Description
In this week’s guitar lesson, I’ll walk you through 4 levels to playing a pretty rhythm strum pattern that includes a very simple melody line. Plus chord substitutions.
Part 1 - Free Guitar Lesson
Part 2 - For Premium Members
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Slow Walkthrough
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Video Tablature Breakdown
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Strumming rhythm and getting a bit of melody in there sounds so nice. It makes this simple progression much more interesting. This kind of lesson is often overlooked. Thanks Brian!🙂
Yeah Brian, you would think strumming would be so simple and maybe it is for some but this is an awesome help for me. It also helps tremendously explaining what types of alternate chords you can throw in. Great help.
Thanks Brian!
Great lesson. Thanks Brian
Thanks, it looks like you read my mind by putting a timer at the beginning of the walkthrough and the soundslice. I like to play with your backing track to practice, but I always miss the beginning because it takes me a few seconds to take my hands off my computer mouse and on my guitar after clicking play.
Great Stuff! Sure… if you have more similar… I/we would love to learn from them.
These big picture items are great.
Thank you.
Really like learning these rhythm methods. This allows me to get a lot of sound out of simple movements and utilize the CAGED chords also. It also helps me play my James Taylor songs with or without the capo. I can see how these rhythm ideas can help to write songs while fooling around with the various sounds they produce. I would like you to do more of these rhythm ideas and please throw in some walking or connecting bass lines like we hear in some James Taylor’s songs like Carolina In My Mind. Thanks for the additional minor and diminished chords as well. They add a lot of color. Another very useful lesson as always.
This was really good, yet again. And, I can even play most of this stuff for a change (:
Real nice insights on subbing for the 5 chord
Thanks
loved it, more please
Another great lesson Brian! Thanx.
Hey Brian! I learned very basic guitar in youth group in my church back in the early 1980’s. After learning the basic chords and some self created strumming patterns, I got in a rut.
I just picked up the guitar a couple of months ago after about a 15 year “sabatical”. Basic lessons like this are a big deal as they are finally expanding my knowledge past what I was trying to figure out just by listening to music. You’re helping me to decode the guitar! 🙂
I have learned more from you in the past couple of months than the entire time from youth to my 60s and it is making the guitar exciting for me once again! I’m practicing about 2 hours per day and enjoying every minute of it!
Thank you for the good work you do teaching the guitar!
I think having more rhythm lessons will help and it’s something that I haven’t seen you go over much.
Some other ideas in case: more advanced harmonies as micro lessons (because they get intimidating if they are a full composition), gipsy jazz and jazzier sounds in general.
Finding, practicing, and getting familiar with these positional relationships is powerful knowledge. You don’t have to think about the theory, which makes it more intuitive/instinctive to improvise.
Wonderful Micro lesson. Great stuff!
Hi Brian,
This is the perfect lesson for me, and I’m sure for many, many others as well. It’s exactly what so many of us want to be able to do. It looks and sounds so elegant yet simple, and with your guidance, it’s achievable.
Thank you,
Georg
Like the level thing. Sometimes maybe a just accomplish one or two but thats ok for now.
Acoustic lesson are my favourite! Thanks Brian.
This lesson is fantastic! Such a basic, and needed skill and you demonstrate perfectly how to improve it!! Love the focus on acoustic lately!
Hi Brian
Great lesson here.
Quite simple to understand but not so easy to do.
It helps me a lot.
By the way it gives a beautyful and very cool kind of slow accoustic ballad feeling.
I hope that one day I can play it just as regular and smooth as you do.
Thank you very much.
Have a good week
I think lessons like this are gold.
Please do some more Brian. Rythm playing is so important but underestimated.
And you teach it so well…it is a pleasure ti follow.
Brian thanks.
Another great lesson. I like this kind of micro lessons, because you can focus on just one thing. Although I have used it a lot of times, I didn’t realized that I was playing the fourth (C-shape) of that chord (G-shape) on the strings 2, 3 and 4. So no thinking of naming a chord just putting the fingers in the right shape (lightbulb moment when you talked about the fourth of the four chord)
Wil
I love this! It’s all to easy to forget the importance of rhythm when concentrating on melody or individual notes. The layers are great – much better than jumping in at the deep end and getting stuck. Sounds great as well…as always.
Thankyou Brian
Thank you Brian for another great lesson. As some of us, I started playing in late 70’s using books and (trying) to jam with friends who were pretty much at the same level as me. Dropped the guitar for a few decades (work and family pressures) and seriously back at it with your teaching for the last 4-5 years. Your lesson today is indeed simple and effective to help me correct/improve my rythm technique. It helps me to better frame it and be much more consistent in my playing. I’m viewing this lesson as helping me to kick old habits out with a much more precise / consistent set of instructions.
Would love to see more of these “old habits kicking out” lessons. Thank you !
Yeah ,another great ,nice and useful lesson
Thanks.
Joe
Great lesson. Yes Brian, I would love to see a few more of these sprinkled into the mix as I’m keen to try and play more acoustic songwriter style songs myself and may even be inspired to try my own composition so these simple – but level shifting – ideas are a great help.
Thanks Brain.
There’s a mistake at 8:35 Part 2. That should read ‘A min shape (Bbmin chord)’.
Rhythm ideas are always appreciated. Would love to hear more.
I find it funny that the 4 of the 4 chord takes you to a chord out of the original key, actually being the bVII (similiarly, adding a sus4 to the IV chord adds a note outside the original key).
I think the idea is that each chord is being treated as it’s own key to find triad embellishments around it. That seems to be the way it is in rock, treating each of the I, IV and V as it’s own mixolydian key.