You might already know how to read chord diagrams. If so, you can skip this lesson. However, if you find that interpreting chord diagrams is a bit hit and miss – sometimes you get them right, other times everything is upside-down etc, then you will find this short tutorial quite useful.
Chord diagrams are relatively simple diagrams that tell us how to play a certain chord. Let’s look at a chord diagram for the D major chord:
Repeats are used to save space and reduce clutter. Why write something out five times when you can use repeats? In the book ‘Open Chords Made Easy‘, there are multiple types of repeats that are used.
The first type of repeat is a symbol that looks like a percentage sign. This is a repeat symbol that is used commonly (it is not specific to this site or book) to indicate that the previous bar is to be repeated. We will only be using it in the chord charts and only to indicate that a strumming rhythm is being repeated, not necessarily a chord. If a chord is to be repeated, it is simply written again, although this symbol is often used to repeat chords as well. As you can see in the example, the chords are changing from one bar to the next, but Rhythm 1 is being repeated.
Each piece in the book ‘Open Chords Made Easy‘ contains a rhythm guitar part that is divided into two sections:
A chord chart (as seen below) is a standard way of transcribing the chords of a particular song or piece of music. Chord charts vary in format and depth of detail. The thing that makes the chord charts that are in the book easy to follow, is the inclusion of rhythms with each bar, and the accompanying strumming guide. Look at the example chord chart below and then read the following explanations.
If you read the previous lesson on the basics of rhythm, you should have a good understanding of what rhythm is and how it relates to the beat and the meter. In this lesson, we are going to explore the relationship between rhythm and strumming.
Firstly, strumming, on a basic level, involves playing a certain rhythm by striking the strings using a combination of downward and upward ‘strums’. I know that might seem very simplistic, but on a basic level, that’s what it’s all about.
Any connection (clap, strum etc.) that is played on a number (1, 2, 3, or 4) is said to be played on a down beat. Anything played on an ‘and’ is said to be played on an upbeat (or offbeat).
This lesson is an adapted lesson from the ‘Open Chords Made Easy’ book. You can view the index of lessons from this series here, or purchase the book itself from here.
Therefor:
In this first lesson from ‘Open Chords Made Easy’, we are going to explore what rhythm is.
If the concept of rhythm is at all confusing to you, you’ve come to the right place. This section is a bit lengthy, but I have written it using very simple concepts and without relying on standard music notation. This is not to dumb it down at all. I have kept it simple for two reasons; Firstly, to demonstrate that rhythm is a simple and instinctive concept. If you can count, you can understand rhythm. If you have ever clapped along to a song, danced, or tapped your foot, you intuitively understand rhythm. Secondly, using this system to explain how rhythm works also makes the explanation of strumming a logical extension.
Rhythm is easy. Strumming is easy. But understanding both requires knowing a little bit of theory. Don’t worry, if music theory is ‘not your thing’, it won’t matter. This guide is written in a way that is very easy to grasp, no matter what level of music theory you posses.
I’m going to release a bunch of lessons on this blog from the book ‘Open Chords Made Easy‘.
The book includes a collection of 23 guitar pieces, written to help students work through different chord progressions and strumming patterns. The pieces of music are really only one part of the book though. The other part is the theory and explanations on how to play chords and how to strum.
I figure that the theory side of things would be a great thing to include on this blog, as it contains a lot of fundamental lessons on rhythm and practice. The lessons will be adapted and modified slightly to fit the style of this blog, but they will be more or less direct lessons from the blog.
This page will serve as a sort of index that will contain links to all the lessons in the series. The links will be updated as the lessons are added.