A lesson on rhythm

[5F6-A]

YouTube - Larry Graham in the early 1980s

YouTube - Larry Graham in the early 1980s

amazing groove

[Phil47uk]

Originally Posted by 5F6-A

YouTube - Larry Graham in the early 1980s

amazing groove

About time someone posted a thread on rhythms.
That's an area I'm afraid where most guitarists suck.
Type in guitar on YouTube and you'll get ten million widdly widdly videos with people trying to play the flight of the bumble bee with the end of their nose, but type in rhythm and other than the power chord merchants there is relatively little stuff around.

I advise everyone playing guitar to brush up on right hand rhythm techniques.

For instance I take Spanish stuff like this and convert it into funk rhythms. Goes down a bomb at gigs.

You Tube

You Tube

[5F6-A]

fantastic stuff .... I agree wholeheartedly!

[Phil47uk]

Originally Posted by 5F6-A

fantastic stuff Will.... I agree wholeheartedly!

I hope this thread stays alive.. This sort of thing is what most people need to listen to, but sadly in a lot of cases if it aint thrash metal or doesn't include the names Page or Slash it usually goes the way of the dodo.
Cynical bastard aren't I?

[5F6-A]

Phil, sadly, you are just speaking the truth...

[Monsyphon]

@Phil-Greatest 25 seconds of my life.

[Laservampire]

Here's a lesson on rhythm....

YouTube - BO DIDDLEY- in his prime

YouTube - BO DIDDLEY- in his prime

[Phil47uk]

Originally Posted by 5F6-A

Phil, sadly, you are just speaking the truth...

I've been doing rhythms with kids at school today..

[Phil47uk]

Originally Posted by Monsyphon

@Phil-Greatest 25 seconds of my life.

That aint me in that video,. I just picked a video of that type of flamenco style as an example.

[Monsyphon]

Originally Posted by Phil47uk

That aint me in that video,. I just picked a video of that type of flamenco style as an example.

Oh.
Well, it still was the greatest 25 seconds of my life.

[Phil47uk]

Originally Posted by Monsyphon

Oh.
Well, it still was the greatest 25 seconds of my life.

There are some great vids on YouTube with Flamenco rhythms. Well worth practising even for using with other genres of music. I love using this type of stuff in funk.
I did a gig not so long ago and during this funk number the other guitarist was wailing away on the usual pentatonics over and E7 groove.
When I took my solo I switched tactics and played the whole solo on one chord using various rasgueado patterns. I just did it as an experiment and a laugh, but I didn't realise just how well it would go down. I think I put the other guys nose out of joint a bit.

YouTube - Flamenco Guitar Lesson - Rasgueado Studies

YouTube - Flamenco Guitar Lesson - Rasgueado Studies

[mrpesca]

I've been working a lot with strumming and chord progressions. Mostly because I can't solo to save my life. I guess I could become very valuable as a rhythm guitar player since they seem to be pretty rare.

Ironically, my friends who are always looking for band mates can't find drummers or bass players because everyone wants to play guitar.

So out of 100 musicians you would probably have 85 lead guitarists and 15 bass, drum and vocalists.

[5F6-A]

Originally Posted by mrpesca

So out of 100 musicians you would probably have 85 lead guitarists and 15 bass, drum and vocalists.

[Ride on a Pony]

EDIT: Nevermind! I think I've got it under control.

[EtriX]

YouTube - John Frusciante - Guitar Lessons

YouTube - John Frusciante - Guitar Lessons

and one for all the young dudes.
Frusciante is one of the few really big players that keep the funk feeling alive

[River]

Rhythm?

YouTube - Pat Travers "Boom Boom"

YouTube - Pat Travers "Boom Boom"

[Byron999]

I can remember going for my first guitar lesson. I had been playing for awhile, sort of. I just could never commit the time to practice consistantly. But I had learned to palm mute, and mostly down strokes/power chords.

Anyway I go for lesson and my teacher was a young guy like myself(about 24yrs). He had me play to assess where I was at, and then gave me feedback. He said, "Dude, first thing is you got to learn to strum." "You can't learn to play lead guitar or anything without learning to strum properly, Lead guitar is just a finer picking motion.
So that first lesson was learning rythum, counting the up and down strokes slowly and where and how to place the accents. He had a system of writting out the strum patterns that showed the count and accents. Also that first lesson he showed me like some funk rythum and how the right hand stays in motion even during a rest, just miss the strings. Man I tell you I was so amazed at what I learned that first lesson. I left there with a rythum to practice, Billy Idol's "Eyes without a Face". Great bigginer pattern to learn.

Anyway, Rythum guitar is the foundation of good guitar playing and cannot be ignored, maybe avoided, but not ignored if you want to sound great.

It is just to cool to be able to then pick up any guitar, acoustic, electric, whatever and where ever, and play beautiful chords and tasteful strumming, and people will love it. I love that feeling of meshing with the guitar.

If you can't play rythum guitar, find a good teacher. All the great guitar players know this. It is fine if you goal is to learn to shred. But the great players will tell you you got learn rythum first. The alterrnate picking you learn from rythum playing will also make it easier when your ready to learn lead guitar.

[5F6-A]

agreed 100%, just check your spelling: rhythm NOT rhythum

[Byron999]

Originally Posted by 5F6-A

agreed 100%, just check your spelling: rhythm NOT rhythum

I'm lazy bastard when it comes to spelling.

[5F6-A]

[MrRhoads]

Definetly the best thread i´ve found in a while
Randy Rhoads once said "if you don´t have the feeling for a chord, you can´t build rythm parts" not his exacts words but that´s what he ment.
I´ve gotta say that no mather which "style" you play there are a few techniques/styles in this thread you should definetly get into just for the benefit of the things you´ll learn.
5F6-A i´ve got a funny thing i do with a Emajor chord a spanish thing sort of, i´ll try to post a video of it and you can judge it
It reminds me of "Rasgueado"
Great thread

[5F6-A]

haha
I'm all ears... you know the guitar is SO Spanish.

I remember when I was Larry Coryell's student he yold me something that it took me ages to understand and know I fully agree with. He said " the interval between all strings if fairly logical and straight forward (up a fourth ) but the interval between the the 3rd and 2nd strings ( a major 3 rd ) gives it all away. Only an instrument created in Spain could have that interval and that interval is what makes it such a wonderful & magical instrument"

Who am I to argue with the great Jazz virtuoso?

[MrRhoads]

Ok my Spanish thing, enjoy

YouTube - Spanish thing

YouTube - Spanish thing

[5F6-A]

Hey Gustav that's great my Swedish friend!! Thanks!!

¡¡Olé!!

I have many people where I live now that play incredible flamenco guitar. The funny thing is I never appreciated them too much as I grew up listening to those guys but now I truly appreciate it. Also I'm sure I have some of that stuff imdedded in my brain that comes out when I play guitar, I'm sure.

[MrRhoads]

Originally Posted by 5F6-A

Hey Gustav that's great my Swedish friend!! Thanks!!

¡¡Olé!!

I have many people where I live now that play incredible flamenco guitar. The funny thing is I never appreciated them too much as I grew up listening to those guys but now I truly appreciate it. Also I'm sure I have some of that stuff imdedded in my brain that comes out when I play guitar, I'm sure.

Thanks
Did i say Rasgueado correct by the way?
I like spanish style guitar, especially in western movies
They need a nylonstringed guitar played in some spanish way.

Anyway i´m going to look in more to "Rasgueado" playing, i´m sure i could benefit alot while trying to learn blues and combine the pick with some fingers doing alot of extra stuff