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Brian,
There's a TASCAM CD-player called the "Guitar Trainer" that I've
found extremely helpful for both lead and rhythm playing. It is
similar to the computer programs Marty described, it allows you
to slow things down and listen to patterns. You can also isolate
a single phrase and listen to it over and over. I start with the
slowest setting and stay with it until I can play to actual speed
by starting really slow, I can nail the lead or rhythm so that when I
speed it up, there are no mistakes.
I am leaning a lot of The (New) Atlantics tunes this way.
As I mentioned, the Atlantics "Flight of the Surf Guitar" CD also
has only backing tracks, so you can really dig in and learn the
rhythm stuff or play Martin Cilia's leads over the rhythm section.
Similarly, the Play Surf Guitar with the Torquays CD is split into
channels, so you can turn down the lead or turn up the rhythm
sections simply by adjusting the left/right balance. (I know you
are interested in the 1960s stuff, but once you have enough
patterns, a lot of these just plugs into other songs, especially the
less complex older music).
Ultimately, tho, a lot of rhythm playing is ear...almost every tab
I've seen shows the chords for the rhythm player, but you have to
work out the pattern. That's where slowing the music down and
repeating phrases over and over seems to help.
--- In , "Brian Neal" <bneal@i...> wrote:
> Hi. I've asked questions like this before, but here goes again.
>
> How on earth do you go about figuring out those rhythm guitar
parts for
> those Shadows/Atlantics style songs that feature super-fast
strumming? Is it
> just practice?
>
> It doesn't help that the fidelity of those recordings are
sometimes so-so,
> plus the rhythm guitar often gets buried in the mix.
>
> And once you figure out the chords, how do you go about
learning to play
> them up to speed? Are there some good general DVD's or
videos on different
> rhythm styles?
>
> Do you guys use lighter gauge strings for these parts?
>
> Any suggestions would be welcome, but I realize "practice" is
probably the
> answer.
>
> Thanks,
> BN
