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

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.

Thanks for being a Premium member of Song Notes! Your support makes these lessons possible.

Download PDF

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.

Lesson Discussion

Jump in the conversation with other members of the Song Notes community! Post a comment about this lesson, ask a question, or even upload a video of your progress. All skill levels welcome!

View Comments

Jump in the conversation with other members of the Song Notes community! Post a comment about this lesson, ask a question, or even upload a video of your progress. All skill levels welcome!

To access the community forum, upgrade to premium or log in.

Zoomed-In Playthroughs

Simplified Version

Only available to Premium members

Upgrade to Premium

Billy’s Version

Only available to Premium members

Upgrade to Premium

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.

Click to Request

Browse Related Lessons

Click any tag below to view other lessons I've made in that category:

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 »

Get Free Lessons Each Week!

Join the 20,000+ readers who get my new lessons dropped in their inbox each week. I teach a fun mix of songs, weekly riffs, practice ideas, and more!

Enjoy my lessons? Buy me a beer!

If this and my other lessons have proven helpful to you, please consider making a one-time donation to my tip jar. Contributions of any amount help make this project possible (including the many, many hours I put into it).

Fun & Helpful Tools I've Made

Fret Monster

Interactive fretboard map! See the patterns behind every scale in any key.

View

Capo Captain

An easy way to calculate key & chord combinations, for any capo location!

View

Subscribe to my YouTube channel

Be sure to never miss a lesson by subscribing on YouTube. I put out 2-3 new videos every week. These include full song lessons, as well as covers, practice tips, behind-the-scenes updates. Thanks!


Recent Lessons

Browse All Recent Lessons →

Browse All My Lessons

By lesson type

By technique

By musical genre

By decade

By musical key

By popular artist


← back to homepage