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What does a lead player play when they're not playing a solo?!.. no, it's not a joke.. this is a lesson in elevated rhythm playing and creating tasteful, sonic landscapes and textures that complement the song and compel the listener.

A genuinely important lesson.

Materials provided in the zip file below as always. (My backing track is also included)

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Open Chord Tricks! Americana chord study guitar lesson. Elevate basic chords to fancy new levels!

Access all lesson materials by becoming a Patreon at the link below for just a small monthly fee!.. https://patreon.com/AlexFarranGuitar If Patreon isn’t your bag, you can purchase the materials for this lesson alone, directly at the link below; https://smogfalls.gumroad.com/l/qowsj Book in for a private Zoom lesson to level up your playing, or find new inspiration!.. just choose a slot at the link below; https://tidycal.com/alexfarranguitar/guitarlesson Open chords; an often over-looked art-form. The beautiful, natural sustain and the ability to allow notes to easily ring against each other with a bell-like quality is something we should harness and learn to use if we want to be truly great lead guitar players. When you’re not soloing, you’ll be accompanying.. often playing over a rhythm guitarist who will be strumming chords.. so your job is to provide contrast and texture. Arpeggiating your way through some luxurious open chord voicings with added extensions and substitutions is one of the greatest ways of doing so. These things are a powerful tool for any genre, but today we’re focusing on a kind of pop-Americana style as our training ground. So, this is a lesson in elevated rhythm playing and creating tasteful, sonic landscapes and textures that complement the song and compel the listener. Lesson materials will also include my backing track. And as always, stick around til the end for gear talk and recommended listening 👌🏻 ⏱️TIMESTAMPS⏱️ 00:00 - Performance 01:30 - Introduction 02:40 - "A" section breakdown 07:40 - Patreon 08:20 - “A” section summary 09:00 - “B” section breakdown 09:22 - Augmented thoughts 17:05 - “B” section summary 17:49 - “C” section breakdown 23:50 - “C” section summary 24:31 - Playing Philosophy 25:20 - Recommended Listening Videos related to this lesson.. Americana Soul lead study; https://youtu.be/dslvtwpCvk0 Motown & Soul doublestops & tricks; https://youtu.be/x6PFaGEXhLA ------------------------------------------------------------------- Gear used in this video; Karl Longbottom Guitars T16 hollow Emprize Falcon Reverb amp Jam Pedals Harmonious Monk (tremolo pedal) Universal Audio OX - amp top box Universal Audio Apollo Twin X Logic Pro Universal Audio plugins Sony ZVE-10 camera Neewer Desktop Tripod Final Cut Pro Thanks for watching! Alex Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/alexfarranguitar/ Buy me a coffee: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/alexfarran #country #americana #chords #chordstudy #countryguitar #guitarlesson #guitarist #guitarsolo #leadguitar #rhythmguitar #blues #pop #rock #instrumental #motivation #inspiration #telecaster #cleantone #fender #vintage #vintagetone #retro #openchords #martystuart #dannygatton #jimcampilongo #kennyvaughan #emprizeamps #karllongbottomguitars #alexfarran #nashville #motown #stax #soul #muscleshoals #stevecropper #jimihendrix #rhythmguitar #leadguitar #electricguitar #guitarsolo #country #blues #jazz #guitarsolo #guitar #guitarist #music #musician #gibsonguitar #roots #vintageguitar #vintage #1950s #fender #vintageamp #deluxereverb #alexfarran #reggae #guitarlesson #jazzblues #guitarsolo #lesson #inspiration #motivation #soul #americana #country #pop #jazzmaster #sessionguitarist #nashville #surf #ambient #chords #leadguitar #tomwaits #markknopfler #robertplant #alisonkrauss #triads #electricguitar #singersongwriter #telecaster

Comments

Wayne America

Hey Alex...Yes I like this style a lot...played through it no problem without even seeing your video yet. Let me show this to my son as he likes twangy guitar...he is 12 years old and is in his first band...the hammer-on and slide techniques that you have written out will be helpful for him

Alex Farran Guitar

Thanks Wayne, glad you enjoyed it buddy. Yes indeed.. some good fundamentals to get your son into here. Glad to hear he's into guitar too!

George Nichols

You hit the ball out of the ballpark with this one.Good job!

MarkF

I am putting this lesson in the top 5 from you which says a lot because all your material is top notch, but this lesson went straight to my heart and can’t wait to get going-just going surfing first on my vacation ha ha 🤙

Alex Farran Guitar

That’s so cool Mark! Thanks for saying so! Glad you enjoyed it so much. Go have fun surfing buddy! 👌🏻🍻😎

David

Wonderful lesson and great reminder that understated open chord melodies are so full and beautiful. This lesson hits the sweet spot for me to be playable within my current abilities while learning so much, and being the type of music I'm super interested in playing. So good & thanks! – David

Randy Yount

At first I thought this was too simple but the more I play it the cooler it gets. This is a great lesson and would love more content like this. In my quest to learn all things guitar I've forgotten how wonderful open chord voicings can be.

Alex Farran Guitar

I’m glad to hear that Randy. Certainly many things to explore within the world of open chords. A lot of secret moves that take a surprising amount of finesse to pull off cleanly. Something we can all dig into and learn from for sure 👌🏻

Ron Bogdanoff

Very nice. For what ever reason I never did anything with open chords, I will give this a go!

Gert De Groof

Great lesson Alex. I love open chords, especially those low string triads. Indeed often overlooked, so nice to have some one go in depth on these to unlock the full potential. And I can feel my ears open up on to more country sounds as well 😀. Take care man, keep on keeping on, loving every lesson and soaking ‘em in! Just finished ‘girl from ipanema’, just lovely.

Alex Farran Guitar

Great stuff Gert, glad you’re getting into this stuff too! Open chord playing like this is definitely essential 👍🏻

Steve Mayle

Thanks for this, having great fun learning it. Very David Rawlings!

Alex Farran Guitar

Glad you're enjoying it Steve. David Rawlings you say?.. interesting!.. I plan to do an acoustic lesson on his playing soon actually so do keep an eye out for that one! ;)

Matthew Casey

I am surprised at how much I needed to work on my right hand for this song, mostly getting even pressure for example, I was not hearing the difference moving from the major to the minor enough and adjusted my playing.

Alex Farran Guitar

That's so good to hear Matthew!.. it's amazing how many of us could do with refining our open position chords in order to clean them up. Good work 👌🏻

Zohar

Just wrapping up putting all the parts together - such a wonderful lesson, and such evocative expression of sounds out of seemingly "simple" chords. I loved every bit of it. took me more than a couple of days to get everything under my fingers, and I feel I need to go through it again just to better understand the harmonic logic of it all! so many nuances, and so clearly explained! A true treasure.

Alex Farran Guitar

Thanks for the comment my friend, I greatly appreciate that! So happy that you’ve enjoyed working on it! 🙏🏻

Michel

so beautiful

antoine NIOI

Yeah so beautiful … I try to play this piece with the same feeling.. I.ve learned a lot thing with this video with just three major chords

David Lockwood

Thank you Alex. Another great workout today Burning the old midnight oil but I'm getting there slowly!