Pentatonic Fun with Billy Strings' "Lonely At The Top" Riff

Lesson #496 • Jun 2, 2023

Hey there, friends! New lesson today looking at Billy Strings’ amazing cover of Lonely At The Top, where I’ll show you exactly how he tackles that intro riff he plays during the intro & before each verse. It’s a perfect marriage of simplicity and nuance, where he takes two chords, a handful of notes from the A major pentatonic scale, and creates something that’s greater than the sum of its parts.

In addition to showing you exactly how Bill plays the riff, I’ll also show a simplified version which outlines the backbone of things. This will let you get up and running even if you’re a bit earlier in your lead guitar journey. Special thanks to Song Notes member JoAnn for sending in this riff as a lesson request!

  • 0:00 Overview
  • 0:49 Chords & Context
  • 1:39 Simplified Version
  • 7:05 Billy’s Version
  • 14:06 Final Advice

Instructional PDF 2 pages

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Follow along with the print-friendly PDF!

It includes all of my notes for this lesson, allowing you to follow along at your own pace. You're free to download, print, and share the PDF across your devices.

To download the PDF, upgrade to premium or log in.

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Zoomed-In Playthroughs

Simplified Version

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Billy’s Version

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Here’s all the lessons I mention in my video tutorial. If you’re looking for help with chords in general, check out my Beginner Chord Guide course – which has a huge amount of helpful content.

Additional Videos

Billy Strings acoustic cover. He starts playing at 25 seconds in.

Jamey Johnson’s original recording:

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