Question on the Rock and Blues course materials...

[bind_06]

I had read that the Rock and Blues course includes all kinds of scale patterns and solos and licks, but does it also include materials on correct rhythm guitar playing and technique for Rock/Hard Rock? The main reason I ask is because lately I have been experimenting with Drop D tuning on my electric, and trying out some weird (and new to me) things such as stacked barre chords and such. I know that getting my fret-hand properly stretching for some things will take time and attention to practice (huge thanks on your Principles book, Jamie!), but as I work with some material such as Tool songs I am finding that there are some techniques with the rhythm hand that I'm not able to really get down. To be a bit more specific, it's mixing in correct palm muting with some open note work as well as open chords with muted notes...

I wasn't sure if that kind of tricky technique with the rhythm hand would be in that course or if I should look at some of the other work that Jamie's done?

[bind_06]

Oops! To clarify my question, I wasn't sure how in-depth the Rock/Blues course went into rhythm playing and string/chord damping and muting, or if I should look at other course books here for what I'm trying to work on. Thanks, and sorry if my above post seemed to wander off on a tangent.

[Jamie]

You will find basic training in positioning the hand for muting. There is no extensive training in rhythm playing in the course, it is mostly focused on lead.

It sounds to me, in any case, that you are going to have to deal with the "song specific" techniques you need....no method will be useful here. The musical passages of the songs themselves must be practiced, and associated exercises created to deal with whatever problems arise for you. All of my work gives you the knowledge of how to extract/create such exercises.

[bind_06]

Much thanks for the clarification on the course, and the advice for song-specifics. Thinking about it now, you're exactly right on that. There are times I get the feeling that I'm missing something, though I'm sure every guitarist goes through that at some points in their development. Much to do! And thank you again.

[GAA43]

I've recently made it through (note I didn't say I've finished it!) the R&B course and was hungering for some rhythm stuff in the same vein and at the same level, and found the course linked below on Truefire.com (which BTW was recommended to me by Jamie).

http://truefire.com/blues-guitar-lesson ... k-rhythms/

It's exactly what I was after. I'm finding it quite challenging*, and can say for sure that I would never have had any hope of making headway with it without the learning and practice techniques I've learned from the R&B course and other of Jamie's materials.

*Specifically one of the hardest things for me is muting techniques, left and right hand. The instructional materials don't give a fraction of the how-to detail that the GP courses do, but you can watch and hear the guy doing it, and from there its up to you to do it slow and experiment until it starts to work.

[bind_06]

Much thanks for the link, GAA43. Very interesting read on it, so it's made it's way into my to-get list.

My original guitar instructor was of the older blues/rock/funk variety and only gave me the basics on rhythm. As I've moved on to self-teaching and working with the Principles I've realized how many gaps my old teacher left me to fill in 'naturally'. I've only just begun the work of making the Principles a habit in my practice, but it's already working wonders for me in changing some bad habits. I'm naturally more of a rhythm player, and have been focusing on that more lately as I've come to realize that no solo or fill or phrase is going to sound good unless it also has good timing and rhythm under it.

[GAA43]

You're welcome, glad it may be of some value to you.

Reading your comment '... as I've come to realize that no solo or fill or phrase is going to sound good unless it also has good timing and rhythm under it' it occurs to me that there may be two distinct aspects of the word 'rhythm' being considered.

One aspect is that of rhythm techniques, i.e. at a basic level different strums, and at a more complicated level various licks, patterns, shuffles, styles etc. This is definitely the subject of the Truefire course I mentioned. I agree with your statement quoted above in the sense that having a deeper bag of tricks in terms of rhythm licks and riffs is arguably more important to e.g. being able to contribute to a jam, or to learn songs, than is having great lead playing abilities.

The other aspect is more fundamental, and that is the ability to keep good time, and to alway know where one is relative to the beat and to the measure, ideally without counting. In fact I gather that while counting is a way to develop the skill, at some point counting (e.g. 1-e-and-uh) becomes counterproductive. N E Y has written on this topic especially in the 'moved from old forum' forum.

IMO, having competence here, i.e. having good time, is absolutely the most important part of making good music. Certainly its important to rhythm playing, but no less so for lead playing. Without it everything else is for naught, and with it, any sort of noise can be interesting. This aspect has been and still is one of the most difficult and least natural for me - I definitely feel like I suffer from white man's disease in this respect.

Anyway, I would say that the R&B course, even though it focuses on lead playing, is very very good in helping one develop this basic rhythm foundation. Rhythm is carefully notated in the solos, and you'll find that if you have Jamie evaluate your playing via videos posted to the forum, she is quite particular about getting the time right. Of course the Principles in general strongly emphasize use of the metronome. The solos mix quarter, eighth, triplets, and some 16th notes within measures in a way that is really a good teaching approach.

Most likely I've just stated the obvious, but perhaps there is something useful in the above comments.

Greg

[bind_06]

Well, to clarify a little, I was talking about both aspects of rhythm. It's the actual techniques (strums, patterns, pick tricks, etc) that I am wanting to learn more about, and which I think that link provided will be a great help with. The second part of what I was talking about is the underlying rhythm skills such as proper timing used with solos and fills and licks and such. My old teacher spent more time on the 'solos' aspect of things than how to get those solos in proper time and in rhythm with the music. A good example of what I mean by that would be a new student using the pentatonic scale trying to solo over the 12-bar blues and not really knowing how to time their licks with the rhythm being played.

I've always had a naturally blues-y sound and style to my solos, and of course to get that proper 'feeling' across in the blues it's all about timing with the music! So, rhythm study first and scales/solos study after, seems the most logical to me as far as foundation building to grow my playing as I advance. I'm still fairly new to these forums but I'll post up a proper introduction soon. Thanks again for the comments, and they do indeed help bring to mind some 'basics' as well as encourage thought on exactly what all goes into those things that seem to come naturally over time.