• TalkBass has been independent since 1998. Add your voice.
    Create a free account to reply to discussions, view embedded media, and browse with fewer display ads.
    Join free Log in
    Want zero display ads or expanded classifieds tools? Compare plans.

RHYTHM Guitar - a lost art?

#41
Dicky Betts is the rare example of a cat that can do both, rip AND rhythm. Plus it's in his own voice, with exemplary dynamics/melody, and endless invention. Check out the way he sets up most every groove on Evening With The Allman Brothers Set 1, especially Where It All Begins, and South Bound.
Click to expand...

+1 What a great album. Nobody knows is amazing on that album as is the version of Elizabeth Reed with that groovy minute long bass solo.

Also whoever said Dave Matthews was a great Rhythm player, I agree. It's a shame it became so cool to rag on Dave...although his newer stuff just doesn't live up to Under The Table and Dreaming, Crash, and Before These Crowded Streets.
 
#42
jaywa said:
...think of guys that really have great rhythm and there aren't many, either locally or "big time".

Curious to hear thoughts... also if any of you are blessed enough to play with a TRUE rhythm guitarist and want to give him or her their props, do it here!
Click to expand...

I think it is hard to define a "TRUE" rhythm guitarist or at least get unanimous concensus on what one is. Alex Lifeson does play great non-lead guitar parts (or at least doesn't solo all the time) but would you define him as a rhythm guitarist? See what I mean? Maybe it makes the task of assigning labels a dubious task.

Then again, there are guitarists who I love who don't demonstrably play anything that sounds like lead or solo guitar, but yet the parts played aren't always chordal or strummy or function primarily in a rhythmic capacity, and yet they are sometimes the only guitar player on the recording or in the lineup.
I'm thinking of some of my favorites and those who have demonstrably influenced my guitar playing:
Dean Parks (played with too many to list)
Bob Mann and Michael Landau (James Taylor)
Dominic Miller (Sting, Phil Collins, etc...)
David Rhodes (Peter Gabriel)
Ray Phiri (Paul Simon)
 
#43
I'd like to give a little love to Tom Petty, Jack Johnson and Dave Matthews when it comes to rhythm playing....

I think the guitarist in my band (I am the Drummer) is a solid rhythm player, we are only a 3 piece so he needs to wear all the hats at once, Vocalist, Lead guitar, and Rhythm guitar...

check it out (an original song "I'm Your Man" live on 2-6-09)
 
#44
I've not seen Cornell Dupree mentioned yet. Chuck Rainey, Bernard Purdie, and Cornell make one heck of a rhythm titan. I love "Rock Steady". Jeff "Skunk" Baxter is another worthy mention to me. Doobie Brothers REALLY lay down some amazing rhythm guitar that I would even call virtuosity.

To the op, I've known a friend since college named David Noily. Plays for a local LA eclectic hip hop group called Elevaters. I've been jamming with him for years and that guy is a master of rhythm guitar to again, the point of being a virtuoso. His influence extends to me as a bassist even. In terms of rhythm guitar, he really slays everyone to me.
 
#45
I'm in a three piece band and slim I must admit plays both lead and rhythm equally well. He was a rhythm guitarist for many years but got tired of having to tell the lead players to take it easy and not get carried away so he finally took the reins himself and as far as I'm concerned one of the best this cat has ever played with. He knows when to stop has dynamics and at times his solos are pure magic not a technical genius but all the heart and soul in the world. Which to me makes all the diffrence.
 
#46
thats why i really like my guitarrist, he doesnt even wants to solo in our own songs, in fact he is always pushing me to make bridges with bass line leading, not really my thing, but he always listen what i have to say and he is filled with good ideas we always end up using in our songs
 
#47
I know far too many guitarists who just go wheedley-wheedley all through the song, and wouldn't know how to play proper rhythm if their lives depended on it. I can't *stand* it!!! They all want to be lead wankers!!!

One of my biggest requirements in a guitarist is that they be able to carry a rhythm line when needed. If they can't, I don't want to play with them, 'cause that means they're a frakkin' wheedley-wanker. I'll only want to hurt them, in short order, so its best to just say "no thanks" to these goobers.

Cherie
 
#48
Another standout comes to mind- A late 80's-early 90's Ohio band called Royal Crescent Mob. 3 pc w/ singer and an all around good groove band. But the guitar player was exceptional in the rhythm role pushin' it all night. Went by only initial 'B'. Anybody remember these guys?
 
#49
Big John66 said:
I'm not sure which is worse, playing with a guy who just wants to solo or a guy that thinks rhythm guitar means barre chords chugging 8 to the bar. There is nothing more distracting than hearing George Thorogood chugging through Black Magic Woman. My guy has no idea about chord inversions or alternate voicing but he has a great Pa system.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I used to work with a chick who played that way. We had three guitarists. She was strictly rhythm, and the other two were quite good at switching back and forth from lead to rhythm and back. Strictly Rhythm chick was a barre chord/8 to the bar girl, though. That's all she could play. Drove the rest of us just *nuts*!

My current guitarist is very good at both. He spent most of his rather long career playing rhythm, and only started playing leads out of frustration when a band he had just couldn't find a lead guy who would work out.

So, by the time I got 'im, he was well-seasoned and matured. Schweet!!!

Cherie
 
#52
MysticMichael said:
Keith Richards, Pete Townsend and Alex Lifeson. Three of the best rock rhythm guitarists ever. It doesn't get any better than these guys... :cool:

MM
Click to expand...

+1 Just don't forget about Malcom Young, Rudolf Schenker and Brad Whitford. Even though we're only a little local band here in Denver, the 'lead" guitarist in my band is one of the best rhythm guitarists I've ever heard. Why is that? It's because good 'ol Keef is his favorite guitarist. With all of the new emphasis being placed on speed, the art of playing awesome rhythm is becoming a lost art. Sad, but true...
 
#53
classifying a guitarist as either LEAD, or RHYTHM, is laughable if you ask me...

the best guitarists I have played with (including the one in my current band) are good enough musicians to play appropriately in situations and to understand when "rhythm guitar" should be present, and when there should be lead parts.

a guitarist is a guitarist, and they are either good or bad, style aside.
 
#54
txbasschik said:
Yeah, I used to work with a chick who played that way. We had three guitarists. She was strictly rhythm, and the other two were quite good at switching back and forth from lead to rhythm and back. Strictly Rhythm chick was a barre chord/8 to the bar girl, though. That's all she could play. Drove the rest of us just *nuts*!
Click to expand...

So, she was in the band WHY? I'm gonna guess either a) she was super-hot or b) she was a great singer or c) was a band member or manager's wife/girlfriend or d) some combination of the above. It's hard for me to see what she was bringing to the band besides just having to cut the pay one more way.
 
#56
jaywa said:
So, she was in the band WHY? I'm gonna guess either a) she was super-hot or b) she was a great singer or c) was a band member or manager's girlfriend or d) some combination of the above. It's hard for me to see what she was bringing to the band besides just having to cut the pay one more way.
Click to expand...

Worse.

It was *her* band! :eek:

We all started out either total noobs, or hadn't done anything in music for years and years. Trouble was, over time, the rest of the band studied, worked hard, broke bad habits, and improved. She stayed the same. Stuck in that 70's chukka-chukka barre chord thingie. She can play that folkie-pop stuff from that era, and she can play country, but not much else.

We nearly all lost our minds trying to teach her how to play The Pretenders' "Back On The Chain Gang", which I was singing lead on. She just could not, would not learn to play anything but what was her habit, and just could not grasp the rhythms The Pretenders use.

Cherie
 
#59
I consider myself a "rhythm guitarist". I guess that's what you get when you start on bass. Too many people think that skill = shredding. I think I have become a pretty good guitarist over the years, but I would never try to compete with the little shredders found at Guitar Center. I believe my skill is shown off in complex yet natural rhythms, my ability to accentuate the bass part (a skill I really picked up learning "Crash" by Dave Matthews), and the arpeggios that I mix in. I just recently learned the lead to "Plug in Baby" by Muse, but that is the only thing in my repertoire that is even close to shredding.

EDIT:
I just read jsingles post above and mostly agree with him. I wouldn't put myself in a box and say "I only play chords", but my style emphasizes the rhythm more than it does the melody. Most of what I play these days is solo, so it is hard to define myself with a role that is much more oriented to bands. I play at my church and it is just me on guitar and my wife singing. My playing has to be very dynamic to get a full and interesting sound. On some songs I will barely strum and stick mostly to arpeggios while others are heavy handed strumming. Since I am the only accompaniment, my first priority is establishing the rhythm so the congregation can get a feel for the song and join in singing. Everything else I play is just the frosting on the cake (sorry, but I prefer frosting to icing).
 
#60
txbasschik said:
Worse.

It was *her* band! :eek:

We all started out either total noobs, or hadn't done anything in music for years and years. Trouble was, over time, the rest of the band studied, worked hard, broke bad habits, and improved. She stayed the same. Stuck in that 70's chukka-chukka barre chord thingie. She can play that folkie-pop stuff from that era, and she can play country, but not much else.

We nearly all lost our minds trying to teach her how to play The Pretenders' "Back On The Chain Gang", which I was singing lead on. She just could not, would not learn to play anything but what was her habit, and just could not grasp the rhythms The Pretenders use.

Cherie
Click to expand...

Ah, yes. Pretenders, one of my all-time favorite bands. Chrissie Hynde can play a little rhythm guitar, can't she?

Another player who comes to mind as a great "rhythmic" guitarist is Billy Gibbons. His ability to play leads and still have it sound like a rhythm guitar underneath is really something else. If he wasn't the caliber of player he was, ZZ Top as a trio would never have worked.
 

Latest posts

Top Bottom
Back