The second workshop in my three-part Groove Master Classtomorrow,Thursday, September 19th at 10:30am CDT. You can join me at the link below:
Groove Master Class, Part Two • Rudiments & Syncopation
Groove can seem like one of
those vague things you either have or you don't. But when it comes to fingerstyle guitar, you could think of groove as the ability to play relaxed-sounding, well-phrased licks or melodies while maintaining a regular bass line at a consistent tempo, all without dropping any beats or losing track of the chords.
Once you have a working definition like that, there are some very specific things you can work on to improve your groove.
First, you could make sure
you know the form of the tune, the phrasing of the melody, and how the bass line spells out the song's chord progression. Start by isolating and playing just the bass. Next, do the same with the melody. And finally, work on putting them back together. That process can really help you understand how a song is built, and to anticipate where it's headed next as you play it.
That's what we covered yesterday in part one of my Groove Master Class – a process I call the
Horizontal 3-Step. If you missed the live stream, you can watch the replay here:
Groove Master Class, Part One • Form & Phrasing
The second thing you can work on is the coordination between your thumb and your fingers. Just like you can isolate the bass line or the
melody, you can also isolate the kinds of rhythms your thumb and fingers will have to spell out. Drummers practice rudiments on a practice pad before applying various patterns to the entire kit; we can work out various rhythmic challenges for our picking hand that we can then apply to any tune we want to play better.
That's what I'll be covering tomorrow, Thursday, September 19, at 10:am CDT, in part two of my Groove Master Class:
Groove Master Class, Part Two • Rudiments & Syncopation
In addition to a PDF with tab of all the examples I'll be teaching tomorrow, I'll have a live chat window going throughout the workshop, so if you've got questions, you can ask me directly as the class unfolds.
If you haven't downloaded the tab yet, you can get
it here:
Groove Master Class PDF
Hope to see you there!
–David