uiitll :;:llrril:::lllltlllrlrlltlli: with KevinDowning TheRhythm 's Role role of rhythm fhe within a band settingis often overlooked, rhythmguitar parts you hearoften.Sometimes you might hearonly one misunderstood I and undervaluedamongst fellow musicians.Not of themand sometimesall four within a song.Keep your ears open. I many guitar playersactually understand what the role entails Exercise1 givesyou a chord progressionusing a bar of G and one of either,but here I will explainsome of the most basicthings you needto C,and within it are partialchords. Under beats 2 and 4 are dotswhich know to becomea betterrhythm playerimmediately. indicatea staccatonote meaningto stop it just after you play it. So it lf you are in a band settingwhere you arethe only guitarist,thenyou soundslike - long,short, long, short.This is a type of rhythm part you hear are likelyplaying rhythm and backup partsaround 950lo of the time and a lot,but many playersmiss. lt reallyis a good thing to get usedto doing solosfor the remainder.lfyou arein a bandwith two guitarsthen you will aslittle things like this can take your playing to the nextlevel. be playingrhythm 1000/oof the time! In Exercise2 iswhat manypeople call the diamondstrumiyou Rhythmguitar is not just about strumming chords all the time as many on beat one and let it ring for four beats.Thewiggly arrow meansto run peoplethink, but ratheruses everything you will everlearn in music.One your pickdown the stringsso asto get a slightarpeggio effect. lt sounds commontendency is to overplayby strummingtoo much,which can kill best playedvery closeto the bridgeas well. a song.Thisis wherethe saying'lessis more'comesfrom - playinga lot Exercise3 isa triad part playedup the neckfurther with an accenton 2 lesscan reallymake the song come aliveand groove.Exercises 2 and 4 and 4,which is the backbeat.This type of rhythm part reallygives a song demonstratethis. a lot of driveand energy.Theaccent mark is the littledirection type arrow Firstof all,to be a greatrhythm playeryou must know the songoff by over beat2 and 4.Youwill hearaccents on any beatwithin a bar,so listen heart.BythatI meanthe songform,the chords,and where on the beats to your favouritesongs very carefullyas the accentsmake the groove. they change,where the hits (accents)are, what dynamicsaie used,what Sometimesa guitar part is just to play the back beat and nothing else, the other musiciansare playing etc. which can give evenmore energyto a song. Yes,it takesa lot of disciplineand effortto do this,but if you do you will The bubble part is what is in Exercise4. lt is best playedwith muted be well aheadof the packalready.Writing stuff down on paperhelps you stringsand on fretted strings.Normally they are just one note and are to memorisethe parts- you don't haveto readmusic to do this,just write playedstaccato as well. it anyway you want to that will helpyou.lt doesn,tmatter how muchyour Now try playingthese parts using your looper.Trytwo partsat a time, bandpractices, if you don't know your individualparts well beforeyou get mixthem up,then three,etc.You might be able to inventsome other small to the rehearsal,your band will suck. part that can accompanythese parts. lf you listen to favourite recordingsyou will come acrossa few Of coursethere are many other partsyou will hear;but thesefour basic parts that all the professionalsemploy regularly.The first one is differentrhythm partswill transformyour playingimmediately, and they to playnothing at all.Yesthat might soundstrange, but in manysongs are all very easyto do with a bit of practice.Over the next few months the rhythm player'laysout'for the first verseand sometimesthe third keepyour earsopen to seeif you can hearthese partsin your favourite 'tacit' - verse.Sometimes a is calledfor just anothername for layingout. songs.lf you haveany trouble, it might payto seea good guitarteacher. Whenthe guitardoes come in it all addsto the dynamiclevels of the song.remembering that versesare normallyquieter than chorusesand KevinDowning is a professionalguitarist,teacher,and author.His contact dynamiclevels can change a lot duringa song. details,along with many other articlesand freebies,are on his websiteat Lookingat the examplesin the music/tabI haveoutlined four different www.quitor.co.nz

Ex 1. Ex 2. G G

rl I 0 0_0 1- I _1_ I 0_ 0 0_0_

Ex 3. Ex 4. G G

3-3-3-3- 5-5-5-5-5-5*5*5 5-5-5-5-5-5*5-5

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