This ActionTab is from the Jamzone where we are looking a look at basic country guitar style.

So now you know the backing guitar, and have learned about alternating basslines, let's start building the tune up by adding some melody. Let's begin with a simple melody which serves 3 purposes:

1. It strengthens the alternating bassline


2. It cues the repeating of the tune by adding a turnaround at the 16th bar


3. Great practice for beginners - this is a very easy melody!

Notice that the melody is the exact same alternating bassline as the backing ActionTab, without the strums. So, it's even easier to play than the backing guitar part. However, at bar 16 we add a Turnaround. If you remember, bar 16 is the last bar (B major):

E Major (4 Bars) - A Major (4 Bars) - E Major (4 Bars) - F# Major (2 Bars) - B Major (2 Bars) = 16 Bars

So, after bar 16 we return back to the 1st bar again (E major) and play through everything again. A fun way to do this is to use a turnaround in the last bar. This is just a little melodic phrase that links song sections together. A turnaround can be used to link between different song sections or to repeat sections, as we do here. A turnaround serves to make things more musically interesting and nice to listen to. They are common in music which uses generic chord progressions, typically - blues, country and jazz music.

Next we will look at building more lead melodies from this country chord progression.