In this week’s lesson, I’ll show you the step-by-step process of creating a country-inspired solo over G-Bm-C-G with a focus on using melodic double-stops. This helps “fill out” the sound of the solo (since we’re often playing two strings at a time), but also leaves room for melodic phrases that give things a nice character. The inspiration here is “Girl from the North Country” and “The Weight”, both of which use a I-iii-IV-I chord progression.
Timestamps for my main tutorial (top of this page):
Members only. Carefully breaks down the main riff I lead up to in the lesson above. Also includes tips on improvising over the jam track using the G major scale.
Members only. A playthrough of the main riff (looped a few times) with tabs on the screen, for reference.
Here’s the jam track you can use to follow along with this lesson. It repeats the G-Bm-C-G progression for ~5 minutes, using drums/bass/guitar to help provide the tonality and groove. After pressing play, you can jump in anytime — and if you mess up and need a break, you’ll never have to wait long for the next cycle through the progression. Stream below or download mp3 for offline use.
Bob Dylan & Johnny Cash’s version of Girl from the North Country was my original inspiration, having just created a lesson teaching that song. That song likewise uses a G-Bm-C-G chord progression, which is what I’m using in the lesson above.
I should also note that The Weight (by The Band) is another inspiration here – as that song uses the exact same chord progression of I-iii-IV-I. Even though it’s in a different key, you can still hum the verse melody to The Weight using the G-Bm-C-G backing track I use in this lesson. If you want to learn The Weight, watch my video lesson.
Finally, I want to give a shout-out to this cover of Girl from the North Country. Watching the various guitar fills used here help ignite my original inspiration for creating this solo.
Next Lesson: "Star Spangled Banner" in Open Position →
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