Rhythm is everything! You can have the coolest licks, chords, fills, turnarounds, intros, technique, etc. BUT if you haven’t got rhythm, you’ve got nothing! We look at all types of rhythmic strumming across multiple genres. Playing in the pocket, feeling the groove and playing in time with others. Read the rhythm and play it.
This course is always fast and furious and incredible fun. You’ll leave it buzzing.
Important – you’re about to reserve a place on a course that is officially FULL
Overview
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 some great songs as a basis for all exercises. We’ll consider the likes of Chic, Paul Simon, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Stevie Wonder and many more.
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 to your repertoire.
Course suitability
We encourage most levels of acoustic, electric and bass guitarists to come along; it’s definitely not for a 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.
Materials
Hand-outs are provided during the weekend and after the course we make all avvailable all supplementary PDFs, copies of flip chart diagrams, any audio and video recordings and photos of the group.