Acoustic Rhythm Guitar Mini Course - Day 1
Bass Note Picking Patterns For Your Acoustic Guitar Playing
A great guitar strumming technique for your acoustic guitar is to pick out some bass notes of the chords you play. Doing this will make your playing sound more interesting and helps to break up your strumming patterns.
In todays lesson I will show you some cool acoustic guitar rhythm patterns involving the technique of bass note picking. You can use this approach quite subtly, but still with good effect, or you can use it a little more extensively, creating a bass line, weaving its way through your strumming patterns.
But first, here is the chord progression I will be using throughout this mini course on approaches to your acoustic guitar rhythm playing:
I will be referring back to the above progression in future lessons, as a kind of side by side comparison, so that you can see how effective the ideas we explore really are.
The first bass note rhythm pattern that you can apply to your strumming is to simply pick out the root note of each chord you play. Here it is:
This has a more subtle effect, but is a great way to break up your strumming. It also adds a nice dynamic to your rhythm guitar playing. By dynamic I mean that some parts of the beat are emphasized more than others. You get a light and shade effect so as to avoid having everything sound at the same volume level.
In the next example I use a bass note rhythm pattern that uses other notes of the chord too. Here it is:
As you can hear in the example above, when you use more notes for the bass part, other than just the root note of each chord, you start to create more of a bass line. This is a great strumming technique you can apply to the progressions you play. It has a particular sound about it, and may not suit every musical situation, but it sure is great to have the skills to use it when suited.
The following bass note pattern for your rhythm guitar playing is more of an extension of the previous example. Here it is:
In the example above I have simply added additional chord tones to the G, Em, and C chords. You will need to alternate your 3rd finger from the 5th to 6th string when playing the C chord so that you can get the note required on beats 2 and 4.
Finally, here is a way you can have the bass note picking patterns you apply to your strumming on the acoustic guitar, sound even more like a separate bass line that accompanies your playing.
In the example above, I have broken away from strumming completely on the 4th beat of each bar so that room is created to insert some bass note connections. You now have a great bass line that is weaving its way through through your strumming pattern. It can give your listener the illusion that two guitars are playing. Very cool!
What To Do With All Of This
What you have learned today are just some examples of applying bass note rhythm patterns to your guitar strumming. You should learn the examples above and then apply them to other chord progressions that you know.
In the coming lessons that I have for you on great ways to approach your acoustic guitar rhythm playing, I will show you how to apply and connect together the ideas that I am showing you. This is MASSIVELY beneficial for your guitar playing, so you don’t want to miss it.
In tomorrows lesson I am going to show you some cool ways to not only pick the notes in the chords of a progression, but also how to train this into your playing so it’s something you can use freely, whenever you want. Look out for it in your email inbox.
Songs With Examples Of Bass Note Picking:
- Folsom Prison Blues by Johnny Cash
- Pretty much anything from Chet Atkins and similar fingerpickers
Learn how to make continuous improvement with your acoustic playing with my online lessons for fingerpicking guitar