Description
In this week’s guitar lesson you’ll learn how to play a simple, Jimi Hendrix inspired rhythm embellishment that works great for both rhythm and lead ideas.
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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Simple but sweet. Thanks Brian
I’m open to learning any kind of chord embellishments. Thanks for sharing, Brian.
Really a fun lesson this week. I’m learning new vocabulary. Thanks, Brian.
Great stuff Brian, but how do you do that muted upstroke? Do you take your left hand off the strings? Is is there some kind of right hand move? This seems pretty difficult for me.
yes, the left hand stays over the strings but doesn’t press down to the fret
Hi James,
To practice this technique at the basic level try fretting any note (but maybe start on the bass E string) and then playing a consistent rhythm with your right hand. try and get the sound consistent and monotonous – just a repeating note.
Now ignore the right hand (let it continue) and slowly release pressure on your (left) fretting hand. Don’t lift your finger off the string – keep it touching the string.
You will hear the note replaced by a percussive muted sound. Practice applying and releasing the pressure in time and creating different rhythm patterns. Notice how the right hand can be doing a very basic pattern (straight eights perhaps) but the left hand can create quite complex and cool sounding rhythms – just by pressure and release.
You can try the same thing with a whole chord or part of a chord. Barre chords are the easiest way to learn this. Play a consistent strum with the right hand and then release pressure of the left hand until all you can hear is percussive strumming. You can then create almost limitless rhythm patterns by just applying and releasing pressure.
Playing what Brian is playing exactly is quite tricky – so don’t worry about that at this stage.
This form of muting is designed to produce a percussive ‘toneless’ sound. Not to be confused with string muting designed to silence strings…
Hope that helps.
Thanks much Rob. This is very helpful.
Wow! Thanks Brian! This had alot of meat on the bone. I think I’ve seen a few other people say simple but sweet and comments like that. But I really dig this. Not only do I love Hendrix . Who doesn’t? But the way you explained it……Bam thank you! Crazy how once you see CAGED in a certain style . Or songs. It’s really freeing!! I’m all for more related lessons. Clapton, Gilmore. Gibbons. Oh and thank you for turning me on to Dave Rawlings. Fabulous!!!
A mite short
For a ‘micro’ lesson?
it’s a microlesson – it ended up being 10 minutes longer than I wanted it to
I love the micro lessons. They are digestible vice the full ones, which I just ignore sometimes because it would take me weeks or months to get them down.
Hi Brian,:
here in Germany it´s Saturday morning, I started the new lesson at 8:30 am.
A great stuff helping me understanding the CAGED system. I can really use it while playing in my blues band 🙂
Thank you very much indeed !
Hi Brian. Interesting lesson. Not to difficult but very good sounding…just like Jimi. Very useful to learn and use while checking guitars in music stores😉
Great stuff Brian, I think I blew a breaker so many light bulbs when off… Would love to see a whole series on this type of rhythm spice.
‘ so well done.
Brian, these micro lessons are awesome! This one in particular was perfect. Personally I prefer these bite size lessons where i can “own it” in a day as opposed to the EP lessons where we drink from a fire hose lol! As a working professional, who also is also building a band as a hobby, time is precious. Smaller allotments of learning time allow me more practice time. You have to balance the two, … right?
Thank you for your incredible teaching.
I think you have introduce that guitar before …
Who is it made by? Do you like it? Nice sound!
I’d like to know that too. Cool size, nice sound.
check out this video where I explain it
Ah! I remember seeing this now. Thanks!
Short and neat with cool ideas. Thanks Brian
I really get a lot out of these lessons that tie embellishments to chord shapes. These lessons help me build a library of licks and embellishments that make rhythm playing a lot more fun and colorful. They also are helpful in forming a basis for improvised soloing. Great stuff Brian. Keep going.
What a great lesson. Love the micros. I’ve been struggling for years with this style and you break it down in a manner that is easy to follow, remember, and play. As always thank you for all you do!!
great lesson, always amazing how same ideas can sound so different in different styles
Love these micro lessons. short but plenty of meat. this use of chord shapes is slowly sinking in my brain.
Hey Brian
The first lesson I had with you was a Hendrix thing that you did before you launched your website a long time ago. It’s been great watching you create such an incredible online school for guitar players.
Another excellent lesson!
Bonjour Brian,
Please, make your own version of Hey Joe. It’s a chord progression derived from the CAGED system Expliquez nous comment construire a lead and rythm guitar.
Thanks,
What guitar is that you’re playing. Don’t remember seeing that one before.
It was years ago I did a ‘new’ lesson, probably over 5 years; only once in a while I looked back at one of the ‘old ones’…
Very good to find out again you are (still) so capable of not only teach the technics in a very clear and enthusiastic way, but also supply us with a really useful and understandable theoretical background.
Keep up this good work, Brian.
Fantastic lesson! Love the Hendrix rhythm style, more of those always welcome. I read somewhere that his rhythm style was very inspired by Pops Staples, which sounds very plausible when I listen to the Staples singers (or that great album he did with Steve Cropper and Albert King, “jammed together”), and seems plausible given time and place.
Love it!
This lesson and ML 147 are inspirational and very fun to play.