Sam Bell - Rhythm Guitar Concepts

Welcome to "Sam Bell - Rhythm Guitar Concepts," a comprehensive guitar lesson series by the renowned guitarist Sam Bell. This course is meticulously designed to enhance your rhythm guitar playing by focusing on a variety of advanced techniques and concepts. Whether you're a beginner looking to build a solid foundation or an experienced guitarist aiming to refine your skills, these lessons offer invaluable insights into rhythm guitar. Below, we'll dive into each technique covered in this series, explaining their benefits and how they can elevate your playing.

Internal Rhythm

Understanding and mastering internal rhythm is crucial for any guitarist. Internal rhythm refers to the ability to keep time and maintain a consistent tempo without relying on external aids like a metronome. In these lessons, Sam Bell emphasises the importance of internal rhythm by guiding you through exercises that enhance your sense of timing and groove. Developing this skill will allow you to play more confidently and accurately, making your performances more polished and professional.

Internal vs External Time Keeping

Differentiating between internal and external timekeeping is essential for mastering rhythm guitar. Internal timekeeping involves maintaining a consistent tempo within yourself, while external timekeeping relies on outside sources like a metronome or a drummer. Sam Bell demonstrates how to balance these two approaches, ensuring you can stay in sync with a band while also relying on your internal sense of time. This dual focus will help you become a more versatile and reliable rhythm guitarist.

Feeling 16th Note Subdivisions

16th note subdivisions are a fundamental aspect of rhythm guitar. By breaking down the beat into smaller parts, you can add complexity and interest to your playing. Sam Bell's lessons on feeling 16th note subdivisions include practical exercises and musical examples that will help you internalise these smaller divisions of time. Mastering this technique will make your rhythm playing more intricate and dynamic, allowing you to create engaging and complex rhythms.

Tonal Aspects of Chord Voicings

Chord voicings significantly impact the tonal quality of your playing. In these lessons, Sam Bell explores various chord voicings and their tonal characteristics. Understanding how different voicings affect the sound and mood of your music is essential for creating rich and expressive rhythm parts. By learning and applying these voicings, you can enhance the harmonic depth and texture of your playing.

Utilising Chord Fragments in Rhythm Playing

Chord fragments are small parts of chords that can be used to create interesting and varied rhythm parts. Sam Bell teaches you how to incorporate chord fragments into your playing, providing techniques and examples that demonstrate their effectiveness. Using chord fragments adds a new dimension to your rhythm guitar playing, making it more versatile and musically rich.

Rhythm Articulation

Articulation in rhythm guitar refers to the clarity and precision with which you play each note or chord. Sam Bell's lessons on rhythm articulation focus on techniques that improve your playing's expressiveness and definition. By mastering these articulation techniques, you can make your rhythm parts more compelling and nuanced, enhancing the overall impact of your music.

Spread Triads

Spread triads are a way of playing chords that create a wider, more open sound. Sam Bell explains how to use spread triads in rhythm playing, showing you how to make your chords sound fuller and more expansive. Incorporating spread triads into your playing will add a new level of richness and depth to your rhythm guitar parts.

Diatonic Triads

Diatonic triads are chords built from the notes of a key. Understanding and using diatonic triads is essential for creating harmonically cohesive music. Sam Bell's lessons cover the theory and application of diatonic triads, helping you to integrate them seamlessly into your rhythm playing. Mastering diatonic triads will improve your ability to construct musically pleasing and theoretically sound rhythm parts.

Chordal Tapping Extensions

Chordal tapping extensions involve using tapping techniques to extend the range and complexity of your chords. Sam Bell introduces this advanced technique, providing exercises and examples to help you incorporate it into your playing. Learning chordal tapping extensions will expand your technical abilities and allow you to create more intricate and impressive rhythm parts.

Spread Voicings

Spread voicings are chords that use wider intervals between notes to create a more open sound. Sam Bell's lessons on spread voicings teach you how to use this technique to add variety and richness to your rhythm playing. By mastering spread voicings, you can create more dynamic and interesting chord progressions.

Simple Syncopated Rhythm Parts in Arrangements

Syncopation adds a unique rhythmic interest to your playing by emphasising off-beats and unexpected accents. Sam Bell demonstrates how to create simple syncopated rhythm parts, providing practical examples and exercises. Incorporating syncopation into your playing will make your rhythm parts more engaging and lively, adding a new dimension to your music.

Performance Context

In addition to detailed lessons on each technique, this series includes performances by Sam Bell. Seeing these techniques applied in a musical context helps you understand how they fit into real-world playing scenarios. Watching Sam Bell perform allows you to see the practical application of the concepts covered in the lessons, providing a clearer understanding of how to incorporate them into your own playing.

Guitar Techniques List

• Chord Progressions
• Two-Handed Tapping
• Syncopated Rhythms
• Arpeggiated Chord Progressions