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The joy of country guitar lessons is that there’s so much to learn. It’s such a massive style, with nearly as many sub-genres as jazz or rock, that there’s always something new out there for you to pick up. For those coming to it from another style, it offers a massive opportunity to acquire new techniques, work with some different chord sequences, and finally, for the metal players, play something remotely happy sounding. But it can be daunting occasionally, simply because there is so much to learn. The right materials though can go a long way to making things easier.

Songbooks

Whether you like Garth Brooks, Chet Atkins or the Dixie Chicks, learning the songs Danny Gatton Signature Telecaster Electric Guitar (Assorted Colors) that you love to listen to is a great way to build up skills that you know are useable in the real world. Trying to pick things up by ear though is a long and often frustrating process. You need the songbooks. There’s obviously a wide variety out there, and just for the names above there are plenty, but it’s worth having a few general songbooks around too, so you can learn a wide variety of material. Hal Leonard’s Country Guitar Chord songbook is a good place to start, and a great way to learn enough to get by the next time someone pulls out a guitar at a party.

Instructional Books

For some more in depth country guitar lessons, there are plenty of specialised instructional books on the market. Hal Leonard’s Fretboard Roadmaps- Country Guitar is a good place to start, as is their 25 Great Country Guitar Solos. Sanctury’s book Hot Country, by Guitar Techniques’ Lee Hodgson, is a great guide for the more advanced player looking to break into the more technically tricky styles of players like Albert Lee and Brent Mason. Covering everything from hybrid picking to chicken picking, it covers most aspects of the “hotter” brands of country with humour and depth.

DVDs

Of course, if you really want to sound like your heroes, seeing how they do it in real time might be a good option. Hot Licks goes so far as to cram half a dozen of them into its Learn Country Guitar With Six Great Masters DVD, with the likes of Danny Gatton, Arlen Roth and the great Adrian Legg teaching lessons on their varied approaches to the style. For a more general introduction, eMedia have put out their 50 Country Guitar Licks You Must Know, which promises to give you all the key phrases you’ll need to nail the style. For some more general country guitar lessons, you could also try the Lick Library Learn Guitar Techniques: Country DVD, by Mel Bay.

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