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 Brent Mason
Guitar Lesson * Tabs
Brent Mason is Nashville's top hired studio
guitarist.Brent actually plays on just about
any country album that comes from Nashville,
always being of top choice for hire. He is
named in writing as the most recorded guitar
player alive.
Next.....................................
According to many publications Brent has owned
country music for over a decade with at least
seven out of ten of the songs in the top ten at
any given time, not annually, being played on
by him since the early nineties. For many years
he has won the annual Music City Allstars Award
for being the musician with the most songs they
have played on being in the radio top ten hits
for the entire year. This is in addition to his
CMA awards and Academy of Country Music Awards
from l993 - 2002, (when they "retired" him", tell-
ing him he would no longer be allowed to win in that
category as they had a clause that no one could
win over ten years in a row! To learn more about
Brent Mason, see the:
Official Brent Mason website.
To help give you a good understanding of some of
Brent Masons guitar tools and techniques, consider
this lesson a detailed summary (or briefing) of this
top requested studio musicians playing style. If
your'e looking to obtain the bluesy sound that
you'll often hear from Brent's hot blues licks,
make sure to check out the Boss BD2 Blues Driver guitar
pedal you an find at Music123.
Aside from his blended taste of influences that
include James Burton, Roy Nichols, Albert Lee and
others that display his well recognized guitar tech-
niques such as "chicken picken", "double stops", and
"open string" guitar licks, much of what Brent applies
to his songwriting technique is a tool from the old
school known as "The Nashville Number System".
If it's your goal to one day become a studio session
guitarist in Nashville, when handed the chart called
The Nashville Number System, you will want to know
what to do! Although this system may be used in a
complex detailed format for lead guitar, it is often
most commonly used for guitar chords to simplify studio
sessions when reading the The Nashville Number System
charts.
The Nashville Number System works by assigning ordinary
numbers to each degree of the diatonic major scale. For
example, played in the the key of A major, the notes are
A,B,C#,D,E,F#,G#,A. When broken down into modes, some of
these are defined as major, some minor, as are the given
related chords.
Example #1: A is 1 (major), B is 2 (minor), C# is 3 (minor),
and so forth. See chart below broken down into modes and
chords.
A major scale:
Notes
Tonic Mode Name Mode Type Guitar Chord
A Ionian Major A Major
B Dorian Minor D Minor
C# Phrygian Minor C# Minor
D Lydian Major D Major
E Mixolydian Major E Major
F# Aeolian Minor F# Minor
G# Locrian Minor/Dim G# Minor/Dim
A Octave Major A Major
Examples continued...
Let's say you were handed a chart from The Nashville
Number System during a studio recording session that
read: 1,3,5. That would indicate to play the guitar
chords A major, C# minor, and E major.
Seee example #2 below
1 2 3
A major C# minor E major
Example 3:
If you were reading a chart that displayed 1,4,5, the
guitar chords would be indicated as follows below, in
thus deriving the common 3 chord progression A,D and E,
as derived from A major diatonic scale.
1 2 3
A major D major E major
Although these are basic demonstrations, this should
give you a basic understanding of how to read the studio
charts that are used by top country guitarist like Brent
Mason. Moving on to some of the techniques that were
previously mentioned, as well as other guitar scales
that you be useful for playing country twang guitar...
Other common guitar scales would include Pentatonic Major,
Pentatonic Minor and Blues Scale.
See : Scales Lessons.
Chicken Pickin
First, mute the A string by touching it with your
index finger somewhere near the bridge pickup. Now,
pluck the same string with your thumb (t)further
up toward the neck (denoted by an “X”" in the tablature
shown below.
Next, pluck the open string with the
nail of your index (i). Repeat, as you build up momentum.
Once you have the basic idea, try using this technique
as you make a full string bend on the 7th fret G string,
and then slowly release the bend until the note is
returned to it's normal pitch
t i t i t i t i
e :-------------------------------------------------|
B :-------------------------------------------------|
G :--x---7---x---7---x---7---x---7------------------|
D :-------------------------------------------------|
A :-------------------------------------------------|
E :-------------------------------------------------|
Banjo Roll
This is one of the most common, taken from Foggy Mountain
Breakdown" by Earl Scruggs. Standard tuning for this banjo
lick may be altered on the guitar as follows:
small e string is tuned to D (lower small e a whole step)
B string = B
G string = G
D string = D
A string is tuned down a whole step to G
Symbols used indicate:
t=thumb i=index m=middle
t m t i m t i m
d :----0---------------0-----------0----------------|
B :-0-----------0--------------0--------------------|
G :-------------------------------------------------|
D :-------------------------------------------------|
G :----------0-------------0------------------------|
x :-------------------------------------------------|
Double Stops
A "double stop" is commonly referred to as playing
2 strings at once. This example taught in A, includes
the use of the major 3rd interval (shown played as
the note C#) 6th fret G string.
h h
e :-5-----------------------------------------------|
B :-5---5-------7---5-------------------------------|
G :-----5-6-----7---5-6-----------------------------|
D :-------------------------------------------------|
A :-------------------------------------------------|
E :-------------------------------------------------|
Open String Guitar Lick Example In A
This guitar lick makes a good ending for a country
song in A, as it ends with the country twang bend
which is derived from A Pentatonic Major.
s
e :--------0-------0-------0----5-------------------|
B :-----8-------5--------3------5-------------------|
G :-6-9-------6--------2-------b4-------------------|
D :-------------------------------------------------|
A :-------------------------------------------------|
E :-------------------------------------------------|
Learn Country Chicken Picken Guitar
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