Quote:
Originally Posted by blastingas10
I don't really know how else to explain it besides strumming each chord of the progression with the same strumming pattern and the same time.
I do get what you're saying, somewhat. Now I just need to put it to action. Hendrix was a great rhythm player, I try to observe and learn from him so I can transfer it to my own playing.
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There's definitely no harm in visual learning. I most definitely picked up a few tricks from watching Hendrix performances, like how to properly get the scratchy / whooshing sound after the 1st solo in Voodoo Chile (it's a pick scrape + wiping the sweat from your strings with your shirt sleeve / elbow).
What I was really getting at though is something more like the difference between these patterns:
Straight 1 chord per pattern per bar
G C D Am
1-234-1-234|1-234-1-234|1-234-1-234|1-234-1-234
Right? So you've got 8 beats per bar, 1 chord per bar strummed the same way. What I was suggesting looks more like this:
G C D Am D Am
1-234-1-234|1-234-1-234|1-234-1-234|1-234-1-234
Where as you can see all 4 chords still get played the same amount and the underlying rhythm doesn't change but the feel of the melody is altered by virtue of faster switches in its latter half.
The other thing you can try is the exact same behaviour that gets you shushed by most moms and babysitters the world over. We've all seen it (and likely done it) when you hear some random music and just start humming or beat boxing over it. It's the same principle. When you're 'being annoying' you're projecting your own sounds and melodies over an existing rhythm that you obviously have to be recognizing (at least indirectly) while applying a new level of musicality over it.
With rhythm playing it becomes tricky. You can't ignore the underlying rhythm but if all you do is play it by the numbers it tends to sound hollow and robotic. It's like the aural equivalent to one of those old 3d seeing-eye puzzles where you stare at a fractal looking thing before it turns into an airplane or something. The trick is being able to feel and recognize the rhythm without needing to hear or play the static pattern so that you're more capable of adding proper accents and embellishments.
The big thing with Hendrix is that he blurred the line between lead and rhythm. His rhythmic playing was very melodic, and his lead playing was very rhythmic. It was VERY rare to read any of his tabs where full chords were just strummed.
Whatever you do, remember the golden rule - IT
HAS TO BE FUN. Otherwise, just sell your guitar.