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Chapter 5
Positioning the Right Hand
for Rhythm and Lead
In This Chapter
Mixing up your playing: Downstrokes and upstrokes
Applying syncopation to your sound
Discovering different muting techniques
Checking out some classic fingerstyle blues
Playing different grooves and feels
Chords, which I explore in Chapter 4, don’t by themselves convey anything
meaningful. They’re just raw building materials of music until you
arrange and play them in a certain way. For guitarists, the playing part comes
when you add in the right hand. By playing chords with the right hand in a
certain tempo, rhythm, and strumming pattern, you enter into the world of
rhythm guitar — an indispensable part of the blues.
Strumming Along
One of the most basic ways you can play chords is with a strum. Strumming
involves taking your right hand and, with a pick, thumb, or the back of your
fingernails, brushing it across several or all the strings, sounding them simultaneously.
A strum can be slow, fast, hard, or gentle, or any of the infinite
shadings in between. When you strum, bring your hand from the top of the
guitar (closest to the ceiling) to the bottom (toward the floor) in one motion,
striking the strings along the way.
TEAM LinG