“Drummers view of the show” by Matt Deavenport, licensed under CC BY-ND 2.0.
In this popular YouTube video I created a few years ago, I talked about how to play a variety of sub-divisions and how sub-divisions are the foundation and building blocks of ALL rhythm.
In this post, we will take things a step further and get you learning all of the most important sub-divisions and I’ll show you how to practice them to take your rhythm skills to the next level.
One of the most boring things a guitarist can do when playing a strumming song is to strum the song in the exact same way using the exact same strum pattern throughout.
In this post, you’ll learn how simple it is to methodically adapt the strum pattern and how it will give your strumming songs a massive new lease of life.
I’ve said it many times before, but I will say it again. I’m not a huge fan of when guitarists play a song and use just one strum pattern throughout the whole song.
It’s okay when starting out or learning the song but as soon as you are comfortable, start adding more strum patterns, variations and strum fills for a much more powerful effect. Today, I’ll show you how to seamlessly combine different strum patterns to create a piece of music that is exciting and vibrant.
Batería by Antonio, licensed under (CC BY-SA 2.0)
One of the most fun things a guitarist can do is to stick on a drum beat, turn it up loud and jam the hell out of it.
This goes for acoustic or electric players and rockers or fingerpicking folk guitarists. It doesn’t matter what your style is, you need to be doing this on a regular basis.
In this short lesson, I go through some very powerful techniques that will help you become a master of rhythm.
Rhythm is the most important part of music. It’s not the only part but it is so fundamental everything.
Whenever you do anything on the guitar you will be playing with rhythm. Whether it’s strumming, picking, solo-ing, it doesn’t matter, it ALL contains rhythm.
Without good and solid rhythm music sounds rubbish. If the rhythm is great, then the music is often great.
Not all of the great guitarists out there know how to play loads of chords, scales and arpeggios but all of them have a great handle of rhythm.
Soak up this lesson and apply the ideas regularly and you too will develop a stronger sense of rhythm which will take your guitar playing to the next level.
IMG_0095 by Kathi Rud, licensed under (CC BY-SA 2.0)
Many beginner guitarists don’t really know how to strum a guitar – not properly anyway. They often ‘fake it till they make it’ but unfortunately that can lead to bad habits.
Check your strumming regularly by ensuring you are not making the following very common mistakes that many guitarists make – especially beginners, but often experienced guitar players too. Read More
One thing that crops up time again from students everywhere is the dreaded issue of chord changes. I spend a lot of time in the early stages with my private students helping them get past this hugely frustrating part of playing the guitar, and I answer quite a few emails on this subject too.