Once you have your palm muting down you can get into accents to bring the rhythms to life.

The common loud 1

Accents 1

The most common accent to add is on the first beat of each bar.

Be sure to pick softly for notes that are not accented, this will make the notes quiet and it will help the accented notes be more distinct. It can also help to lift the palm mute a little as you play the accented note.

 

It should sound like...

The example lasts for 4 bars, 4 times round what is written, hear the accent on beat one each time round!).


Replicating the snare.

Accents 2

Another common pattern puts the accents on beats 2 and the (3)+ as shown.

Often when this is happening you will be playing your accents like you are playing a snare drum, really adds movement to your playing, especially if you are playing by yourself, like in an intro or a bridge.


When accents become a riff...

They can even go over two (or even more bars) and becomes a riff for a song like this:

Accents 3


Application and the end for now...

So go now into rock land and keep your ears open for chances to use your new found skills.

This is the end of this rock course basics, I'm sure I will do more, but there is so much to do... and the next stage is for you to get all this stuff well under your fingers and sounding cool!

 

It is very important that you learn songs that use these techniques, or you could use my CD-ROM ;-) see below ;) lol

 

Video Lesson (coming soon)

 

 

Justins own CD-ROM Download for learning Power Chords

Master Rock Power Chords CD-ROM

To compliment these lessons I think you will like a product I made for the Charanga company which has a number of songs that I wrote and produced you can play along with. It teaches you all the rock rhythm techniques and rhythms learnt in these lessons and the songs progress from very easy to totally rockin'. It is downloadable and you can even record your own guitar and listen back to yourself playing along with the tracks! It is a great way to learn, great fun and by the end you will really be cooking! It really is cool, there are loads of pictures and as you look at the music a neck shows you where to put your fingers on the animated fingerboard.

If you buy it - enter JustinSandercoe as a promotional code and you will get 33% discount too.

Check it all out here: Music Coach Rock Powerchords

 

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Please remember to make a donation if you like these lessons, I keep them free because there are many people that can't afford lessons, but it means that I rely on YOU honorable people that can afford it to donate. The beginners courses I run "in the flesh" cost over £200 (US$400) so you get great value if you only donate 20 bucks :) Don't leave it for others. Donations mean I can spend more time making this site even better!! PLEASE DONATE NOW!

 

HELP!!!!

HELP

If you need to ask a question about this lesson - there is a topic set up specifically to help you with this lesson. To help you find it easily you can click the following link and it will take you right the topic. You'll be able to see questions that other people had and ask your own questions! Hopefully one of the very helpful members of our community will be there to help you soon, I do go there and answer stuff too - but there are just too many questions for me to answer alone!

So click this link to get help with this lesson!