In this lesson we'll come up with a practice tune that incorporates all of these new rhythm guitar tools, and perform it over a backing track.

In general it's important not to work on too many new things all at once, so since we're focusing on right hand concepts and rhythmic aspects, we'll keep the left hand work very simple- apart from the muting of course.

For the intro we'll use our little “stumble”. We'll keep the dynamics at medium and use the variation 4 times.

Then for the verse we'll keep the dynamics soft (but the groove steady) and play the regular strumming pattern on Em for 2 bars. Then A major for 2 bars, back to E minor for 2 bars and then to D major for 2 bars.

Then for our chorus we'll make the dynamics loud, go back to G and use our ghost note variation. We'll do that for 4 bars, and really focus on being loud without altering your technique or rushing the rhythmic feel. Focus on the drums and locking in with them!

Then after that we'll repeat the verse; remember to come down dynamically without altering technique or rhythmic feel. Then repeat the chorus, where we come up dynamically (again without altering the technique or rhythmic feel).

Finally we go back to our medium dynamic feel and reuse the intro for the outro. After that you end on a big G chord that we let ring.

I hope this tutorial has given you some new perspective on acoustic rhythm guitar playing in a Country context. If you use these tools well you can be the powerful engine in your band, add the magical guitar track to a recording or just provide enough groove, dynamics and variation to play country songs all night completely by yourself. It does take a bit of time to stop focusing solely on your fingers and instead listen to the rhythm and the space between the notes- but that's where you find so much of the magic. Have fun with it!