Right Hand Rules All

[Rickey]

The Right Hand Rules -always

I was wondering if anyone shares my opinion, or has ever considered this.When I was first starting out playing guitar in 69, my buddy showed me how to finger a basic E7 cord. Then he said “Strum this every day for 6 months and you will ready for more chords”
Of course I was all about learning chords and changing chords etc. But my friend/teacher believed that the soul of the sound and what is true guitar playing is all in the right hand.
I have come to totally agree with him. The right hand is what produces the sound. The sound has to be blended with the next sound and so on. The tone, timing, expression, and fun comes with a solid right hand.
I look at the left hand as just a helper. I know hammer ons and pull offs, smooth transitions and all that…but listen I am talking about a basic , root concept.
You should be able to entertain yourself and others by just lightly laying my hand across the stings anywhere on the neck and strumming. Try to get good at it.
Here something to do. Record yourself playing an E-A-B7 boogie . Now listen to it. You may be suprised when you hear pauses, up and dowm tempo, mis hits and just not staying in time.
My Advice…play and E chord every day for 2-weeks, make that right hand a righteous expression of yourself. Make that E chord tell everybody that your woman done done you wrong…or your dog died whatever.
Then record again..you wont believe how much better you will have become.
Hope this helps and if anyone has comments, experiences…I would like to hear them.
Stay strong all,
Jack aka Frost

[Rickey]

Hi

Good read

I came across the PJ Harvey version of highway 61 revisited on youtube and whilst the original and johny winter version are brilliant so too is this in spades. So I wondered why is this version so good and reckon it boils down to, amongst other things, the great rhythm which of course is controlled by the right hand. And generally there have been some great rock anthems with fairly straight-forward chord progressions but great sense of rhythm. So, in around about way, I am agreeing that what u say makes quite a lot of sense.

Regards
ynys

[bluesbird]

I agree completely Jack. Of course both hands are important and work together for expression with the left doing the bending, sliding, vibrato, etc. But the right hand really produces the subtle things (timing and duration of the notes, loudness or softness (pick attack), staccato and legato, etc) that separate the average players from the pros.

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