# bass note rhythm confusion...



## Tricket (Jan 3, 2008)

i'm going through this book of mine at home and got to the bass note rhythm part. After that it had silent strums now in the bass note part it said after the bass note you play the bottom three strings only. So when i got to the silent strums it swapped back to strumming the whole chord. Then it added in a bass note rhythm with silent strums and so i don't know whether i'm supposed to only strum the last three in that rhythm. so my question is this when you see a bass note in a rhythm do you only strike the last three strings??


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## Tricket (Jan 3, 2008)

i lack a scanner so i had to draw it sorry for bad quality:
| \/ _ _ \/
o /\ -- /\

it's a rhythm pattern the first the first beat is a bass note according to the book it's used on the following chord progression: C Dm Em Dm C Dm Em Dm F G C Am F G C

hopefully that clears it up a little more.


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## Tricket (Jan 3, 2008)

the book is called complete learn to play acoustic guitar manual by Brett Duncan and what do you mean by standard notation?


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## Tricket (Jan 3, 2008)

k when you say strum the rest of the chord is that including the bass strings? aka if there is a bass note in a rhythm pattern do you always exclude the bass strings when strumming afterward?


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## drak10687 (May 24, 2007)

Well.. I would say that if it says to play the chord, then you play the whole chord... unless it says otherwise somewhere.

Generally, if I'm going to specifically hit bass notes for a song, then when I strum the chord, I'll only hit the higher strings (to create a sort of contrast), but if I'm accurately trying to play a specific song, then obviously it depends on the song. If you're trying to play an actual song, then try listening to it to figure it out... if not, then I would just play what sounds best.

Also, depending on the chord and how you strum it/the strumming pattern, it might not make a huge difference whether you specificly hit the bass note or not... though you always want to try to be as accurate as possible.

...ok, I guess that didn't help much


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## Red Foreman (Apr 3, 2008)

I'm thinking you let the bass note ring while strumming on the lower (higher in pitch)strings.So the bass note probally the root of the cord may go for say three beats while the the bottom three string are broken into eigths or sixteenths ect using a different rythem kind of like what you see in a lot of fingerstyle guitar.


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