Take your playing to the next level.
Rhythm is everything! There’s a lot to being a good rhythm player and it’s an essential skill to have even if you’re a lead exponent. We look at all types of rhythmic strumming/picking across multiple genres. Playing in the pocket, getting the groove and locking in and playing in time with others. Lots of aspects to cover. Feel the rhythm and play it. If you haven’t got rhythm, you have lost a great deal! Let’s go and find it.
Check out our sister Sunday course running on the following day covering lead, soloing, improvistion.
Our Improvers-level courses are about taking your playing to the next level: harmony, melody, rhythm, technique and theory/know-how. It’s a structured day with a mix of group playing and learning how to play together properly. Here we’re focusing on rhythm.
This course is focused on the engine room i.e. the strumming/picking hand/arm. Rhythm is everything – it has a lot to do with both the ears and brain. It’s instantly noticeable if you’re ‘wandering’. The odd misplaced note is easily forgiven but rhythm is critical – if you struggle with time, and keeping to it, this is the course for you.
Listening is at the heart of music. As hobbyists we generally play by ourselves and our rhythm never really gets addressed or practised correctly.
We’ll cover: time signatures, rhythm notation, note and rest values, strumming and finger-picking techniques, counting in, keeping time, ‘playing in the pocket’, listening to others playing and ‘feeling the groove’.
Styles looked at include: rock, funk, blues, folk, soul, classical, jazz and many more. We’ll use an eclectic mix of great songs as a basis for all exercises across a diverse set of genres.
The course is suitable for most players and is based on both iconic (and some unusual) songs that will add to your repertoire and provide you with extra tools and confidence to improve your playing. If you can play open chords and some basic barre chords then you’re good to go.
This course, in particular, is a real ‘guitar fest’ and you’ll definitely add songs to your repertoire.
Check out our Improvers – Lead day course on the Sunday of the same weekend with the same tutor. It’ll be exploring the basics of soloing/lead/improvising.
B&B, dinners, etc. are available at this venue. Please contact them directly (click on the venue in the sidebar to go to their website).
We encourage most levels of acoustic, electric and bass guitarists to come along; it’s definitely not for a raw Beginner. Average-and-above players who have a few songs under their belt, can play most open chords and have attempted barre chords should be fine for the course. A good guideline question is “can you play a Blues in Bb?”
Any hand-outs will be provided during the course. We’ll make available all supplementary PDFs, copies of flip chart diagrams, any audio and video recordings after the course.
Unlike our online sessions these Day-Only courses can only accommodate limited group numbers – book early to avoid disappointment.
Note: B&B and/or dinners are available at the venue. Check out the venue’s website by clicking on the name in the sidebar and call/email them for details. Of course, other venues are available in the area.