Hello from Indiana

[Terry W]

Hi guys,

I just signed up and wanted to introduce myself.

I’m 68 years old and have been playing acoustic since I was 14, so I’m not a beginner. I’m not a star either by any stretch of the imagination, however.

I’m mailnly a rhythm player, and singer who is trying to learn some licks, lead, intros,, mainly solos, etc. on acoustic guitar

Nashville and Bakersfield Sound country music is my main interest, but I can also do some soft rock.

While I’m not opposed to learning some theory, I’m really wanting to learn specific songs that I can cover in solos. It doesn’t seem to me that Active Melody is geared toward teaching specific songs, however. Or, is there a hidden feature, or process? Perhaps Brian puts together lessons for specific songs?

Thanks All. Happy to be here.

Terry W.
Evansville, Indiana

[Michael Krailo]

Welcome aboard the AM learning platform.

You are right, there is no teaching of specific songs to memorize here. The main issue is copyright violations that Brian has chosen to not deal with. The whole idea is to learn how to play any of the most common genera’s except for those few weird ones. All the skills to play your desired genera are definitely taught here. You can look through all the country lessons to find what you like, but there are many other genera’s that have skills taught that you can use in country or any other genera. So don’t discount other lessons.

That said, there are many country based compositions that teach many great licks and theory along the way. If you are a rhythm player, you would already know how to play barre chords and play common progressions. For adding lead or licks off of chords, that just requires understanding what key a song is in and what scales are used.

Brian teaches the CAGED system and shows how the various scales fit into each caged shape. That all takes some time to learn, but it’s well worth it if you want to play lead or improvise over any chord progression.

Country makes use of a lot of double stops, so make sure you learn about harmonized 3rds and 6ths. Many lessons on that and anyone can help you on the forums here if you have specific questions.

The basic theory is covered in the My Courses section. Just hover over the My Account link up at the top and there should be a menu item called My Courses.

Also if you would be so kind to fill out your profile by clicking on the My Account link. That way in the future, anyone can get an overview of your current skill level, gear that you have, etc…

Root note patterns >>> CAGED shapes >>> TRIAD'S. Just put in the work and watch your guitar skills soar.

[San Luis Rey]

Welcome to AM Terry. While there is no hidden feature to learn specific songs, your goal to learn licks ,leads, intros and soloing on acoustic guitar is all well covered here. The emphasis here is more on improvisation. Look under lesson catagories and search “In the Style Of” or anything that appeals to you to get going. The forum is a good place check if you have any questions.
Best wishes ,
Mike

Mike

[sunjamr]

Hi Terry, you’re a relative youngster here on the AM forum. I’ve been a member for 10 years, probably less skilled than you when I joined. I knew the cowboy chords, but I couldn’t sing with a voice that anyone would want to listen to. So there was no point in me learning any hit “songs”. So I started to learn improv guitar, and thanks to Brian’s lessons, I can sit down and just jam along with anyone or any backing track. But still to this day, friends come over and want to play something with me, However, none of them can play anything but a few “songs” they have learned by rote memorization, and often they only know how to play the famous intro, or maybe a famous guitar lick in the middle of a song. Smoke on the Water, Stairway to Heaven intro, maybe some newer stuff. As we know, the easiest thing to jam to is a 12-bar blues in E or A, but they can’t even do that. If you want to just learn more songs for your repertoire, head on over to justinguitar.com, because that’s all that Justin Sandercoe does, and he does a very good job of breaking down the chords and licks for thousands of famous songs. But here’s a question for you to ponder: Why do you only want to play someone else’s songs? Why not create your own? You’ll probably answer “I’m not creative enough to do that”. And my answer would be: “But if you learned to play improv, you would be.” Improv = creativity.

Sunjamr Steve

[Michael Krailo]

We can certainly give him some pointers if we knew what songs he was referring to. Just pick one of them to start with.

Root note patterns >>> CAGED shapes >>> TRIAD'S. Just put in the work and watch your guitar skills soar.

[Terry W]

Hey guys, thanks for the replies. No problem, I certainly understand the copyright situation, but I hadn’t thought about it; thanks Krailo.

I’m already working on Willie Nelson style EP263.

As far as the specific songs, yes, I can find others on yourtube (that’s a Hillbilly’s You Tube LOL)

Thanks again, and I’m sure I’ll be asking for more help in the forums.

Nice to meet you all.

~Terry

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