Rhythm Guitar Workout

Adding melody to your rhythm playing makes it much more interesting and exciting. Sometimes you need to just lay back and play a simple chord, but knowing how to embellish them gives you options. This lesson is going to take you through a rhythm guitar workout meant to stretch you into thinking in new ways.

I’ve been out for a couple weeks, and now I’m happy to be back in my studio creating content once again.

The last two weeks were full of rehearsals and performances, which included the Capital Jazz Festival in Baltimore Maryland. That was a BLAST. I got to see some amazing performances from Marcus Miller, Lalah Hathaway, John Butler and many more.

I got to perform on the big stage with my good friend and fellow Portland Oregon resident, Jarrod Lawson. It was a real honor to be a part of that festival, and I’m still enjoying the afterglow of the experience.

Now it’s time to buckle down and get back in the swing of things. That brings me to today’s lesson.

Rhythm Guitar Workout for Building Chord Fluency

When you play rhythm guitar, are you moving all over the neck?

Are you using the same basic chord shape because you aren’t sure how to play in a single position?

I’ve been there before, but over time I figured out how to approach rhythm guitar in a more musical and melodic way.

You can use the melody notes surrounding your chord to create MOTION. Motion is what makes rhythm playing sound interesting. It can be simple, or it can be complex, but motion is the key to adding pizzazz (that’s a technical term 😉 to your playing.

Check out the workout for today and you’ll see that I’ve created a basic melodic pattern. Then, the pattern is moved to begin at the different inversions of the 1st chord. This adjusts each of the chords to the new position, using different inversions each time.

Clip of the day

Here is a new video from Cory Wong & Dirty Loops. If you aren’t familiar with Cory’s music, he is an amazing guitarist who has some very fun(ky) music.

This is more of a soft fusion tune, and I really love the vibe here. Cory specializes in rhythm guitar playing and is a great guy to check out to get some ideas for rhythm playing.