Description
In this lesson I show you how to play a standard driving blues/ rock rhythm on an electric guitar (I’m going to focus on interesting guitar rhythms for the next few lessons). I played this with an electric guitar with overdrive, however, that isn’t required to play a rhythm like this – you could use clean channel on electric or even acoustic and still be able to play this rhythm. The key to getting the fat “chunky” sound is to use palm muting with your right hand (which I’ll demonstrate in the video). If you need to know more about palm muting be sure to check out the Palm muting guitar lesson overview which will better define this technique (by the way, that lesson is part of the Free Beginner Guitar Course which is a great place to go if you’re just getting started (if I do say so myself)
Rock Blues Rhythm Guitar Lesson
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Sweet! You do an excellent job…Thanks!!
This is really cool. I like this kinda rhythm pattern…it’s fun and upbeat…I’m looking forward to other rhythm lessons, as I’m embarrassingly lacking in the rythm department. Thanks again for taking the time to put up these great lessons. Folks like you make it a lot easier for us “wannabes” to actually learn to play this glorious instrument.
Brilliant lesson! It has taken me at least four hours to play it all through with the backing track without mistakes BUT it is worth the effort. Lovely groove! Could you do some more rhythm like this as you can blend in some lead with it and it makes playing in your bedroom rewarding and not boring any more? I’m not a wannabe like Stratoblaster as I hit my peak in a band in the 60’s (only singing unfortunately) and now its just fun! I’ve got an ‘89 American Strat, ‘87 Ibanez Artist, 2002 Les Paul Standard and a 2009 Mexican Tele (my favourite). I know that I won’t be around when my Tele is 25 years old so I need to keep learning while I can. I really appreciate your great lessons as I can’t afford to go to a teacher! I’ve just got a Mini Twin Fender amp (£28 not dollars) so I can drive my wife mad in the lounge when the adverts are on! Can’t carry the Fender Deluxe 85 about the house. That’s old too! Thank you.
Hey DrGolf, glad you were able to keep at it until you nailed it, and 4 hours isn’t bad at all. Rhythms like that are extremely deceptive when you play them for a non-guitar player.. it can appear that you’re just sort of strumming effortlessly without giving it much thought, but when you try and put all of the parts together you find out how challenging it is. Also glad to see you’re doing it now for fun. I think a lot of guitar players set their eyes on fame or “making it” in a band and when it doesn’t happen, a lot of them just give up and walk away. The REAL musicians however stick with it and play for fun (which is why you started it in the first place). It is an incredibly fun instrument to learn and just rest assured that you’ll never master it, but you’ll have fun trying.
Like you said Clapton has a unique style of playing rhythm, you have a unique way to teach the beginner.
Brian—Great lessons here. I especially like the rhythm lessons and will be spending a fun weekend on my Gibson.
Awesome
I finally found a clear-talking site (no wasted language) that teaches me the kind of technique I have been searching for. When I heard you say you had searched and found little for rhythm players, I knew this was the place for me. Keep revealing what you know. PE
thanks Brian for this great lesson.I was tryin to improvise on this rhythm track but could not. can you please post a video showing us how to play a solo or improve on this rhythm and what scales to use? thanking you once again.
Sweet! thank you brian! 🙂
Hi Brian just found your site about a week ago.I think that you are a great teacher.The lessons are so good. Ive only been playing for a year but practise every day. Thanks again.J.P.C………
Brian,
How do you have your amp set to get the sound that you got on this video? If you could help me with this it would be awesome!!
Thanks,
guitargod358
saludos, muy interesante gracias.
thank you so much….. such a great teacher
super very good joob ! if you must to make a musical suite of this song it s fantastic ! merci beaucoup un bien meilleur travail que dans beaucoup d autre site bravo !
Realy like all your lessons Brian. You’re a great guitar player and hope you’ll always be teaching for long time again!
Sorry for my english so I’m comming from beautiful Québec city (Canada)
Teepolo, thanks -will be teaching online for a long time for sure! Assuming I don’t get hit by a bus that is.
Brian, I found you on you tube. Thanks for the great lessons. I have watched many you tube clips but this is the only one I have signed up for. I look forward to doing your blues class soon.
Thanks @TerryNTele!
Boy I hope you aren’t suddenly on stage all the time where you belong Brian, and we lose you. You’re a great teacher.
Wish I would have had you for a teacher when I started 40 yrs. ago !! LOL
Love your site. Watch for hours on end.
Hi Brian you are a great teacher man!
I particularly like the Blues Lead Guitar course which links the 5 patterns so logically on the neck.
Well done from a grateful student!
Hi Brian, great lesson.
I have only one question..in the video you say that the right hand should strum 4 strings (BGDA), then just the open A string, then 4 strings, then the open A and so on..
But when I downloaded the tab, it seems to be different.
Is it safe to assume that if if the count is 1and2and3and4 we should strum 4 strings on the 1,2,3,4 and strum just the open A string on the “and” ?
Thanks again,
Mario
Hey Mario - yes your assumption is exactly right. There will always be some variations that can be thrown in to make it more interesting, but your assumption is correct.
Brian I love all of your lessons and I am really improving since I started to download your jam tracks and play along to them every evening. Thx so much my friend!!
Hi Brian just found your site. love your teaching style. finally the penny starts to drop on so many techniques. Thankyou
What kind of Boss distortion unit are you using? I think I remember you saying it was set at about 30%. thanks.
As ever Brian high quality stuff that we all can learn from, thank you.
I love this Blues Rock Style. Could you do more of this style i.e Skynard, Black Keys, Jack white type of gritty driving rhythms? Thanks and keep up the great work
Nice lesson, not difficult to learn, I like the rhythm very much. Greetings from the Netherlands.
Just fantastic lesson Brian. Has that cool rocky beat with enough catchy variation & easy for me to learn.
Love this tune, Brian. Has such a great Bluesy feel to it.
Excellent lesson
I like the lesson, but I don’t get the right hand rhythm comment at the start of the video. you say strum thru the strings, then pick a string, then strum thru the strings, then pick.a string, how does that work when you are on the second measure for example? you would just be plucking the D string, so confusing……
I do appreciate the lessons, but sometimes the instructions seem counter to what the lesson page shows?
Blake
Hi,
Being relatively new to the community I have literally hundreds of lessons that are new to me. Found this older lesson by looking for a rhythm lesson; cool stuff! Thanks Brian!
Cheers Tom
I’m a new member and relative beginner. After downloading a number of tabs for various lessons, I’m struggling with the stroking notation. When I watch the videos, I can’t correlate it to the tab pdfs. Recognize I should be able to follow the up/down patterns via the video, but not working for me yet. Can anyone give me an explanation on that?
Hi James – I’d day to ingnore that up/down notation and just play downstrokes until you feel the the rhythm. The best way to understand it is to learn about 16th notes. Then the rhythm part should make more sense. Hope this helps!
This lesson is Gold!!!! So much fun and really shows what my Tele can do with a bit of gain! Can we have a bit more fun stuff like this please!