Truefire Jason Loughlin's Trading Solos Country

In this Country edition of Trading Solos with Jason Loughlin, you’ll jam together over five frequently encountered country grooves, in a variety of keys and feels including Classic Country, Country Shuffle, Country Boogie, Outlaw Country, and Two-Beat Country. Along the way, Jason will share an essential variety of go-to country soloing approaches, comping techniques, and other key concepts to help you develop a versatile country vocabulary.

”One of the best ways to improve your playing is to jam with others. When you're playing rhythm, you get to see how it affects the soloist and how someone else's rhythm playing inspires you to solo. In this course, we're gonna jam together over five traditional country styles in a variety of keys. I'll start by sharing some tone tips to help you get a great sound, and for each of the five grooves, I'll show you three soloing concepts and two rhythmic approaches. Then, we'll take turns applying those ideas, trading solos and comping for each other.”

For each of the five grooves, Jason will show you a handful of licks and comping approaches that you can use. Then, you'll take turns applying those ideas, trading solos, and comping.

Track 1: Classic Country
”Our first track is a classic country track in the key of G. The progression is G-G-G-G-A7-D7-G-G. We'll go around two times for solos. Our comping will be relatively simple and our soloing will be more limited to flatpicking, legato lines, and simple chord voicings. The acoustic guitar is really driving the rhythm, so we have to make sure we're complimenting that. Our second approach will use lap steel voicings. The first soloing idea is to use the lap steel voicings we were comping with as a solo technique. Our second soloing idea is the use of diminished chords. Our last idea is a turn off of chord tones. After working through all of the comping and soloing ideas, we’ll jam and trade solos over the track together.”

Track 2: Country Shuffle
”We’ll trade solos over a country shuffle in the key of D. Our progression is D-D-G-G-A-A-D-D. You can hear we have a walking bass line and a strong upbeat feel. This makes this style unique and will certainly inform our ideas. It's a short progression, so we'll go two times through the progression for our solos. Our first comping approach is to play triads on the upbeats. The second comping approach is to play on the backbeats with double-stops on the top two strings. Our first lick is based out of a triad. The next lick is a IV/I, IV/IV and IV/V. To do this, you have to think of each chord you're playing over as its own tonal center. The last lick is a classic pedal steel lick. The lick is something you play to lead you into a chord change, not on a chord change. After working through all of the comping and soloing ideas, we’ll jam and trade solos over the track together.“

Track 3: Country Boogie
”Let's jam on a country boogie in the key of E! Our progression is E-E-E-E-A-A-A-A-B-B-B-B-E-E-E-E. This is based loosely on boogie-woogie piano, so anything we can do to hint at piano concepts is only going to enhance the style. Listen to how the bass line moves - we'll be lining our comping ideas up with it. Our first comping approach is a bass ostinato. In its simplest version, it's E-C#-B-C# all on the beat. Another comping approach is to play a boogie line with a pedal tone on the upbeats. Our pattern will be E-G#-B-C# or root-3rd-5th-6th. Our first soloing idea is to imitate a piano roll. We do this by starting on the root and then with an upstroke plucking the root, the 6th on the next string and pulling off to the 5th. The next lick is a six-note pattern played with eighth notes so the accent shifts. The pattern is b3rd-3rd-5th-b3rd-3rd-6th. The last soloing idea is a little more complicated. We'll be using triad inversions for this one. The idea is that the root will act as a pedal, and the 3rd and 5th will move up or down chromatically to lead to a dom 7th voicing or a lower inversion of the triad. After working through all of the comping and soloing ideas, we’ll jam and trade solos over the track together.”

Track 4: Outlaw Country
”This jam is going to be over an outlaw style track in B with a halftime feel. The progression is B-B-A-E-B-B-B-B-A-E-B-B-B-B-A-E-B-B-B-B-A-E-F#-F#. This is a longer form than we've soloing over, and you can also hear that this isn't a common I-IV-V progression: the second chord is a bVII. Listen to the bassline figure - this is something we can bring attention to in our comping. When soloing over these outlaw country tunes, we want to lean a little heavier into the blues. Our first soloing idea is going to focus on the tritone that happens between the b3rd and 6th when you combine the major and minor pentatonic. Another approach is to consistently target a chord tone. For this example, I'm picking the 3rd but the root and 5th work great too. This also helps tie things together for the listener. The last soloing idea is to bend double stops. I'm picking different double stops and starting a half step below and then bending up to pitch. After working through all of the comping and soloing ideas, we’ll jam and trade solos over the track together.”

Track 5: Two-Beat Country
”This jam is a two-beat country feel in the key of A. The progression is A-A-A-A-D-D-A-A-E-D-A-A. For this style, just about every country technique sounds good. Our first comping approach is a simple boom-chick rhythm. The idea is that we have an alternating bass line and on the backbeats we have a double-stop. Our second pattern is based on the working man blues pattern. The first lick is a hybrid picking lick. We start on the double stop of b3rd and 5th of the A chord by grabbing them with our middle and ring fingers. The next lick is bending lick that comes out of the template of a third. The top note stays stationary, but we can approach the bottom note from either a half-step or diatonic step below. The last lick is a bluegrass inspired lick. We start on the 5th and walk-down chromatically to the 4th. Then, we play b3rd, 3rd, root, 6th, 5th and root. You can repeat any part of this, add bends, slides, rhythmic variation...it's just a template. After working through all of the comping and soloing ideas, we’ll jam and trade solos over the track together.”

Jason will explain and demonstrate all of the key concepts and approaches along the way. You’ll get standard notation and tabs. Plus, Jason includes all of the backing tracks for you to work with on your own. In addition, you’ll be able to loop or slow down any of the videos so that you can work with the lessons at your own pace.

Grab your guitar and let’s trade solos with Jason Loughlin!