The Summer of Rhythm Guitar 2024

[Webby]

At 3:50 or so he solos out the guitarist and I notice he rakes the dead strings sometimes, but not all the time. Is that standard?

Since someone pointed out I was raking every upstroke I've been trying to cut it entirely. I'm wondering if I'm cutting too much now.

Thoughts?

I can't claim to have the "right" answer to this, but to me it sounds appropriate.
He's getting mainly the 4+, which is more or less in line with the cymbal pattern.
At 3:58, where he plays every upstroke it accents the chromatics he's playing. To me it sounds like how a drummer would prepare them if they were horn stabs, so I think it fits with that "drums playing Chords"-approach.

As far as you are worrying: It's always good practice to make everything you do a conscious choice, so I guess it's worth practicing to be able to get rid of it (if you want to), but I don't feel like it would bother anyone too much. Especially in a context with a drummer.

I'm also guilty of playing a fair amount of upstrokes by the way.

[mr. beaumont]

I have a complicated relationship with upstrokes. Comes from being told I was playing "le pompe" wrong by some hack gypsy jazz player who had some cred for some reason. Guy was a big dick about it, even when I had other players tell me they liked my rhythm. I took it personally. There's an upstroke in that style that people are very particular about.

Then I met a better player who said "just leave it out, most of these guys are only listening to themselves anyway" and nobody ever bitched about my rhythm again.

I think it sounds fine (done sparingly) I just don't do it. I'm sure I'll change my mind at some point.

[AllanAllen]

I’m mostly paying attention because I was doing it all the time non-purposely

[mr. beaumont]

I think Webby's advice as to "if it's on purpose, it's cool" is spot on.

Actually, regarding rhythm guitar I'd certainly refer to him over me!

[supersoul]

a little bit of rhythm playing.
If I were playing with a group I would have played it differently of course. The main thing is being the timekeeper, keeping that pulse chugging along, and making the rest of the band sound good.

[pawlowski6132]

a little bit of rhythm playing.
If I were playing with a group I would have played it differently of course. The main thing is being the timekeeper, keeping that pulse chugging along, and making the rest of the band sound good.

Love it Andy. I like that a lot. I didn't get to see the headstock though what do we have here looks like a modern design but the top looks like it has age to nicely

[mr. beaumont]

a little bit of rhythm playing.
If I were playing with a group I would have played it differently of course. The main thing is being the timekeeper, keeping that pulse chugging along, and making the rest of the band sound good.

Well I enjoyed that a whole lot.