hobbyist guitarist.
• Flatpicking guitar players wanting to learn the electric country solo style.
• A gigging rock guitarist, blues guitarist, or jazz guitarist who wants to learn the electric country guitar picking style.
• Guitar teachers who teach electric lead guitar.
• Country guitar, blues guitar, and rock guitar players who want to expand their rhythm guitar skills and knowledge.

Goals and Purposes

• Learn how to play Bakersfield Sound guitar, classic country lead guitar, Nashville guitar, honky-tonk guitar, chicken picking, etc.
• Explore the major pentatonic scale and the major scale on the guitar fingerboard.
• Practice country guitar solos with a CD.
• Study country chord progressions.
• Greater familiarity with guitar fingerboard.

Author-Recommended Supplemental Listening for Country Guitar Players

The author recommends that guitarists who use this book listen to as many of the following country guitarists and musicians as possible. Listening to these vintage guitar players and musicians will provide unlimited enjoyment, inspiration, and ideas.

Country Guitar Players

Chet Atkins, Norman Blake, Junior Brown, James Burton, Billy Byrd, Thumbs Carlisle, Maybelle Carter, Duane Eddy, Ray Flacke, Hank Garland, Billy Grammar, Albert Lee, Grady Martin, Joe Maphis, Sam McGee, Bob Moore, Scotty Moore, Roy Nichols, Carl Perkins, Riley Puckett, Mose Rager, Jerry Reed, Don Rich, Eldon Shamblin, Arthur Guitar Boogie Smith, Merle Travis, Doc Watson, Clarence White.