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Americana invokes guitar styles influenced by blues, country, old-time, swing, jazz and all of the American Roots styles. This collection of Acoustic Americana Guitar Licks You MUST Know is presented by singer, songwriter, producer, multi-instrumentalist and Grammy Award winner Cathy Fink.

Americana Guitar Lick #1: Easy G Vamp

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Our first lick is called “Easy G Vamp”. Instead of going from G to C, try out this lick to make it sound more interesting.

Americana Guitar Lick #4: Lucky Girl

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I named this lick after a song I wrote that used it, “Lucky Girl”. It uses an interesting D7 with the F# in the bass, generally played with the thumb.

Americana Guitar Lick #14: Slidin’

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The use of drones on the D’s in the bass and bending a few strings makes this a tasty lick.

Americana Guitar Lick #15: Tonyland One

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Tony Rice brought so much innovation and new sounds to bluegrass, country, and folk-all part of Americana. Let’s look at one of his classic licks.

Americana Guitar Lick #24: Cascading G to Am

Download the tab & notation for this free guitar lesson.

I learned this lick backing up French Canadian fiddle tunes, but have found it useful in just about every genre and definitely have used it in several original songs.

Dig these free guitar lessons? Download Cathy Fink’s 30 Acoustic Americana Guitar Licks You MUST Know for much more including tab, notation, and jam tracks!