Rebuilding Rhythm: Week 2 Guitar Lesson
Rebuilding Rhythm: Week 2
In week two of his six week rhythm building program, Brendan goes over an exercise that covers treble and bass strumming.
Taught by Brendan Burns in Rhythm Guitar with Brendan Burns seriesLength: 6:53Difficulty: 1.0 of 5
Supplemental Learning Material
Rhythm Guitar with Brendan Burns
Found in our Beginner Lesson SetsFocusing on different forms of picking and playing can steal your chops away from your rhythm playing. Brendan Burns offers up a 6 week coarse on rebuilding your rhythm chops that focuses on training necessary muscle groups and getting back into tempo.
Lesson 1
Rebuilding Rhythm: Week 1
Brendan Burns offers up the first exorcise of a six week program dedicated to rebuilding rhythm technique.
Length: 7:54 Difficulty: 1.0 Members Only
Rebuilding Rhythm: Week 2
In week two of his six week rhythm building program, Brendan goes over an exercise that covers treble and bass strumming.
Length: 6:53 Difficulty: 1.0 Members Only
Rebuilding Rhythm: Week 3 and 4
Brendan is back with the 3rd and 4th week exercise to workout your rhythm playing.
Length: 11:25 Difficulty: 1.0 Members Only
Rebuilding Rhythm: Week 5
In week five of his six week rhythm workout, Brendan provides an exercise that breaks the guitar up into five distinct sections.
Length: 6:48 Difficulty: 1.5 Members Only
Rebuilding Rhythm: Week 6
Brendan Burns offers up the final exercise of his six week rhythm workout.
Length: 7:12 Difficulty: 1.0 Members Only
Counting 5/8 Time Signatures
Brendan Burns starts off a short lesson set on how to count compound meters. He starts with the 5/8 time signature.
Length: 13:07 Difficulty: 1.5 Members Only
Counting 7/8 Time Signatures
Now that you've mastered 5/8 time, Brendan provides a lesson on counting 7/8.
Length: 6:42 Difficulty: 1.5 Members Only
Counting 11/8 Time Signatures
Brendan Burns demonstrates how to count 11/8 time.
Length: 6:24 Difficulty: 1.5 Members Only
Playing Compound Meters
Now that you have counting under your belt, it's time to actually play some compound meters.
Length: 9:38 Difficulty: 1.5 Members Only
More Odd Time Signatures
In lesson 10 of his rhythm series, Brendan teaches playing examples of the previous time signatures he has covered.
Length: 18:01 Difficulty: 2.0 Members Only
Bass Lines for Guitarists #1
Brendan discusses how using bass lines can enhance your playing and allow for more creative expression in a band style situation. He starts you off by discussing bass lines created from major and minor...
Length: 15:20 Difficulty: 2.0 Members Only
Bass Lines for Guitarists #2
In the second bass lines lesson, Brendan discusses arpeggios and bass lines for all types of 7th chords.
Length: 29:58 Difficulty: 2.0 Members Only
About Brendan Burns
View Full Biography
Brendan has been passionate about music since childhood. He began his studies on trumpet, in elementary school, and then moved to guitar as a teenager. He holds a Bachelor's Degree from Berklee College of Music, and has studied with Norm Zocher, Joe Stump, Bret Willmott, Bob Pilkington, Jay Weik, Tim Miller, & Charlie Banacos.
While at Berklee, Brendan was a member of the Music Mentoring Program, teaching private lessons to gifted high school students. He is currently teaches, and is chair of the guitar department at Brookline Music School. Brendan also teaches guitar for Tune Foolery & privately at his home in Cambridge, MA.
Along with educating, Brendan plays out often as a Solo Guitarist, performing standards, pop, and classical repertoire. He has recorded and played with the chamber-fusion band Ra Quintent, and as well as Vessela Stoyanova's Eastern Stories Under Western Skies Project. Brendan also performs as a leader, director and sideman for various Boston art-rock projects, and is former member of MIT's Gamelan Galak Tika.
Acoustic Guitar Lessons
Our acoustic guitar lessons are taught by qualified instructors with various backgrounds with the instrument.
Miche Fambro
Miche introduces several new chord concepts that add color and excitement to any progression.
Free LessonSeries Details
Danny Voris
Lesson 7 is all about arpeggios. Danny provides discussion and exercises designed to build your right hand skills.
Free LessonSeries Details
Mark Kroos
Free LessonSeries Details
Randall Williams
In this lesson Randall introduces the partial capo (using a short-cut capo by Kyser) and talks about how it can make the...
Free LessonSeries Details
Trace Bundy
Trace Bundy talks about the different ways you can use multiple capos to enhance your playing.
Free LessonSeries Details
Pamela Goldsmith
Pamela brings a cap to her first 13 JamPlay lessons with another original etude inspired by the great Leo Brouwer. This is...
Free LessonSeries Details
Kaki King
In lesson 6, Kaki discusses how the left and right hands can work together or independently of each other to create different...
Free LessonSeries Details
Nick Amodeo
Nick explains how to play some of the most commonly used chords in the bluegrass genre.
Free LessonSeries Details
Jessica Baron
Jessica kindly introduces herself, her background, and her approach to this series.
Free LessonSeries DetailsElectric Guitar Lesson Samples
Our electric guitar lessons are taught by instructors with an incredible amount of teaching experience.
DJ Phillips
Learn a handful of new blues techniques while learning to play Stevie Ray Vaughn's "The House Is Rockin'".
Free LessonSeries Details
Kris Norris
Kris analyzes different pick sizes and their effect on his playing. Using a slow motion camera, he is able to point out the...
Free LessonSeries Details
Eric Madis
In this lesson Eric talks about playing basic lead in the Memphis Blues style.
Free LessonSeries Details
David Wallimann
This is a crucial lesson that explains tablature, how to read it, and why it's important.
Free LessonSeries Details
Kenny Ray
Albert Collins brought a lot of style to the blues scene. In this lesson, Kenny breaks down Albert's style for you to learn.
Free LessonSeries Details
Chris Liepe
Chris brings his ingenuity to this lesson on the American folk song called "Where Did You Sleep Last Night?" Also known as...
Free LessonSeries Details
Emil Werstler
Emil takes you through some techniques that he uses frequently in his style of playing. Topics include neck bending, percussive...
Free LessonSeries Details
Lisa Pursell
Lisa breaks into the very basics of the electric guitar. She starts by explaining the parts of the guitar. Then, she dives...
Free LessonSeries Details
Brad Henecke
Free LessonSeries Details
Tosin Abasi
Tosin explains some of the intricacies of the 8 string guitar such as his personal setup and approach to playing.
Free LessonSeries DetailsAdditional Lesson Features Available to Members
While we have attempted to provide you with an accurate rendition of our video lesson experience, there are some features which
require a membership with us!
Custom Progress Reporting
At JamPlay, we give you the ability to monitor your own progress for any lesson! If you watch one of our lessons and feel as though you understand around half of it, mark your progress at 50%. This adds the lesson to your customized Progress Report, and gives you an incredible ability to document what you need to work on, and where you left off.
Progressive Bookmarking
With thousands of lessons at your fingertips, JamPlay can be a touch intimidating to a first-time user. With Progressive Bookmarking, we give you the ability to systematically bookmark sections of any lessons you are working on to quickly access later. After all, what is the point of all this content if it isn't easy to use?
Save Your Notes
JamPlay also gives you the ability to leave notes for yourself on any lesson. Just like in any educational system, taking your own notes while learning gives you the ability to highlight the instruction that is important to you. Leave your notes, and we store them in our database for you to reference each and everytime you come back to the lesson.
Join the Thousands of Members at JamPlay
Signup today to enjoy access to our entire database of video lessons, along with our exclusive set of learning tools and features.
Unlimited Lesson Viewing
A JamPlay membership gives you access to every lesson, from every teacher on our staff. Additionally, there is no restriction on how many times you watch a lesson. Watch as many times as you need.Live Lessons
Exclusive only to JamPlay, we currently broadcast 8-10 hours of steaming lesson services directly to you! Enjoy the benefits of in-person instructors and the conveniences of our community.Interactive Community
Create your own profile, manage your friends list, and contact users with your own JamPlay Mailbox. JamPlay also features live chat with teachers and members, and an active Forum.Chord Library
Each chord in our library contains a full chart, related tablature, and a photograph of how the chord is played. A comprehensive learning resource for any guitarist.Scale Library
Our software allows you to document your progress for any lesson, including notes and percent of the lesson completed. This gives you the ability to document what you need to work on, and where you left off.Custom Chord Sheets
At JamPlay, not only can you reference our Chord Library, but you can also select any variety of chords you need to work on, and generate your own printable chord sheet.Backing Tracks
Jam-along backing tracks give the guitarist a platform for improvising and soloing. Our backing tracks provide a wide variety of tracks from different genres of music, and serves as a great learning tool.Interactive Games
We have teachers covering beginner lessons, rock, classic rock, jazz, bluegrass, fingerstyle, slack key and more. Learn how to play the guitar from experienced players, in a casual environment.Beginners Welcome.. and Up
Unlike a lot of guitar websites and DVDs, we start our Beginner Lessons at the VERY start of the learning process, as if you just picked up a guitar for the first time.Our teaching is structured for all players.
Member Comments about this Lesson
Discussions with our instructors are just one of the many benefits of becoming a member of JamPlay.This is super useful!
Brendan, this was a very simple but very useful lesson. I've taken a quite a few lessons in strumming and none of them said so much in so little time as you did in this lesson.
Glad to hear it. Keep it going!
Ok, This is my problem, it has plagued me forever; my pick goes all over the place, if I hold on to it tightly, I strum way to hard. Help!
It might also help to use a lighter gauge (more flexible) pick. If find very heavy picks difficult to play with as there is less flexibility when it strikes the string. That resistance produces more resistance and also a louder sound.
Aaron, This is a very common problem. The thing to remember is that your pick is experiencing resistance from the strings. If you attack at an angle, it will bounce back at an angle. As an exercise, try letting go of your hold on the pick when strumming. You should be able to get it to a point where it just floats in your hand: you're pushing the pick into the strings, but the strings are also pushing back. It's a delicate balance, and easier said than done, but it will allow you to have a lot of flexibility in your dynamics.
I am a little confused about the technique here. Should I stop the pick on the G string and go back up without plucking it (easier, more accurate), or should I lift the pick up right after the D string, making a fuller motion (hard not to pluck the D string, but it seems you're doing this in the video). Thanks for the answer.
For the Bass & Treble areas you can hit anywhere between one and four strings to get this effect. Rather than dividing the guitar by 3 strings, you can overlap four strings at a time and have the D & G can be part of both. The Bass & Treble areas are a great place for strumming, but as you move forward, you'll find you'll be able to articulate smaller and smaller groupings.