My name is Carl Verheyen and I come in to open counseling here at MI. and a lot of times I get asked questions about rhythm guitar. When I'm playing funk rhythm guitar, I tend to divide it into two different categories. Category number 1 would be static rhythm guitar where you just sit on a 9th quarter or something and you lay on that one chord for the entire section of the tune whether it be the verse, the bridge, or the chorus. A second category would be what I call inventive rhythm guitar. And that’s where the rhythmic element of the tune of the part combines with the melodic elements. You invent a little melodic hook as part of your rhythmic figure. So here's an example. If I'm playing in a key of C minor, this would be the base line maybe.
My first idea might be to play simple like Heard it to the Great Vine part, that’s C minor. And that was a C minor like this up to an F triad back on the C minor to a B flat triad. But the problem with that as I see it is that’s right in the sort of meat and potato section of the guitar. If you are playing on a record with organ, piano, horn section, multiple guitars, vocals, background vocals, all that stuff is competing for the mid range. So now what you have to realize is that if you image the speaker, the woofer, the low speaker down here, that’s where the base is going to come out. He’s kind of on his zone down there, right. The twitter is where the siblings of the voice and the cymbals are going to speak. And everything else that I just mentioned is competing for the mid range. So, in order to peak out, in order to find a little sonic space in this track, I try to aim for the upper mids. I try to put something together that I can hear with the final mix.
So, I've devised a little part here to show you. It starts with a C played skank style. And skank guitar is an old term we used to use in the ‘70s and ‘80s. And what it means is you actually hit all 6 strings but sound 1 note like that. So I'm going to hit one note skank and then I'm going to slide a fourth interval, a G and a C down the whole step to F and B flat. And then I'm going to play an F triad, hammer on a B flat and a G and then my little finger’s going to play a high F here. And then making it at 11th chord and then I'm going to lay that finger down and catch the B flat and the E flat. And that’s the part that I've come up with. That works over that kind of a base line and as a melodic element to it. And in the past I played on records and two months later when they’ve mixed the whole thing and I finally get it all together, they finally get it all together and they send me the CD. I have noticed in the past that they’ve scored the horns to my rhythm lick. And for that, I asked for arranger credit but never get it.
Anyway, I play a little more of the groove on my way out. Once again, my name is Carl Verheyen. Thanks for listening.
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