TrueFire’s Born In The USA TUTORIAL

The Ultimate Roots-Americana Course
Born In The USA is a collection of TrueFire lessons curated by Guitar World Editor-in-Chief Damian Fanelli. Damian’s selection of lessons from top TrueFire educators is designed to give you the tools you’ll need to switch back and forth with confidence when treading those most American of genres — bluegrass, country, and blues (and almost everything in between)!

”I’ve played a myriad of styles during my decades of guitarism, but what really gives me goosebumps these days (like, literally while I’m playing guitar) is a crafty bluegrass run or country lick that can be incorporated into a rock or blues solo — or vice versa. Luckily, TrueFire is teaming with lessons by talented guitarists who can help you become an “inter-genre-ational” player!

We kick things off with Tyler Grant introducing some handy bluegrass licks in G (“the bluegrassiest of all keys”). It’s easy to imagine where you’d “go from here” while building a solo over I-IV-V changes (or similar changes in that neck of the woods) when starting with these licks. I suggest checking out Tyler Grant’s other lessons — if only to see how perfectly level he holds his Martin!

From bluegrass, we take the very short trip to country guitar — with Jason Loughlin as our guide. Now we’re getting into that goosebump-inducing stuff I mentioned in my intro — clever, magnetic licks that make longtime pentatonic players scream, “I need to know how to do that!” Which is funny because Study 1 in particular is very pentatonic indeed. When I hear these licks, especially Study 2, I picture them with some nice slap-echo in a rockabilly setting, where they’d sound equally killer.

Then we make a pit stop — and catch our breath — somewhere between country and blues with Tim Sparks. You might want to lose the pick, by the way; we’ve entered fingerstyle country!

Then it’s onto one of the finest blues players on TrueFire, Matt Schofield, who — besides showing you some infinitely steal-able licks — delves into the important concept of playing over the changes in a blues progression, something that separates the spine-tingling from random tinkling!

You already might’ve suspected Andy Wood was immensely talented based on his old “Betcha Can’t Play This” videos on GW’s YouTube channel — and now he leaves no doubt! In these lessons, Andy takes us back where we started and shows you how to add some country to your rock and blues licks. If you like these videos, be sure to check out the lessons where he shows you how to add some rock flavor to your blues.”

Who better than the top editors of our cherished guitar magazines to lend their eyes, ears and guitar acumen to help guide how we put our precious practice time to optimal use? Thanks Damian!

You’ll get standard notation and tabs for all of the performance studies. Plus, you’ll be able to use TrueFire’s learning tools to sync the tab and notation to the video lesson.

You can also loop or slow down the videos so that you can work with the lessons at your own pace. All of the backing tracks are also included to work with on your own.

Grab your guitar and let’s dig in with Guitar World Editor-in-Chief Damian Fanelli’s curated collection of TrueFire lessons!