Beat And Chords Together

We look at a super cool example of merging a beat and chords together. By using hammer-ons and pull-offs with our fretting hand we free up our strumming hand. By doing this, we can create more percussive sounds adding to a greater musical effect!

Exercise 1

Starting on the Em chord first, this is how we play the first 2 bars of the exercise:

• Strum the chord and in a fairly relaxed way, hammer-on (and pull-off) the Em shape

To help with timing...

• On the fretboard, the Em shape is placed down only four times to complete the bar

The second part uses the G major chord.

• Strum the chord and hammer-on in the same way as the Em (nice and relaxed)

• We only need to cover the lower notes of the G chord on the root and 3rd (3rd fret of the E string and 2nd fret of the A string)

• Hammer-on and pull-off this shape, like in exercise 1.

To help more with the timing of this exercise. Try to count "1-and-2-and-3-and-4-and" with the chord being placed on the fretboard on the 'and' (off beat).

Our beat is created at the end of the guitar, in our kick and snare area. We play the beat either side of our two chords, as demonstrated in the lesson video.

To combine our chords and beat together, we need to practice the motion slowly. Really try to build the speed up whilst making sure at each stage we play the percussive beats in time with the chords.