Students have often asked how I go about building creative, interesting rhythm parts when playing over a repeating one- or two-chord vamp.
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As touring guitarist for Great Southern, the group formed
Students have often asked how I go about building creative, interesting rhythm parts when playing over a repeating one- or two-chord vamp.
As touring guitarist for Great Southern, the group formed by Allman Brothers Band founding guitarist Dickey Betts, I’m required to lay down musical rhythm parts behind extended solos on songs like “Blue Sky” and “In Memory of Elizabeth Reed,” and it’s a challenge to craft supportive rhythm parts that will both enhance the power of the soloing instrument while also locking in with the rhythm section to drive the groove along.
This month I’d like to address this worthwhile topic.
A technique I often rely on is to take an unusual chord voicing and then move similar voicings up and down the fretboard on the same group of strings. I do this by using a specific mode as the basis for connecting each chord tone in each voicing to the next. To illustrate, I’ll use the A Dorian mode (A B C D E F# G) to formulate improvised, chord-based rhythm parts. FIGURE 1 illustrates A Dorian played in third-fifth positions. Play this pattern up and down several times to memorize its structure and become familiar with the mode’s sound and musical quality. FIGURES 2 and 3 offer examples of soloing “freely” through A Dorian in these positions, so play through these examples and then try inventing some of your own soloing patterns in different areas of the fretboard.
The Dorian mode is spelled intervallically 1 2 b3 4 5 6 b7. It’s essential that you recognize the quality of each interval, or scale degree, as it relates to the root, or tonic. I suggest playing each interval—the second, third, fourth, fifth, and so on—against the low A