After learning the common cowboy chords and strumming patterns many guitar players are unsure how to develop their rhythmic approach to get variety in their sound. Studying the common blues rhythms can add interest and style to your playing no matter what kind of music you play. In this lesson guitarist and composer Michael George Gonzalez explores the attributes of blues rhythms like the backbeat, triplet feel, jump blues, and the Bo Diddley beat.
Rhythm, Time, and Meter
To understand how to play a rhythm we must understand a beat cycle (or meter). A Meter is a counting system that measures music. Just as we count seconds to track time, in music we count beats to track musical time. This enables us to divide music into familiar pieces and forms (ie: chord progression, verse, chorus, bridge) that can be understood by how many beats they contain.
The most common meter is called Four Four time abbreviated as 4/4. Music in this meter is based on a four beat cycle counted as “one, two, three, four”. Each time the counting reaches four, the cycle repeats. Each group of four beats is called a measure (or bar). For example a ‘four bar phrase‘ could be described as having four measures or sixteen beats:
The 4/4 rhythm above has a natural pulse we feel when tapping or counting out the beats. Tap your hand on a flat surface to a steady beat. Count aloud as you tap, “one – two – three – four…” repeatedly. Notice how beats “one + three” feel stronger (or accented) while beats “two + four” feel weaker (or unaccented).
Backbeat
The first step to understanding many common blues rhythms is learning to feel the ‘backbeat’ that’s common to blues music. A Backbeat is created when we intentionally accent beats “two + four” instead. This changes the natural pulse and gives the rhythm a lively bounce.
Tap your toe to a steady beat and count “one – two – three – four” repeatedly. Next clap your hands on beats “two + four” ONLY. Now you have created a backbeat rhythm and you should be able to sense the swing feel.
Backbeat
Triplet Feel
This a common blues rhythm where each beat in 4/4 time divided into three smaller beats. To get the feel of this blues rhythm first tap a steady beat with your foot or hand. Count “one and a, two and a, three and a, four and a” with each number landing on the tap while the “and a” happens between the taps. This is sometimes referred as 12/8 where each beat is counted as it’s own. Notice how the backbeat is still in there accented the first triplet of beats “two + four”.
The Shuffle
By slightly altering this rhythm we can create the classic blues shuffle. If we combine the first two beats of each triplet it gives the rhythm a swinging feeling that is familiar in many styles of music.
12/8 and Shuffle Rhythm
Bo Diddley Beat
Another common blues rhythm was made popular by guitarist Bo Diddley. This rhythm pattern is also know as the clave beat in Afro-Cuban and Latin American music. Both of those styles share a musical ancestry with blues music. They both trace their roots back to African drum patterns.
