[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]
[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]
Syncopation Studies for Rhythm GuitarBy: Jimmy Rutkowski a.k.a. Professor Jim
[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]
There
are 19 audio tracks that are available for download that go with this
lesson. See full track listing at the end of the lesson.
In
this lesson I am going to show how to develop a strong sense of
rhythmic playing. The member of the band who has the strongest feel and
sense of rhythm playing is the drummer. That being the situation, I have
taken syncopation studies for drum studies and used them to create
syncopation studies for the guitar player.
Syncopation
is a deliberate upsetting of the meter or pulse of a piece of music by
shifting the accent to a weak beat or an off-beat. Sounds complicated
but it isn’t at all. The key to getting this down is feeling the
sixteenth notes. A measure of music in a 4/4 time signature in sixteenth
notes would be counted:
1 E & Ah – 2 E & Ah – 3 E & Ah – 4 E & Ah
What
we need to do in order to develop our sense of rhythm now is to start
“scratch picking.” Scratch picking is nothing more than playing
percussive strums across the strings. We accomplish this by laying our
hands over the strings, and without pressing the strings down, strum the
strings with our picking hand. This muted deadened sound is the scratch
picking effect we are going for. Once we have the technique down we
then start strumming the strings down, up, down, up, etc. While doing
this say:
1 E & Ah – 2 E & Ah – 3 E & Ah – 4 E & Ah
Here is what this looks like in tablature:
[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]
Now let’s make this scratch picking
a musical idea. We’ll start by adding a D dominant9th chord into the
mix. This chord has a very funky bluesy vibe to it.
Here is the fingering of the D9 chord:
[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]
Now that we have our chord of
choice and our scratch picking technique let us fuse the two together to
make some syncopated grooves.
When doing these exercises keep
your left hand in position of the D9 chord only do not press the strings
down, let the fingers deaden the strings to create the muted sound only
pressing when needed for the specific strum in the example you are
playing.
Let us start with something simple and progress harder as we go.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]
That’s it for this installment.
Next time we will start working on the off-beats. Get all 15 rhythms
down cleanly. Your goal is to be able to play all of these with the
play-along tracks. Make sure you count out loud as you play!!
Until next time, keep rockin’ n’ rollin’!!
Professor Jim
Downloadable Track Listing:
Download all these Practice tracks for just $2.99. Yes I want the practice tacks.
1. Guitar Tuning Notes
2. Syncopation Studies for Rhythm Guitar #1 Scratch Picking
3. Syncopation Studies for Rhythm Guitar Example #2
4. Syncopation Studies for Rhythm Guitar Example #3
5. Syncopation Studies for Rhythm Guitar Example #4
6. Syncopation Studies for Rhythm Guitar Example #5
7. Syncopation Studies for Rhythm Guitar Example #6
8. Syncopation Studies for Rhythm Guitar Example #7
9. Syncopation Studies for Rhythm Guitar Example #8
10. Syncopation Studies for Rhythm Guitar Example #9
11. Syncopation Studies for Rhythm Guitar Example #10
12. Syncopation Studies for Rhythm Guitar Example #11
13. Syncopation Studies for Rhythm Guitar Example #12
14. Syncopation Studies for Rhythm Guitar Example #13
15. Syncopation Studies for Rhythm Guitar Example #14
16. Syncopation Studies for Rhythm Guitar Example #15
17. Syncopation Studies for Rhythm Guitar Example #16
18. Syncopation Studies for Rhythm Guitar Backing Track 100Bpm Example Length
19. Syncopation Studies for Rhythm Guitar Backing Track 100Bpm Extended Length
[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]
