These lessons will walk you through the form of the song rather than a list of licks. The form is the key to learning this masterpiece. The solo will also be covered along with a few of the electric guitar fills. Mastering these lessons will guarantee your spot in the next Smokey and the Bandit sequel.

In this series of lessons, We'll teach you the enduring country classic Help Me Make It Through The Night, written by Kris Kristofferson and made famous in this version by Johnny Cash. You'll learn the opening riff, the chords of the verses and choruses, about the fills between the vocals, the boom-chick rhythms, and then have two playalongs to cap it all off.

This tutorial was inspired by the other prebending tutorial, and also by the the string bending tutorials. You learned how to prebend in the last tutorial, the licks I played here show you how to use the concept. Most players prebend strings at one time or another, and use this concept to add to their string bending techniques.

Red Wing is an old American traditional fiddle tune which for this tutorial series has been arranged and adapted to the guitar. This arrangement greatly takes advantage of the use of hammers and pulloffs in order to play it. The learner will understand the differences between split string and adjacent string pulloffs.

This tutorial was inspired by the other string bending tutorials, to show you another trick to use when bending strings. Most players prebend strings, and often use this concept in conjunction with their string bending. Many of the bending combinations used in country recordings are put together bending strings, and then prebending in the next position.

I have received e-mails from subscribers requesting more lessons on double-stops similar to what was done on the lesson for the Wabash Cannonball. This song Wildwood Flower is the next in the series.

Double-stops are used a lot, not only in country playing but in blues, jazz, and rock as well. Becoming familiar with how to use double stops will bring the learner closer to realizing his guitar playing goals.

This tutorial breaks the classic country staple down to its basic elements: Great boom-chick strumming, hooks that sell millions of records (or downloads for you net savvy hipsters), and well-crafted harmony guitars. Let's get to it!

I will explain several uses for the Baritone Electric Guitar. Some are classic licks you've heard but didn't know what "that sound" was coming from. Many of the lessons here will show what other uses a Baritone like the one I built, and used for this video are good for, from tic tac bass, to tremelo licks heard on many new country and rock records.

This tutorial was inspired by a young man that asked how to get started hybrid picking. I showed him a couple of chords, and explained the concept of root/5 to him. Then I decided to post a lesson like this, and got some messages saying how helpful it was. They asked me to do some more chords this way, so I put the other lessons together. I'm not using any muting techniques in these, we'll get int...

This would be a good ending for a solo in the key of G, or it would be a good intro if you're doing a turn around. There are a lot of classic country songs that have a 1, 5, 1 turn around for an intro. This can also be used in today's country, but probably not as an intro. The bends in this are prebent, this means the string is actually bent before you play it. After playing the string, then yo...

Nashville pickers have played triplets in solos for a long time now, they sound great when you're picking something fast. It's not just a country thing either, but the way I did it here fits today's country sound. You can start a solo with this, or finish one with it. It can be used as a fill lick, and will also make a great ending. All of the notes on the 6th string are played with the pick...

This lick is the main riff for the Ramblin song. It's been used in other songs as well but this set of lessons is all about the 1/2 time groove. Heavy syncopated backbeat guitar over a 2/4 bass line, and 4 to the floor half time drums make this main riff stand out. This example is intermediate. I will also post the way I usually play it live and on the Bendegos CD as an alternative to this les...

This is an opening riff to a song I recorded for the Bendegos album. Its a classic 4 to the floor country song vibe, with a bit of syncopation. You can use the basic idea for several other things, in solos, as an outtro. It's a cool lick you can split up, and make a rhythm part out of the first half. It starts with a pull off in the key of C on the G string, I often use this style in rhythm ...

This is the introduction video for the Country Primer 2 Course.