Hey y’all-CMC here. Today’s topic is rhythm guitar. What
comes to your mind? Hey, a million sounds come to mine.
Creedence Clearwater Revival! I can just hear John Fogerty
singing “rollin…rollin…rollin on the ree-ver.”
Such simple chords and rhythms, back and forth, back and
forth. Then I can hear a similar and yet oh so different
pattern from the same era (that was when I was twelve and
first learning, so it stuck in my mind) -Shocking Blue’s
Venus. Back and forth, back and forth-rock and roll-right?
From one chord to the next, over and over, like Crimson and
Clover! (yet another tune from that amazingly classic era.)
As an impressionable twelve year old, of course, rhythm
guitar left me un impressed. I was in awe of the guitar-god
soloing of musicians like Jimi Hendrix, Jeff Beck and Jimmy
Page. Anyone could play two chords back and forth, I thought.
And I didn’t want to be that “anyone.”
But as I grew and as I’ve matured over the many, many years
of tears, fears and beers, I have come to appreciate RHYTHM
GUITAR and here’s why:
Once I began to apply the word “rhythm” not just to guitar
but to LIFE, I saw something different: I saw stability, I
saw trance, I saw beauty. When I Googled “rhythm guitar” I
got a whole bunch of info. Heck, a lot of it, maybe the best,
is right here on GuitarControl.com. There is, in fact, no
shortage of information on the topic. But what there IS a
shortage of, at least as far I’ve I’ve been able to see, is
a philosophical approach to the subject.
You probably know at least a little about RHYTHM GUITAR;
some of you could teach a class on it. But for me, knowledge can
go deeper and the result is greater work. For example,
Hendrix (why do I keep mentioning him? -Well, because
he’s…HENDRIX!) pioneered (or popularized) a really cool way
of playing BOTH rhythm AND soloing at the same time. Now
that’s what I’m talkin’ about! So, my point is- if you want
to go deeper and do better stuff, maybe THINK deeper about
it.
Here´s another cool RHYTHM GUITAR LESSON
To finish up here, I want you to learn, to play rhythm guitar
but I also want you to look at it in news ways- is it a kind
of meditation? A prayer? Can it be trance like? How can you
transform what might seem like drudgery (endless repetition)
into something higher? And finally, again- we need the
rhythms of life- they comfort us. Another word we use is
GROOVE. Rhythm is, ultimately a GROOVE, so get into it!
I also want to recommend you to check out this cool rhythm
guitar course in DVD: