Music Lesson: Road to Nashville

The next piece we're going to look at is Road to Nashville. This is a country-inspired tune.

Setup

For this, we're using a really clean tone and we're going to use our bridge pickup. This might be:

• Your pickup selector all the way down, or
• On this guitar, the Telecaster, all the way to the right.

Understanding the Notes and Rhythm

Line One

• The notes are quite simple in terms of pitch, but the rhythm is what's going to catch us out.
• The first note is a dotted half note.

As mentioned previously, a dotted note is the note length plus half.

• So if we see a dotted half note, that's:

  • 2 beats plus half of 2, which is 1.
  • Therefore, that note lasts for 3 beats.

• We're playing this as a C on the A string.

  • Fret: 3
  • Followed by an open D.

Bar Two

In bar two, we're coming to regular half notes. We know this because they're not dotted, so they're going to last for 2 beats.

• Here we're playing:
  • E (fret 2)
  • F (fret 3)

It's really important to use our one finger per fret technique.

Playing Together

If we play those first few bars together, it sounds like this:

1, 2, 3, 4.
1, 2, 3, 4.
1, 2, 3, 4.

Bar Three

In bar three, we have:

• Half notes and two quarter notes.
• We're going to play an E (second fret), then an F (third fret), followed by an open D.

1, 2, 3, 4.

• Finish off with that C on the A string (fret 3):
  • This lasts for 2 beats, followed by a 2-beat rest.

1, 2, 3, 4.

Practicing the Rhythms

Take some time to work on those rhythms at home, one bar at a time.

• When you feel comfortable, try to stick bar one to bar two, bar three to bar four.
• Once you're ready with that, let's try it slowly together.

1, 2, 3, 4.
1, 2, 3, 4.
1, 2, 3, 4.
1, 2, 3, 4.
1, 2, 3, 4.

Understanding the Rests

In line two, we see the rest move from beat to beat in each bar:

• In bar two, the rest is on beat two.
• In bar three, the rest is on beat three.
• In bar four, the rest is on beat four.

This gradually gets later and later in the bar. This might take some time to count.

We'll clap through it together and you can take some time at home to get really comfortable.

Clapping Rhythms

Here we go from the start:
1, 2, 3, 4.
1, 2, 3, 4.
1, 2, 3, 4.
1, 2, 3, 4.
1, 2, 3, 4.

Practicing Line Four

The notes are quite simple.

• We're using:
  • Our middle finger to play the second fret, and
  • Our third finger at the end to play the C on the A string (fret 3).

Playing Line Four Together

• Here we go:
  • E to G and A back to the open G string.
  • Rest.
  • G, E, open D.
  • Rest, open D again to C.

Let's play that line together, nice and steady.

1, 2, 3, 4.
1, 2, 3, 4.
1, 2, 3, 4.
1, 2, 3, 4.
1, 2, 3, 4.

Overview of Line Three

Line three should be quite simple for us now.

• We've got a mix of half notes and quarter notes with a half note rest at the end.

We've gone through a lot harder than this in our stylistic studies, so you should be able to get this under your fingers quite quickly.

We're playing on the B string to start with:

• C, D, and C again.

In bar two, we go down to the G string with a second fret to the open G.

• In bar three, we have quarter notes on the G string going G, G, A, and G.

I suggest playing this with alternate picking:

• This is going to be down, up, down, up.

Remember to keep the movement really small and try to stay as close to the string as possible.

Final Notes in Line Three

• Our last note, the half note, is an E (the second fret on the D string).

1, 2, 3, 4.
1, 2, 3, 4.
1, 2, 3, 4.
1, 2, 3, 4.
1, 2, 3, 4.

Revisiting Line Four

You can see line four starts exactly the same as line one:

• We've got the C, lasting for a dotted half note (three beats), followed by D.

1, 2, 3.

• Then we have E to F (fret 2 on the D string to fret 3 on the D string).

1, 2.

• We have an open G string for two beats, followed by two beats of rest.

1, 2.

Finishing off with that C chord we've learned in previous examples:

• Playing the first fret on the B string, strumming down from the G string.

Important Technique

The key here is to stay on your fingertips so that all strings are ringing out clearly. This lasts for two beats, so remember to mute the strings with your palm and fingers to kill the note off.

1, 2, 3, 4.

Final Thoughts

Again, work this through bar by bar, line by line.

• Stick it together gradually.
• When you feel ready, let's give it a go with the backing track.