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  #16  
Old 07-25-2021, 07:54 AM
nightchef nightchef is offline
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Just to reinforce a couple of things already said:

The #1 key to good electric rhythm playing is Keep It Light. Light grip with the fretting hand, light touch with the picking hand. When you've gotten the hang of it you'll be able to get away with digging in a bit, but at first, play that guitar like it's a baby you're trying not to wake up.

The #2 key is voicing. You should rarely be playing all six strings at once. Often three is enough. This is true of acoustic rhythm playing as well, of course, but it's more true, and more important, on an electric.

The #3 key is muting. Because electric guitars inherently tend to have more sustain than acoustics, you can't just strum away and expect it to sound good. You have to play a more active role in shaping the phrasing of your rhythm lines. Muting is a both-hands thing, and it's a bottomless art. I learned what little I know about it by trial and error, but there are probably resources out there to help you learn it quicker.
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  #17  
Old 07-25-2021, 10:30 AM
FrankHudson FrankHudson is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by nightchef View Post
Just to reinforce a couple of things already said:

The #1 key to good electric rhythm playing is Keep It Light. Light grip with the fretting hand, light touch with the picking hand. When you've gotten the hang of it you'll be able to get away with digging in a bit, but at first, play that guitar like it's a baby you're trying not to wake up.

The #2 key is voicing. You should rarely be playing all six strings at once. Often three is enough. This is true of acoustic rhythm playing as well, of course, but it's more true, and more important, on an electric.

The #3 key is muting. Because electric guitars inherently tend to have more sustain than acoustics, you can't just strum away and expect it to sound good. You have to play a more active role in shaping the phrasing of your rhythm lines. Muting is a both-hands thing, and it's a bottomless art. I learned what little I know about it by trial and error, but there are probably resources out there to help you learn it quicker.
The above response is golden as general advice!

You can play electric like acoustic, assuming that sound fits into your arrangements. Heavier strings help me when I want to do that, so I keep at least one electric strung up with a heavier set with a wound G. Players with strong hands can even do the bendy, bendy lead guitar thing with them (or one can use a whammy bar).
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  #18  
Old 07-26-2021, 12:15 AM
perttime perttime is offline
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Did anybody mention:
- light touch
- play fewer notes in chords
- muting

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  #19  
Old 07-27-2021, 02:23 PM
posternutbag posternutbag is offline
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To me, the biggest thing was learning to listen to what was coming out of the amp, instead of what was coming from the guitar. I have a pretty heavy hand on acoustic from years of playing bluegrass, but when I went back to electric I was so used to listening to the guitar, I didn’t realize how much I was overplaying and cluttering the sound.

Definitely light, with fewer strings and more muting is very good advice, but be sure you are really listening to your end sound.

One thing that really opened my eyes was this. It’s a live version of the Grateful Dead playing Casey Jones. Listen to how sparse and muted Garcia’s guitar is in the isolated channel.

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  #20  
Old 07-27-2021, 02:35 PM
joeguam joeguam is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by posternutbag View Post
One thing that really opened my eyes was this. It’s a live version of the Grateful Dead playing Casey Jones. Listen to how sparse and muted Garcia’s guitar is in the isolated channel.

Wow, that very percussive. Without the occasional lead riffs/licks in there, it’s almost just a percussion sound. Really interesting, thanks for posting. Do you have a link to the full song as well?
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  #21  
Old 07-27-2021, 07:22 PM
posternutbag posternutbag is offline
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Originally Posted by joeguam View Post
Wow, that very percussive. Without the occasional lead riffs/licks in there, it’s almost just a percussion sound. Really interesting, thanks for posting. Do you have a link to the full song as well?
Unfortunately, no. The YouTube version of concert cuts off the last two songs (Casey Jones was the encore) and none of the archive.org streams are high quality. On the other hand, the same person who isolated Jerry on this track did it for a bunch of songs in this particular show.
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  #22  
Old 07-28-2021, 01:47 AM
Steel and wood Steel and wood is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by perttime View Post
Did anybody mention:
- light touch
- play fewer notes in chords
- muting

Excellent, little or no gain on low volume and potentially avoid the bridge pickup also.
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  #23  
Old 07-28-2021, 12:54 PM
redir redir is offline
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I've adopted the Johnny Ramone style of playing all or almost all of full chords. So like all 6 strings on an A-Barre for example or all 5 on a C-Barre. Of course I use upstrokes too. But that is basically taking an acoustic strumming style to the electric guitar. The key as mentioned is to stay light and relax else you go out of tune. You could always try heavier strings too.

You may want to try playing unplugged as part of practice too.
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  #24  
Old 08-03-2021, 07:25 PM
nightchef nightchef is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by joeguam View Post
Wow, that very percussive. Without the occasional lead riffs/licks in there, it’s almost just a percussion sound. Really interesting, thanks for posting. Do you have a link to the full song as well?
Another good example of rhythm-guitar-as-percussion is David Crosby’s playing on “Woodstock”. For much of the song he’s only sounding chords on selected accent beats; most of the time he’s doing muted chunk-chunk that effectively functions as a percussion instrument helping anchor the groove.
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  #25  
Old 08-06-2021, 11:52 AM
Scott of the Sa Scott of the Sa is offline
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Different electric guitars play differently.
Solid body guitars vs Archtop guitars.
When I made the switch back into electric guitar playing I bought a Washburn Archtop. It felt like my acoustic guitar and would take the more agressive style I was used to. I strung it with 12's and a wound G.
I later bought a Tele kit guitar and have it strung with 11's and it does not play, sound or feel like my Archtop.
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  #26  
Old 08-14-2021, 09:27 PM
Bushleague Bushleague is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by joeguam View Post
Trying to learn and make the transition to electric guitar after gigging my entire career on acoustics. Playing lead or solos on a tele or strat is going great, but playing rhythm just always sounds terrible to my ear. I know it’s because I’m falling into the trap of playing my electric like an acoustic - and I realize that’s not gonna work.

So how do I make the transition? Any advice? Any resources like links to YouTube videos/etc you can recommend? Any online courses you know can help?

Appreciate any info you can provide, thanks in advance.
Simple answere - use less strings, the more effects you have on the electric the more you need to scale down the chords.
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  #27  
Old 08-14-2021, 09:40 PM
Bushleague Bushleague is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by FrankHudson View Post
The above response is golden as general advice!

You can play electric like acoustic, assuming that sound fits into your arrangements. Heavier strings help me when I want to do that, so I keep at least one electric strung up with a heavier set with a wound G. Players with strong hands can even do the bendy, bendy lead guitar thing with them (or one can use a whammy bar).
This is true, but when I think about it, alot of the time when I use a full chord I dont strum the whole thing at one time. Lots of time I'll kind of ride the bass notes and just hit the other strings wherever they seem to fit.

I think everyone knows this song, but it is a good example of a darn good rhythm player, using everything from sparse triads to heavily distorted full chords, and just about every trick in the book. You can hear that most of the time when he's using full chords he rarely strums the whole thing at one time.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NIGMUAMevH0

Last edited by Bushleague; 08-14-2021 at 10:02 PM.
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  #28  
Old 09-07-2021, 02:43 AM
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SalFromChatham SalFromChatham is offline
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Have you tried a a compressor sustain pedal? Evens the dynamics out and makes everything sound cleaner.

When the pedal was explained to me I could not visualize/audiolize it, but after I tried it I wondered how I went without it so long. My pedal is a Boss CS3.
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  #29  
Old 09-07-2021, 03:05 AM
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SalFromChatham SalFromChatham is offline
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Have you tried a a compressor sustain pedal? Evens the dynamics out and makes everything sound cleaner.

When the pedal was explained to me I could not visualize/audiolize it, but after I tried it I wondered how I went without it so long. My pedal is a Boss CS3.
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  #30  
Old 09-07-2021, 12:08 PM
jseth jseth is offline
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Lots of good tips already...

Although I've played electric guitar a lot, in my 60 years of playing it's mostly been on an acoustic guitar... that's where I started, and it always feel like "home" to me. Making the transition to "complete" playing on an electric has been problematic, over the years; of course I enjoy having lighter strings for single-note playing (aka "lead" guitar), playing all the stuff I like to play with just me on guitar, has been difficult to hone on my electric guitar (a Gibson ES-345 that I've had since '76 and have modded the dickens out of!)

What I have done with my electric is to bump up the string gauge to 11's; makes it feel and react a bit more like my acoustic guitar (which is strung with 12's). Not as easy to bend notes (like an acoustic), bit it's doable... and strumming/3&4 note clusters feels much more stable to me...

Still takes a different touch and technique; as Bob Womack said, other than the six strings and chord shapes. electric and acoustic guitars are VERY different critters!
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