While the acoustic guitar is less commonly associated with rock than the electric, the acoustic has always had a strong presence in this genre—whether as a songwriting tool or the bedrock of a recording. These lessons cover a range of styles — from oldies and classic rock to punk, funk, and the pop of today.
The so-called Bo Diddley beat, shown in Example 5a may seem difficult at first, but if you break the beat down into a 16th-note subdivision, you’ll find a 3–3–2 pattern in the first half of the measure that may help you get a handle on it.
Examine the trademarks of Garcia’s acoustic approach, which incorporates strumming and flatpicking in both accompaniment and lead roles, all imbued with a fair amount of improvisation.
A cousin of alternating-bass fingerpicking, monotonic-bass fingerpicking keeps your thumb on the same bass note, instead of alternating between two or three notes.
John Lennon added an interesting twist in the Beatles’ “Julia” by playing the same bass strings in the same order for each chord, regardless of which string held the root.
Most guitarists start playing leads by learning to play scales. This is a great way to begin, but scales are just one way to play solo lines. Learn more with this excerpt from Acoustic Rock Basics.
This pattern lifted from bluegrass boom-chuck rhythm alternates bass notes with strums, as shown in Ex. 2a. You can mix bass notes and strum patterns in many ways.
Strum through this pattern on one chord, and you can hear the verse rhythm behind the Strokes’ “Last Night,” the rhythm pattern behind Hall and Oates’s “Maneater,” or the recurring anthemic rhythm in the Doors’ “Touch Me.”
Here are some harmonica basics that will help you blow harp while you keep your acoustic guitar chords pulsing like Bob Dylan, Jimmy Reed, Neil Young and more.
The steady eighth-note pattern is about as simple as they come, but it’s the consistent use of downstrokes that gives this rhythm pattern its character.
Funk guitar might be most commonly associated with scratchy electric rhythms, but the acoustic guitar lends itself just as well to these cool percussive sounds.
Learn to deconstruct simple chord shapes and progressions to create classic-sounding riffs with this lesson in the Acoustic Rock Basics series from Acoustic Guitar.
Some modern rock and pop tunes get a boost by injecting a laid-back groove with a 16th-note swing feel. Example 7a shows one common syncopated groove you can get with this feel, and Example 7b shows how you might embellish it to sound similar to Train’s hit “Drops of Jupiter.”
A great way to add a percussive pop to your rhythm patterns is to play scratch rhythms on beats two and four of each measure, simulating the sound of a backbeat snare drum.
