Country Guitar
Country guitar on electric means chicken picking, hybrid picking, pedal steel bends and a clean, twangy tone through a Telecaster or similar single-coil guitar. The technique crosses over with blues and rockabilly but adds its own vocabulary of double stops, banjo rolls adapted for guitar and behind-the-nut bends.
Even if country is not your main genre, the picking technique you build here will make you a better player in every other style.
Songs to Start With
Brad Paisley 1
Johnny Cash 1
Country Guitar Essentials
The tone is clean or barely overdriven, usually from the bridge pickup of a Telecaster-style guitar through a Fender-style amp. Hybrid picking (holding the pick normally while using the middle and ring fingers to pluck higher strings) is the core technique that separates country guitar from everything else.
Ring of Fire is a beginner-friendly entry. Brad Paisley's material takes you into intermediate and advanced territory with fast hybrid-picked runs. Related styles: Southern Rock, Blues.