This is a country shuffle inspired by Nashville monsters Vince Gill and Brent Mason. There are plenty of country techniques to work on in this one, from unison lines to licks, country bends and . If you are new to the style, it’s probably worth outlining just what some of these techniques are and how you go about playing them.
First, unisons. These are very common in country and this is where you play a fretted note then follow it with its open-string counterpart, keeping both notes ringing as much as possible. You’ll see this in the fifth bar where I start with a G on the fourth string, follow it with the open third string, then play the fourth string G again.
This sounds very different from playing a note multiple times on the same string and hints at the ringing qualities of a pedal steel. Double-stop licks are when you simultaneously fret two notes on adjacent or non-adjacent strings. Many of us have done this on , but in country, the aim is to move the double-stops around and create a melodic lick out of them.
You’ll see the first double-stop lick in the bars 9 and 10. When working on this technique, make sure both fingers are holding the double-stop in place evenly, as you’re aiming for both notes to sound with an even volume. Hybrid picking means using a combination of pick and fingers, and sometimes it’s done for tonal benefit.
You can hybrid pick double-stop licks, the pick taking care of the lower note and the second finger playing the note above. The tech.