Pick it Son! "Country Boy" Slow and Close up Lesson.
Show Me Where I Start!
Albert Lee's Country Boy is a true classic, originally recorded with Head Hands and Feet (1971) and re-recorded on his Album "Hiding" (1979). Here's an easy way for you to learn it, and if you download the free coaching sheets for this challenge (see below) you can see how you measure up against Albert's insanely fast and fluid style!
Like many I learned Country Boy from a tab in the UK's Guitarist Magazine back in the 1980s. I think their article on the song may have tied in with the BBC having broadcast around that time Ricky Skaggs in concert, showcasing his impressive chops on a variety of instruments. Here's his version of Country Boy which seems close to the version I learned.
And here's Albert Lee performing it some years beforehand.
And both of them together!
I may look like a bank teller!
I ended up with a mixture of various versions and although I've never gigged this one it's always remained one of those things of interest as just out of reach to me. Occasionally I return for another look, as in 2010 when I made a video running through the way I'd learned it at 30bpm and with the camera close in.
At the same time I put my skills on this one to the test, playing it at a variety of different speeds to see how it held up. As you can see I ran sadly out of steam before long!
I'm just a <....> at heart!
In the 8 years since I've not really looked at it. Although the intention back then was to finally try and crack it, without the need to do so for gigging purposes the incentive just wasn't strong enough. It's always on the back burner though and should the need ever arise to get it up to gig level I'll be using the Taplature approach to do so!
This week I tried a remake of the slow and close up run through. Here it is, now in glorious Taplature!
Country Boy - Slow and Close Up!
Pushing Facts in a File!
At this speed anyone can learn to play Country Boy. Focus on the awkward bits (beats) individually and there's nothing here you can't do! Notes foot tap and count together program everything into you the way it needs to be to become easy. It's an ideal candidate for monitoring your progress with, and the coaching sheets in the appendix of my free Crash Course in Taplature let you do exactly that with some of the trickier sections of this one.
These free coaching sheets break things down further and let you
track your progress as well as offering further advice.
Watch yourself improve!
Subscribe to the Taplature Blog below to download your Free Crash Course in Taplature showing how to deal with this, or any piece of music you want to learn!
Enjoy!
Old Swanner.
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