any country keyboard players here?

[c4]

I was thinking about picking up a country band gig for extra cash but really dont know much about the style..what scales do you find you use most often for country licks,solos etc?

[Chris Link]

I'm mostly a jazz-blues-rock guy, but a classic C&W lick is this (in C major, e.g.)- a lot of 6ths and 9ths (2nds really) in the I chord.

 

Like this as triplets descending. Play the notes paired vertically together:

 

1 2 3 4 1 2 3

C C G G C C G G C6 B6 C6...

A A E E A A E E

G G D D G G D G

 

I hope that makes any sense at all. It'd be really easy to show you if you could stop by for a few minutes.

 

The triplets descend an octave for the second pair and the C6 and B6 chords have the 3rd (E and D#) as the top note (3rd inversion?).

 

Use a basic blues scale in I © but heavy on the 6ths and 2nds/9ths, and go easy on the flatted 3rds and 7ths. Use these only as passing notes, generally. Use 7ths sparingly, except with the V (G), II (D) and VI (A).

 

If you're playing more than five chords in a major key (I, IV, V7, VI7 and II7), then it's probably not country music.

 

I'm sure I am oversimplifying and overgeneralizing.

 

 

Edit: No matter how I type it, the notation gets compressed. Play the triplets alternating the fourths (G and C in the first vertical line) with the middle note (A in the first line) and walk your way down the scale. By this time, I could've written it out in notation and dropped it it the mail.