Basic Rhythm Guitar

This lesson will teach you these four things:

• Basic 4/4 Timing
• Basic 4/4 Rhythms
• Swing Rhythms
• Offbeat Rhythms

1. Basic 4/4 Timing

Every song in the world has a certain timing and one of the most used and easiest to understand is 4/4. Count to 4 slowly then repeat… Well done you are doing a 4/4 beat! A 4/4 beat consists of 4 beats in a bar, this means you could have:

· 1 long note that is 4 beats long	- Semibreve	or Whole note
· 2 medium length notes that are 2 beats each	- Minim	or Half note
· 4 short notes that are 1 beat each	- Crotchet	or Quarter note
· 8 fast notes that are half a beat each	- Quaver	or Sixteenth note

But you can also have silent beats known as rests, meaning that there are thousands of possibilities! Try playing these next few bars on any string. All the bars should be the same length. Don’t go too fast or you may not be able to finish…

0——-/1——-/0—1—/0-1-0-1-/01010101// 1 2 3 4 /1 2 3 4 /1 2 3 4 /1 2 3 4 /1 2 3 4 //

· Each dash (-) represents half a beat
· Each slash (/) represents the beginning of a new bar
· A double slash (//) means tab over.

2. Basic 4/4 Rhythms

Now that you understand timing you can start to play some songs with chords in. When playing rhythm guitar you can do a downstroke (v) or an upstroke (^). A downstroke should go away from your face towards the floor and an upstroke the opposite. Hold a simple E Major chord and try strumming 4 quarter beats, these should all be downstrokes. Try to make all the gaps between strums the same length…

__ v v v v e| 0-0-0-0-// B| 0-0-0-0-// G| 1-1-1-1-// D| 2-2-2-2-// A| 2-2-2-2-// E| 0-0-0-0-//

This is like a marching rythmn and is also quite boring after a while so you can liven it up by adding an upstroke at the end. On the second to last strum catch the strings on the way up as you prepare for the next bar, and try not to rush the last two strums…

__ v v v v^ e| 0-0-0-00// B| 0-0-0-00// G| 1-1-1-11// D| 2-2-2-22// A| 2-2-2-22// E| 0-0-0-00//

3. Swing Beats

Swing beats are a way of making a song sound catchy or harder than they actually are. This is a hard technique to start for some but one worth learning. When a song is swung it means that the rythmn is not played exactly how it is written. You can’t do what you want however! It means that when two eighth notes are played side by side the first is slightly longer so the second must be shorter. To make it fit inside one beat, try this exercise. It has two swung eighth beats then a quarter beat rest. Remember the rest…

Swung __ v^_ v^ e| 00–00–// B| 00–00–// G| 11–11–// D| 22–22–// A| 22–22–// E| 00–00–//

Another way to get it right is to think not swung is da da and swung is d daa.

A commonly used swing technique is muting the strings. You can acheive this by taking your hand slightly off the fret board, so it produces a percussion sound when strung. This is known as Left Hand Muting. This is represented in tab by an “x”. After doing your first muting in this rythm keep your hand down so you can do an up stroke and this time the rests are an eighth note long…

Swung ___v^v ^v^ e| 00x-00x-// B| 00x-00x-// G| 11x-11x-// D| 22x-22x-// A| 22x-22x-// E| 00x-00x-//

Offbeat Rhythms

Offbeat is a technique used in mainly ska and reggae. Most the time you play notes on the beats, but with offbeat you play in the gaps in between the beats (off the beat). This makes it sound happy, lively and up beat. If you tap a steady 4/4 beat with one hand then tap in the gaps with the other the other hand is off beat. Try this example of an offbeat rhythm…

e |—9—-9—-9—-9–// B |—13—13—13—13-// G |———————// D |———————// A |———————// E |———————// ____1____2____3____4