Although Country music has been a style of music that has been looked upon as being hokey and easy to play, real musicians and guitar players alike are realizing that some of the best guitar players in the world are in the country music genre.

One such guy that really turned me onto country music from listening to his guitar technique and his abilities to play something that was totally fresh and new to me was Vince Gill. From coming out of the hard rock/heavy metal scene to the country scene was quite a task for me.

I thought all the great guitarists were in the metal scene, you know... the hair bands from the 80's but I was quickly shown of a whole new breed of guitarist in the country genre that would blow me away. This enticed me in wanting to learn country guitar techniques and how to play like these guys.

Check out the video below to see what I mean. This is an old clip of Vince Gill and Albert Lee who was a session player in Nashville for many years.  

After the early 90's where the melodic style of metal music from the 80's had expired I was left unsatisfied with a lot of the grunge bands who had taken over the music scene. All my favorite bands were no longer being played on the radio and it was as if suddenly all the feelgood melodic music had turned to a depressing aggressive feeling type of music.

In a quest to find a melodic style of music once again, I discovered country music. In doing so I came across a fresh range of guitar talent which I wanted to learn how to play. I thought at first it would be relatively easy to learn country guitar until I really started getting more into it.

I quickly found out that what I was stepping into was like having to learn the guitar all over again. I don't mean chords and scales and the basic stuff, but I mean a whole new picking style and different fingering techniques.

All the finger tapping, sweeping, pick squeals and so on did not fit into this new country guitar style I was trying to learn. Unlike most of the rock music that I could pick up on just by hearing it, I was now a little confused as to how these country guitarists were playing. 

My only way to learn country guitar was to buy some videos from a local music store or get some videos from the library. At that time there was no Internet and I didn't have the convenience or the opportunity to just download an online guitar training course or watch some videos on YouTube.

It took me some time to get used to playing in this style. None of the videos were all that informative either. None the less, I adapted over the years and do alright now, but the convenience of the Internet today makes it so much easier for beginning guitarists to learn country guitar faster and easier than ever before.

If I had an online guitar training course like Learn & Master Guitar to guide me along when I was transitioning and learning how to play country guitar, I know I would have learned the country style of playing much faster and much easier than I did. Just by having DVDs to watch and having CD jam tracks to play along with I'm sure it would have made it a whole lot easier, but I can't look on the past and fret about it.

A lot of things are much easier and faster because of the Internet. Actually the whole scope of the music business has changed as a result of the Internet. I would even venture to say that most private guitar instructors and teachers have lost a lot of business because of the information people can get about learning how to play the guitar online.

It's as easy as a click here or a click there to get the information someone is after, however when it comes to playing country guitar, you need more than information, you need good instruction. You need someone in front of you showing you what to do. You also need to go at your own pace.

This is why finding an online guitar training course that you can either download or purchase and have delivered right to you is the best option in my opinion. This will enable you to move along at your own pace and to go over something again and again until you feel you understand it.

And the next best thing is that you are not having to pay by the hour or by the lesson. Finding a good guitar course online is much more cost efficient because you can learn any time you wish, any hour of the day or night in the convenience of your own home.

If your new to playing the guitar or if you've been playing for quite a while, learning the country style of play is very different if you're not used to it. It's very important that you learn correctly the first time and not waste years trying to figure it out like I did.

I've found that Learn & Master Guitar is a very informative, high quality product for learning how to play country guitar and many other styles of guitar as well.

(You can see my full review for that course and some others by clicking here).

However, that's just my opinion. The main thing is that you find a course or instructor that you feel is suited best for you. Someone or something you are comfortable learning from and just get started.