This course looks at the core elements of Americana music with a primary focus towards Country guitar playing. Americana covers a wide variety of styles from country, folk and gospel to rock and blues. This course focuses primarily on the country elements but will incorporate elements from the other styles. You’ll get to elevate your technique with great licks, chord voicings, hybrid picking and more. It will be a weekend full of playing, great take away materials and will leave you tired and inspired.
Americana and Country music have a distinct sound that resonates across so much of the modern music, especially for guitarists. Even if you’ve not been playing for many years, the likelihood that you’ve played some of the styles key hallmarks, is likely. A lot of the elements are transferable to other styles and that’s why putting time into studying Americana music is so useful. The knowledge you can gain really helps your approach to both practice, jamming with friends and live environments.
The guitar techniques and underlying know-how Gary will look at will include strumming, rhythms, chord choices, flat-picking, fingerpicking, approaches to lead guitar and much more.
This course looks at a number of songs which fuse together Americana and country. As part of learning these songs we’ll explore and dissect the techniques for each genre and delve into how they blend together.
At a glance
Americana Guitar covers numerous styles from blues, country and rock, to folk and bluegrass. Our primary focus will be the country style and from that you can expect to cover driving rhythms, Bluegrass, Western swing licks, chicken pickin’, flat-picking, banjo rolls, double stops, play-the-changes lead approaches and much more. If you’re new to country guitar, think: Rev. Gary Davis, Blind Blake, Elizabeth Cotton, Mississippi John Hurt, Doc Watson, Merle Travis, Chet Atkins, James Burton, Jerry Reed, Brad Paisley and many, many more (check them out).
But should time allow, we will also have the opportunity to look at other areas such as blues, gospel and bluegrass. Americana combines elements of many styles to create a deverse array of music. It’s an expansive genre and there are many songs that can be explored and learned; we’ll cover songs from legendary artists and more modern exponents alike.
It’s important to emphasise that a lot of the skills learned can be transferred to other songs in other genres. The songs will probably be based on guitar-friendly keys using open chords but barre chords will undoubtedly come into play as well.
It goes without saying, our tutor might need to tweak the contents and/or flow of the course to reflect the overall standard and objectives of the group.
We advise bringing as little as possible. An acoustic or electric guitar with a small amp and basic pedals is perfect. You don’t need multiple guitars, large amps or lots of pedals. The more you bring, the more time you need to set up and pack down. The weekend is all about playing.
Beginner+ to intermediate acoustic and electric players
The course will start off with the basics and gradually layer the complexities of techniques to allow Beginner+ and Intermediate levels to be able to play along together comfortably.
There’ll be lots of open chords and strumming covered for rhythm guitarists mixed in with lead guitar techniques and maybe some fingerstyle solo pieces.
Beginner+ Can strum open chords with a plectrum and be able to change between them reasonably well.
Intermediate Can play basic barre chords and have some knowledge of using major and minor pentatonic scales.
In any case, there’ll be enough in this course to stretch one and all. Acoustic and electric guitar players are welcome, as are bass players.
There’s something for everyone in all our courses and the materials really help – see below.
For more information:
There are a number of ways of attending our courses: residential, non-residential and sharing with a spouse/partner.
Our price for players is all-inclusive:
Our prices for:
Check out the venue by clicking on the name in the sidebar above. If you have any specific requirements about staying at the venue click ENQUIRE and we’ll see if we can help.
Click ENQUIRE and we can arrange a follow-up call to chat.
Our weekend courses are teaching/playing guitar-fests but they’re paced to suit the group so they’re as much about having fun and enjoying a sociable time with fellow hobby players.
Playing together as a group is the best, and most enjoyable, way of learning and experiencing music. The courses have limited numbers to ensure the correct tutor-to-group ratio – book early to avoid disappointment.
Make a weekend of it!