Chords for Bluegrass Rhythm Guitar Lesson: Know the Job First.m4v

_ _ _ _ _ _ [C] _ _
_ _ [D] _ _ [G] _ _ _ _
_ _ [F#] In this segment I want to take a look at the role of the rhythm guitar player in the bluegrass
band and take a look at better understanding the elements that make up the parts.
There's a lot of good information out there about different samples of bluegrass rhythm
and different variations.
So instead of looking at just another handful of examples, I want to take a look at the
different bits and pieces that go into making a successful bluegrass rhythm.
Every note that you play should have a specific role, a specific purpose in this, and if it
doesn't, it's potentially getting in the way and muddying things up.
So we're going to take a look here at the basic foundational rhythm and then we're going
to add some different elements and talk about what they do for the rhythm.
So let's talk about this job of being a bluegrass rhythm guitar player from a different perspective.
Sometimes I like to describe this when I'm working with somebody as the _ bluegrass rhythm
guitar player is the equivalent of the drummer in say a rock band.
We have similar duties, similar roles and purposes.
If you think, the downstroke, _ _ the G note, the root note on one, is the same thing as
a drummer hitting his kick drum or hitting his bass drum.
Typically, if you think [N] about a standard straight beat, you've got kick on one, snare on two,
boom, chick, boom, chick, boom, chick.
We're doing the same thing.
Now imagine if that drummer's going boom, chick, boom, chick, but he's going crazy on
all the cymbals all at the same time.
You're not going to want to play with that guy.
That's the same thing if we get a lot of strumming going on and a lot of busy work going on in
this rhythm guitar.
It's the equivalent of us going nuts on our cymbals.
That ain't going to work for anybody, at least not for very long.
You really have to sculpt things out so that everything you choose to do has purpose.
Otherwise, you just distract from the tune.
You distract from what everybody else is doing.
_ That just doesn't work for anybody.
Keep it, when you're going through this, start off simple, just as straight as you can get
and as solid as you can get so that your tempos are not varying.
You're not missing any of your beats, your downs or your upstrokes.
You're just locked in.
Then start to think, where do I have room?
Where do I have room to add things in?
If you pick a specific song to look at or to try to play through, and if you sing along
and you realize, hey, I just sang the end of a phrase and now I've got this two-beat
opening before the next phrase starts, there you go.
There's your chance to signify that [G] with maybe an accented strike or a little fill or a little
run or something.
You're triggering that this new thing is going to happen and that something has ended.
Let's start off by [E] establishing our chord progression.
We're going to do just a [C] G to C, [G] back [D] to G, and D progression here.
[G] Bass strings on one, _ and then the middle of the chord or the rest of the chord on two. _
On two.
And then [B] the third beat, we're going to [G] do this B note, which is the third of the chord,
the third degree of the chord. _ _ _ _
_ _ _ [C] Same thing for C.
Root on one, strum on two, _ [G] third of the [E] chord, which will be your E note
here, [C] and then strum on four.
[G]
Back to G, _ _ _ _ _ and then to D, [D] root of the chord, _ _ strum, and then [A] A, which is open A string.
[D] _ _ _
_ _ _ [A] _ [Em] So put it together and we [G] start off with.
_ _ _ _ [C] _ _ _ _
[G] _ _ _ _ [D] _ _ _ _
_ _ That's the [N] foundation we're going to build on.
Now we're going to add a little bit to this thing.
The first thing we're going to add is to the D chord, we're going to do this little run.
It's just back to G.
_ _ _ [G] _
_ D, [C] [B] C, B, [G] E, to your G chord or land of root.
Here it is with adding that into the sequence.
What that does, that little run turns us back around and ends that four bar phrase and starts
us back on a [E] new four bar phrase.
So it signifies that that segment has been accomplished, [F#] completed, [Em] and we're starting
a new one.
That's what that would [G] sound like. _ _ _
[C] _ _ _ _ [G] _ _ _ _
[D] _ _ _ [Bm] _ [G] _ _ _ _
[C] _ _ _ _ [G] _ _ _ _
[D] _ _ _ [Bm] _ [G] _ _ _ _
[E] Next, let's add a little walk that will connect G to C, and we're going to add the same sort
of walk that adds C to G, connects C [G] back to G.
_ _ _ _ [A] _ _ [C] _
_ _ _ [G] _ _ _ _ _
_ _ [C] _ _ _ _ _ [G] _
_ _ [A] So the run just goes from the G chord, walks up to A, _ [B] B, [C] and then your next note would
be the root of C. _
[Em] So that's the connection.
That would connect G to C, and C back to G is [G] _ [E] E [G] _ _ [E] _
on the second fret [A#] [G] to your open G string.
_ _ So it sets it up.
_ [E] Put you back there on G.
_ _ So, so far we've got a sample of something that ends a phrase, [B] and we've got a couple
samples [A] of connecting between the chords.
The next thing we're going to do though is say we have a [G] turnaround that would be G for
two beats, [D] D for [G] two beats, and it gets us back to G.
So if we looked at it like this, we would have the G, _ _ _ [D] _ _ _ _ [G] _
_ _ so we went from our G chord, _ _ _ B,
[D] C, D, so it takes us to the root, walk up to the root of the D chord, _ _ _ and then we drop
[G] down to low E and walk back to [F#] E, [G] F sharp, and G. _ _
_ _ _ _ [E] _ _ _ _
[G] _ _ _ [G#] _ There's [F#] a little add-on that you can do, that I like to do, to show that we're at the beginning
of a phrase.
Now if I want to [G] do G, strum, root strum, third strum, excuse me, I might like to hammer
on, the first time I come to that, I'll hammer on this B note. _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _
But I'm not going to do it every time, otherwise it just takes up more space and then it loses
its meaning of what it signifies.
And to me that signifies we're starting this phrase.
_ _ _ _ [C] _ _ _ _
Notice there I did it on the first _ _ _ half of that C chord, the first half of the measure, _ _ _ _
but I left the space in the second half.
So in this case I'm using it at the front of each measure, the front of each section
of chord, in order to signify the front.
And then we let it flow, and it flows on through to the end of that phrase.
If I were going to try to use that, _ _ _ _
[C] _ _ _ _ [G] _ and then I wanted something to signify the end of my
phrase, I needed to punch it somehow that way, I might turn this last strum, so the
last beat of the measure, into an eighth note strum.
So you could do something like, [E] up down.
It'd be something like this.
_ [G] _ _ _ [C] _
_ _ _ _ [G] _ _ _ _
[D] _ _ [E] _ _ [G] _ _ _
The best way to get better at this is to take [D#]
this approach, take this idea of only play
what needs to be played, and only help out where you need to help out, with extra stuff,
with accents, and start to develop parts for specific songs.
Pick [C] bluegrass standards, or pick anything you want to look at, and follow along through
the melody, follow along, sing along, or if you play along to a recording, you can play
the recording of something you like, make sure you start with less and build up, and
only keep what you need in the end. _ _ _ _ _ _ _