Country Rhythm

Good country rhythm guitar makes a band sound like a band. In this chapter you learn the patterns that hold up country, bluegrass and Americana songs, using open chords in G, C, D and friends.

You start with boom-chick, the bass note and short strum that lets you play the bass player and the snare drum at once, with alternating bass notes. Then you add bass walkups that announce each chord change, and the train beat, a stream of muted scratches that drives a song like a locomotive. Hybrid picking comes next: the pick takes the bass while your middle and ring fingers snap the treble strings. The chapter ends with fills in sixths, sweet steel-guitar-style double-stops between chords.

Every exercise is a tab that plays in your browser with a click, and the tempo ladder takes you from a comfortable start to the target bpm. A checkpoint closes each lesson. By the end you'll know how to play country rhythm guitar with a steady backbeat, smooth chord changes and fills that still land the next bass note on time.