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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
Lesson Discussion
Zoomed-In Playthroughs
Simplified Version
Billy’s Version
Related Lessons
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:
Interested in a Full Lesson for Lonely At The Top?
If you’d like me to make a full video lesson for Lonely At The Top – along with a print-friendly song sheet including all the lyrics/chords/etc - let me know! If enough folks request it, I’ll bump it toward the top of the list.
Browse Related Lessons
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About Song Notes
Hey there! My name is David Potsiadlo, and I'm the creator of the 400+ weekly lessons here at Song Notes, going back to 2013. Here’s my guitar story »
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