How to Combine Rhythm and Lead Playing Video Lecture - The Ultimate Guitar

many times in life there are lines
between opposing forces that are meant
to be blurred or broken for example I
like to think that I blur the lines
between sophistication and childishness
but today we are going to try to blur
the lines between lead playing and
rhythm playing because it doesn't have
to be a choice and we're going to do
kind of like a little riff type chord
thing that incorporates both of them in
the same idea right so first of all
we're going to start out by doing is
doing like a little bit of a lead
arpeggio line right and it's going to
look like this okay so this is gonna be
three separate ideas some of which we've
already talked about before but we're
gonna start with your middle finger on
the fifth fret of the a string and we're
gonna slide it three frets higher a
minor third right and then we're gonna
end up on 7d right so a string five -
eight - seven right now we could play
like this more like the scale shape but
I want to do it more like this because
we're gonna lead this into another shape
this starts in the same position right
so we've got this we're gonna go back a
note and then we're gonna do this one
right here now if you watch some of the
other videos you know this is a major
triad our Pesce oh right so we're
starting on the eighth fret of the
a-string going up a major third to the
seventh fret of D string and then ending
with your pinky on the fifth bear to
make a major chord right so we have a
minor chord
into a major for we're do the same thing
you're gonna go back one note and do
another one which is another minor chord
right so there's the root minor third
and your ring finger so all together we
have
you can go back and note to kind of like
close that phrase right now if you drill
this you can get this pretty fast right
you start slower and over time you can
really just have that be something you
don't have to think about it's just kind
of like a little lick or something that
you can do right now the theory behind
this is something want to talk about
really quickly yeah what this is this
note that we're starting out as a D a D
plus a minor third plus its fifth is a D
and F and an A and write that triad
creates a D minor chord now the very
next one we're doing it as an F and a
and to see that tried creates an F major
chord now if you were to just do all
four of those notes separately these two
chords combine to make a D minor seven
chord right a DF a C so we can think of
these as two separate ideas or we can
kind of think of this as one extended
seventh chord and then we do the same
thing with the F right if we start that
at a C and then we go to a AC e3 behind
that is that just makes it a minor and
FNAC an F major plus and a minor AC e
makes it f AC e which is a F major seven
so again the theory isn't always the
most important thing but something
that's really helpful to understand what
you're doing and why these things are
combining and why they sound kind of
good right so this is just a group of
three chords as we're looking at it
right now and we're going to do another
one picking up where we left off right
so if we start on the a minor one that
we just did the seventh fret of the
d-string minor 3rd to the 5th right
there hey CED we're gonna go we're gonna
continue on go back to your pinky I'm
just gonna do like a little staircase
thing down a string back a frat each
time now this is a C major chord right C
and then we do the same thing one more
time so we have CP CP G B G be the 12th
fret now we could easily just as do the
same thing to find the B here but I want
to get this B instead of this B because
we can slide into it and using kind of
like a sliding technique sometimes makes
things sound better so we're going to
slide into that beer and then close it
with a C because this is all in the key
of C so it's a fitting place to end it
out of C right so the second group of
three chords is now we're going to talk
about how to add this to chord playing
to kind of make like a rhythm lead
combination type thing right so we're
going to take let's take a a minor I'm
using a barre chord right now because
I'm going to go to a G major Barre board
but any two voicings this will do you
can do an open a minor to a G and then
slide into it but we're going to make it
sound like this so we start with the a
minor
[Music]
okay so it's going to be the first half
of it we have an a-minor with kind of
two mutes and a G major and then we're
going to jump right into the first three
four and our Pesci O's that we did and
then kind of add it to it right so a
minor G and then we're going to do the
same thing with the other set of three
chords we did but we're going to change
one chord let's go a minor to like a C
major seven right so there's the chord
voicing for the C major seven voice
we're gonna use and we're gonna make it
even easier right so let's kind of
tighten up some of these voicings so
this is the a minor we can keep that
just like it is now instead of playing a
full bar chord G major let's just take
this group of fingers right here and
play an E major form a major F major F F
major G major
the reason I'm switching this one is
because I know I'm starting that
arpeggio run with my middle finger on
the fifth fret so this is a good way to
kind of get to that position before you
even have to jump there hey minor did
she
[Music]
and a minor and let's make this the C
major seven poison even though it's
finger mess just taking the C out of it
right so I'm still thinking of it as the
C major 7 voicing even though so back
and forth we have
you
[Music]
[Music]
so this is just one example of using a
couple different arpeggio lines playing
through fretboard shapes adding them on
top of chords and kind of getting just a
different type of sound where you're
combining a little bit of rhythm
elements a little bit of lead elements
to try to make something interesting and
you don't have to use these you can use
any combination of our pezzi of scales
whatever we're just kind of working on
ways to add two chords you already know
to kind of play through the fret board
make things a little bit more
interesting