Rhythm Variations

As I mentioned on the last page, the rhythm of the music is played with your right hand. In the case of the last exercise we played a down stroke on each beat of the bar. You're probably finding this pretty boring by now so let's alter the rhythm by including some up strokes as well as down strokes.

Exercise 9 An up stroke (up strum) is made by striking the strings from bottom to top with the plectrum in your right hand. It shouldn't sound as dominant as a down stroke, so instead of strumming across all the strings from bottom to top, just catch the bottom two or three. The diagram below shows an Em chord played with consecutive down up strokes. The up strokes are written as ... (surprise surprise) ... up arrows. Have a listen to Exercise 9 sound file * and try it yourself. .

Exercise 10 In reality, you probably wouldn't use the last rhythm too often in a song because it sounds too busy. We can alter it slightly by taking out every second up stroke (starting with the first one). Have a look at the diagram below, then listen to Exercise 10 sound file *. Notice how it has more of a definite beat to it compared with the last exercise. Have a go yourself. .

Exercise 11 We can use this rhythm in the chord progression we played in Exercise 8 on the last page. I mentioned that we weren't too interested in the bottom number of the time signature then... Well we are now... The bottom number tells us the time value of each beat. In this case the number four meaning a quarter beat. So how long is a quarter beat? At the moment... SLOW! We played four down strokes (one on each beat of the bar) and each one lasted a duration called a quarter. If we put upstrokes in between the down strokes without altering the tempo (timing) then each stroke will only be half as long ...an eighth beat. Are you still with me? Since we are only playing every second upstroke, we have a rhythm like down...,down up, down...,down up, etc... which can be counted 1...,2 and, 3..., 4 and, etc... The time values of the rhythm in each bar are a quarter beat followed by two eighth beats, then another quarter beat followed by another two eighth beats. Don't stress out if you couldn't completely follow my explanation on time values. You'll pick them up soon enough as you play. Look at the chord chart below, then listen to exercise 11 sound file * and play through it with your guitar. You might have to stop for the chord changes initially, but after a few times through test yourself by continuing playing the rhythm with your right hand even if your left hand is a bit slow at changing the chords. .

Exercise 12 We can alter the rhythm yet again by rearranging the sequence of down up strokes. In the chord chart below you can see each bar has a rhythm of down..., down up, down up, down...,etc. This is counted 1..., 2 and, 3 and, 4..., etc, and the time values of the strokes in each bar are a quarter beat followed by four eighth beats then another quarter beat. Notice that not only the rhythm has changed from the last exercise, but also the chord progression. Listen to Exercise 12 sound file *. You can hear that the new rhythm has a different feel altogether. Have a go with your guitar. You might have to stay on one chord for a while until you pick up the rhythm.

Don't be in a rush with any of these exercises. You should feel more or less confident on each one before you move on. When you're ready go to the next page and I'll show you some new chords. Pretty soon you'll know enough to play a song.

 
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Copyright ©1997 Kim Wainwright.