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Lesson 1 of 3

Étude 1: Porch Light Sunday

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Porch Light Sunday is your first full country piece: 16 bars in G major at an easy, relaxed tempo. It uses only what you already know from Country Rhythm and Country Lead, all in open position.

The form

  • Intro (2 bars): a G major pentatonic phrase that climbs to high G and comes back down to the low G.
  • Verse (4 bars, played twice): boom-chick over G, C and D, with a walkup G, A, B into the C chord.
  • Solo (4 bars): an open-position melody over the same chords. Twice it hammers the b3 (Bb) onto the major third (B), the sound that makes a lick country.
  • Outro (2 bars): a C chord walking down C, B, A to a final strummed G.

That's 2 + 8 + 4 + 2 = 16 bars.

Tips

  • Bass notes on the beat with a downstroke, chord stabs short and light.
  • For the hammer-on from the 3rd to the 4th fret on the G string (G3h4), use ring finger then pinky; for the one from fret 1 to fret 2 on the A string (A1h2), index then middle.
  • Let the walkup notes ring right into the next chord.
  • Use a flatpick throughout; hybrid picking comes in the next études.

It should sound bouncy and unhurried, like someone strumming on the porch.

The common mistake is a hiccup between sections: a tiny pause while you think about what comes next. The beat never stops. The last note of each section leads straight into the first note of the next one.

How to practice

Learn each section on its own at 60 bpm until it's clean, then raise it toward 100. Then chain pairs: intro into verse, verse into solo, solo into outro. Finally play the whole piece start to finish with the metronome at 80-90 bpm, and keep going through mistakes.

Exercises

Intro: open G pentatonic pickup

60 → 100 bpm
  1. Bar 1
    1. G string, open
    2. G string, fret 2
    3. B string, open
    4. B string, fret 3
    5. high E string, open
    6. high E string, fret 3, vibrato
    7. rest
  2. Bar 2
    1. high E string, open
    2. B string, fret 3
    3. B string, open
    4. G string, fret 2
    5. G string, open
    6. D string, open
    7. low E string, fret 3, hold

Clean 3 times in a row? Raise the tempo by 5 bpm.

Verse: boom-chick over G, C and D

60 → 100 bpm
  1. Bar 1
    1. low E string, fret 3
    2. G string, open + B string, open + high E string, fret 3
    3. D string, open
    4. G string, open + B string, open + high E string, fret 3
  2. Bar 2
    1. low E string, fret 3
    2. G string, open + B string, open + high E string, fret 3
    3. A string, open
    4. A string, fret 2
  3. Bar 3
    1. A string, fret 3
    2. D string, fret 2 + G string, open + B string, fret 1 + high E string, open
    3. low E string, fret 3
    4. D string, fret 2 + G string, open + B string, fret 1 + high E string, open
  4. Bar 4
    1. D string, open
    2. G string, fret 2 + B string, fret 3 + high E string, fret 2
    3. A string, open
    4. G string, fret 2 + B string, fret 3 + high E string, fret 2

Clean 3 times in a row? Raise the tempo by 5 bpm.

Solo: open-position melody with the b3

60 → 100 bpm
  1. Bar 1
    1. G string, fret 2
    2. G string, fret 3, hammer-on to fret 4
    3. B string, fret 3
    4. high E string, open
    5. high E string, fret 3
    6. high E string, open
    7. B string, fret 3
  2. Bar 2
    1. B string, fret 1
    2. B string, fret 3
    3. B string, fret 1
    4. G string, fret 2
    5. G string, open
    6. G string, fret 2
    7. G string, open
    8. D string, fret 2
  3. Bar 3
    1. D string, open
    2. D string, fret 2
    3. G string, open
    4. G string, fret 2
    5. B string, fret 3, hold
    6. B string, fret 1
    7. G string, fret 2
  4. Bar 4
    1. G string, open
    2. D string, open
    3. A string, fret 2
    4. A string, open
    5. A string, fret 1, hammer-on to fret 2
    6. low E string, fret 3, hold

Clean 3 times in a row? Raise the tempo by 5 bpm.

Outro: walk down to the final G

60 → 100 bpm
  1. Bar 1
    1. A string, fret 3
    2. D string, fret 2 + G string, open + B string, fret 1 + high E string, open
    3. A string, fret 2
    4. A string, open
  2. Bar 2
    1. low E string, fret 3 + A string, fret 2 + D string, open + G string, open + B string, open + high E string, fret 3, hold, hold
    2. rest

Clean 3 times in a row? Raise the tempo by 5 bpm.

Checkpoint

Move on when you can do all of these.

  • Each section clean at 100 bpm, 4 times in a row
  • The whole piece, start to finish, at 90 bpm without stopping
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