Electric Muted Bass Notes and Percussive Chords

This lesson focuses on broadening the scope of skills and techniques used for electric rhythm Country guitar. There many elements we can pull together beyond purely technique based guitar, such as rhythm ideas and alternate chord voices and then actually blending ideas together as is demonstrated below in the last example of this lesson!

Muted Bass Notes and Percussive Chords

The objective for this technique is to learn to create a tight, percussive rhythm with muted bass notes.

Technique: Play bass notes with a slight mute by resting the palm of your picking hand on the strings near the bridge. Add extra staccato by picking harder and "bouncing" the chord shape—lifting your fingers slightly off the fretboard and placing them back down quickly.

Exercise: Practice alternating between muted bass notes and short, percussive chord strums before doing both techniques together. Start slowly and build up speed being sure that the notes have clarity even though they are muted as this maintains control.

Triad-Based Rhythm Parts

Objective: Create more interesting rhythm parts using triads on the upper strings. These triads highlight the bed of chords laid down by an acoustic, common in a Country music context.

Technique: Use triads on the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd strings. For example, an A triad using the D shape on fret 9.

Exercise: To make even more interesting, play a rhythm pattern starting on beat 2 and then on the 'and' of beat 3 for a syncopated feel. Practice this across different triads (A, D, E) to work through chord changes

A D E

Altering Triads to 7th Chords

Objective: Add further variation to triads by turning them into 7th 'chords'!

Technique: Identify the root note in a triad and move it 2 frets down to find the flat 7th, converting it to a 7th chord (e.g., moving from an A triad to an A7 sound (still just 3 notes).

Exercise: Practice this technique with different triads over the D and E chords in this chord progression and focus on changing between major and 7th shapes smoothly.

A D E

Country Riffs and Licks Around Barre Chords

Objective: Learn to build country-style riffs and licks using barre chord shapes or using a barre chord as a reference shape.

Technique: Hammer on from major to minor notes, incorporating double stops and triads around barre chords for shape reference.

Exercise: Create simple licks around the A major barre chord, then shift them through the 12-bar blues progression (A, D, E). Focus on a 'less-is-more' approach at first to add fluidity and more easily integrate these licks into your rhythm playing

Blending Techniques for a Rockabilly sound (Advanced)

Objective: Combine rhythm, chickin'/hybrid picking, and alternating bass notes. Experiment more with hammer-ons, and pull-offs to add character.

We can start to blend techniques to create a dynamic and varied rhythm part once they have become second nature in our playing.

Use hybrid picking (pick and fingers together) for a "chickin’ pickin’" effect! This adds an 'attack' from the way the fingers pluck the strings that a pick can achieve - plus, the pick in this technique is already playing bass notes, so the fingers can access notes we can't otherwise get to. Experiment more with hammer-ons, and pull-offs to add character!