Roles 03 | Rhythm Guitar | Tertiary Rhythm (Patreon)

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Hi Everyone,

In this Third installment of ROLES, we're talking about that weird situation where there are already a bunch of guitar players.... How do I play rhythm guitar if someone else is already playing rhythm guitar?

I give a few strategies and offer some basic homework: explore these two jam tracks (the Full Version and the Added Keys Version) and see if you can find a simple place to hang out in the mix. In general, you can't go wrong if you avoid those bottom strings, keep to a simple part, and try to fit in.

Remember, the track with added keys is designed to be difficult to find something to play. It's designed to force you to listen closely and play very sparsely. It's a little reminder that sometimes there is barely room to add anything, especially if there are already TWO people playing the role of rhythm.

While the general idea of the homework is to explore what you can do when you're the second or third rhythm instrument, sometimes it's nice to have specific homework suggestions. For those of you who prefer that, here you go:

Homework suggestions:
1. Start with the Full Version and:
    a) Try to find a simple rhythm part that complements the song without crowding or ignoring the main rhythm guitar part.
    b) Explore first being extremely sparse (for example: one strum on beats 2 and 4 using only high strings) and then explore being a little too busy to the point where you have to ask "am I ignoring the other rhythm guitar part?
2. Move on to the Added Keys Version and:
    a) Start with the same incredibly sparse "strum on beats 2 and 4 only on high strings" and see if there is anything else you could do to add to the song without stepping on the toes of the keyboard player and other rhythm guitarist.
    b) Experiment with ignoring the other rhythm parts and seeing out chaotic things get when you do your own thing.

You can use the Dynamic Map Scratch paper to take notes on what you'd like to do for each section. Post your homework, explorations, gripes, discoveries, etc to the community forum.

It's important to consider this: sometimes you have to develop your awareness to be a better player. Some of you might not find anything nice to play to these tracks. That might be frustrating. Some of you might feel like you're doing surgery to try to find a subtle rhythm part that fits in without disrupting the other parts. Keep trying even if you don't find something or if you find a part that feels too crowded. This lesson is more about developing awareness than it is about finding something that affects the vibe of the song. 

Jam tracks:
Full version
Added keys version
Rhythm practice version

Other lessons in this series:
Roles 01 | Rhythm Guitar | Introduction
Roles 02 | Rhythm Guitar | Effects and Tonality
Roles 03 | Rhythm Guitar | Tertiary Rhythm (current lesson)
Roles 04 | Lead Guitar | Melody, Fills, Rhythm, and Static Parts (coming soon)

P.S. "Tertiary Rhythm" is what I call "being the other rhythm guitar player." I stole the term from Color Theory and you can read about color theory here. Basically, when you mix primary colors together, you get secondary colors. When you mix secondary colors and primary colors, you get tertiary colors.
I'd like to acknowledge that while I titled this lessons "Tertiary Rhythm," it probably ought to be called "Secondary and Tertiary Rhythm" for when you're the second and third rhythm musician in a situation. I've never been in a situation where we had formal names for these roles so I've been calling it tertiary rhythm in my head for years. If you want to discuss what these roles ought to be called, let's have a discussion about it on the community forum.