Guitar | Arty Hill | Beginning/Intermediate | Period 3 | Week 1 (July 6-11, 2025)
This is SO important for country guitar players! Most would agree it is more important than playing lead guitar, because in the hours you spend performing music you will do way more of it!!!
To help you hone your skills we will work on strong right hand technique; playing in time and staying in time; how to start a song/”count in” a tempo; how to play alternating bass notes; moveable chords; and singing while playing. We will also discuss and work on how to remember chords and song structure without using a cheat sheet 😀
As preparation, listen to the album Buck Owens Sings Harlan Howard, or any 60s Buck Owens album, preferably on CD or vinyl if you can (they sound better than mp3s). The rhythm guitar is pretty clear in the mix on those recordings and the perfect example of no frills country rhythm guitar.
About the Instructor
From Baltimore, Md to Central Texas, Arty Hill packs the bars and dance floors with his unique brand of modern Honky Tonk. He sings with an “‘everyman’ quality…reminiscent of Johnny Cash.” (Vintage Guitar Magazine). His songs – marrying the soul of classic country with the wry storytelling of Guy Clark and Townes Van Zandt – have been recorded by the Grammy-nominated Kenny and Amanda Smith Band, Alt-Country pioneer Jason Ringenberg, Rockabilly Queen Bee Marti Brom, and Austin’s Texas Sapphires, among others. His recordings have topped the FAR (Freeform American Roots) chart, and his songs have appeared in two seasons of “Gun it with Bennie Spies” on the Sportsman Channel and in the 2017 movie “I Don’t Feel at Home in This World Anymore” starring Elijah Wood.
Arty is also co-founder of the Hank Williams Songwriting Workshop in Montgomery, AL, and an instructor at the Augusta Heritage Center’s Classic Country Week in Elkins, WVa. His 2021 release, “A Thousand Smoky Nights,” features Arty and his top notch band, the Long Gone Daddys. It includes 11 new original tunes, plus a re-imagined version of the Arty and Linda Hill penned ‘”Mascara Tears,” featuring vocalist Michelle Hannan. Telecaster master and legendary Lost Planet Airman Bill Kirchen says: “From the brash R n R of ‘A Twang coming On’ to the open heart surgery of ‘Are You Sleeping,’ there’s a wealth of real deal Honky tonk in here.”