How To Be A Great Rhythm Guitar Player

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What separates a good rhythm guitar player from a great rhythm guitar player? There are countless things, but in this video, I'm going to focus in on the one thing that I think makes the biggest difference: dynamic strumming -- which means learning how to think more like a drummer. If you have any questions, leave them in the comments below. Thanks for watching!

#rhythmguitar #guitarlesson #guitar #beginnerguitar
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-- Referenced Videos --
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🎸 Gear Used In This Video:

Guitar:

Fender American Vintage II 1966 Jazzmaster

Pedals:

Origin Effects Cali 76

Universal Audio Golden Reverberator

Amp:

Suhr Bella

Cables & Strings:

Revelation Cables

Stringjoy Signatures 9-42
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📖 Video Chapters:
0:00 - Lesson introduction
0:30 - What makes a great rhythm guitarist?
1:01 - Dynamic strumming
1:59 - Think like a drummer
3:17 - Live example 1
5:00 - Live example 2
6:09 - Your assignment
6:35 - What's next?
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🔗 My Links:

[sublyme]

If you ever watch a good bass player play the guitar, you'll notice how different they play. Bass players, being an extension of the drummer, naturally play guitar as an extension of the drummer. It's fascinating!

[williamb]

As a beginner/intermediate guitar player, but experienced drummer, I’ve always done this. In the noob areas of the interweb that I frequent people often ask "what’s the strumming pattern" and it’s always sounded like the wrong question to ask.

[roymeyer]

This is why when people are used to "strumming patterns" I try to get them to count the patterns out loud to understand what beats they're strumming on. Then I ask what beats the drums in the same song play on. Then which of those beats are kick vs. snare. Great exercise to get people to break free of thinking in terms of strumming patterns and be able to play any song by feel instead.

[cjbaker]

I enjoyed this video. Dave Grohl talked about this, but haven’t seen a lesson on it. Thank you

[pietart]

This is exactly what I do. I keep seeing educators teach different strumming patterns but always felt like there's no one pattern that fits all. Thanks for this, your videos are amazing, I subscribed immediately!

[serujuc]

Always nice to see you providing easy to understand step-by-step methods about difficult concepts! Then still some practice required... no magic!

[intothecountry]

The best rhythm guitarist I’ve listened to is Johnny Marr, a master of this style

[OperatorPuski]

As a beginner I find a lot of value in your videos. Even if some of the lessons are more advanced than my skill level I can still apply something or take something away from them. Thank you! 🎸

[charlesshaw]

This was a great video and appreciate the new way to practice.

[This_is_fine]

I play rhythm, but I'm also the singer so for me it is keeping it simple with strumming. I love to practice lead in my spare time but I'm years away for playing lead

[mehmetnaciakkk]

Ha! Have to show this to my first guitar teacher! Thanks for the video!

I am an experienced percussionist/drummer. I started leajrning to play the guitar about 3 years ago. I was instructede in the regulrar UDUD strumming, but I always tended to play «dynamically» as you call it. That is what a drummer/percussioner «hears» 😊 But I was corrected. When I started to play guitar on stage, I saw that the audience reacted much more positively to drum-style-strumming. And it has also helped me learn finger-style and chord/melody arrangements later on, and to add arpeggios etc. into rythm guitar.

[meinhendl]

in my youth i played drums . months ago I started to try guitar . i always wondered why I don't get out the drums of my guitar !😄👍🏼thank you !

[andresp]

Hey Andrew, just wanted to say thank you for your videos and content. I'm the rhythm guitarist in my band and I believe that rhythm is the most important ingredient in every song, so your videos are very very useful. Keep it up!

[Detrnate]

Hey Andrew! Thank You for making this short but very Important & Effective insight "Lesson" on Rhythm or also on how to APROACH replicating a Drum-Kit Style on the Guitar + of course mentioning what´s absolutely important like (in my own personal opinion) the Timing you absolutely have to get down at some point as a growing Guitarist/ Guitar Player and Musician. No matter if on a Professional basis oder just as a Hobby for yourself. As long as it sounds Musical (that´s what I personally think there) you are definetily on the right way to become better in all sorts of rhytmic playing. Thats my experience from all moments of success and of course also from all failures or error-like attempts I´ve had since I started playing Guitar in March 2023!

So yeah, just thank you for that point of View you focused on in this Video and I personally would absolutely love to see more content with similar topics, if you would make Videos about it :D

Greetings & have a nice Day!
~Det

[jamesgibson]

Listen to "Sunday Papers" by Joe Jackson to understand what he means by high hat and snare on guitar. A good example of this is on that song. It''s an old song but shows what he means.

[Jkaterchannel]

You are an excellent teacher. Thank you.

[danbowers]

I really struggle with rhythm playing. These are great ideas. Thanks.

[imwoody]

Love this! I used to be a drummer but now play acoustic guitar so I’ve been doing this type of thing all along it just came natural to me. I am going to subscribe and see what else you have available. Thanks

[DM-ioqe]

Excellent tutorial! I'm a hobbyist drummer/piano/guitar guy and really appreciate the straight forward lesson on dynamics. Thank you. Just subscribed.

[ronniebroussard]

Andrew, you just gave me the greenlight. I’m learning guitar and have been struggling to keep the Strom pattern that some tutorials are teaching. My strumming is instinctively wanting to follow the drum pattern but I didn’t think I was right to do so it sounds better to me, it is more natural at least for me. Thanks for sharing great lesson.