It is of fundamental importance to take advantage of the rhythmic and harmonic possibilities of the guitar, whether acoustic or electric. This is why its best to study all of the typical rhythm characteristics in the musical genre that you want to play.
This section deals mainly with accompaniment rhythms. If you need more theoretical knowledge you can return to the section devoted to rhythm. We will now talk about some fundamental rules of accompaniment.
We will begin with some of the most consistent chords. Lets look at a simple harmonic blues chorus in A that is accompanied by three classical bars: A7, D7 and E7. The fingerings are quite basic, but I find it useful to begin by following a very gradual construction path. For those who are beginners, I suggest that you closely follow the various phases.
Lets analyze the score. Notice the three chords, where the fingerings are developed in the Vth position. Remember that the graph is read vertically: the vertical lines represent the chords, and the horizontal lines the frets, as described in the chords section.
The chord is played by down picking with a value of fourth, and with the song being in 4/4, each strum has its own movement. Play very lightly, let the pick slide over the strings and above all be careful not to play undesired chords, or more precisely those that were not played. If there happened to be an open note, there would have been a "O" above the chord.
You can also listen to the base to get a better idea of the sound of this piece. The base is formed by the bass line (the left channel), the percussion line (central) and the accompaniment line of the guitar (right channel). The chorus is repeated and is played using this base.
The next passage consists of using the same base but working on the harmony of the chords.
In fact it is very useful in building confidence with the structure of a chord, in order to extract the real notes that are needed.
For example we will play the A7 chord and using only the 5th, 4th and 3rd strings. You will realize how to change the complexion of the sound with respect to the complete chord, because some notes are identified and not others. With this system we can supply all the necessary information concerning the harmony of the chord without counting the multiple harmonic possibilities found in a complete chord of four, five or six strings. Observing the underlying graphs will help you understand that starting from A7, four chords can be drawn, where the first three (ex. 1, 2, 3) identify the harmony of the chord from which they are extracted. Being a dominant chord (the real name of the seventh chord), to be recognized as such, the seventh minor must be present, which in the case of the A7 is G. Only example N° 4 doesn't include this seventh degree, which means that there in no G. It is preferable therefore to use the other fingerings, which clearly identify the typology of the chord. This is valid for every chord.
Now that you understand the procedure we can play a song using the new chord models with the basic fingerings given above. Therefore, the only difference with respect to the preceeding blues is the different harmony that we give to the chord. As already stated, a harmony more adapted to the sound is surely better. Using the modern guitar, a lot of the work of accompaniment can be played with these techniques. Try to make this a part of your personal technique.
In the next page we will work on the
rhythm, a primary element in any musical genre.
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