The Summer of Rhythm Guitar 2026: Take a Walk on the mild side

[mr. beaumont]

I know, it's "wild" side, but I'm getting older. Now I Rock and Roll All Night and PART of every day.

The time has come for another ultimately confusing Summer project concerning Rhythm guitar. This year with a focus on creating movement...more on that later...

First, the Mr. Beaumont Dictionary definition of rhythm guitar:

Rhythm Guitar (ri-thim GIT-arrrrrr) n. A style of jazz guitar accompaniment focused on a steady, 4 quarter note to the bar pattern, using 3, 2, or "1 note" chords, in a style perfected by by not exclusively played by Freddie Green with the Count Basie Band. Rhythm Guitar is not the same as "comping," and it is often played on an unamplified acoustic archtop guitar.

Now...this year's focus: Forward motion. Inspired by Guy Boden's cool C# A E thread, this Summer's focus will be about creating movement in rhythm guitar parts. I'm not limiting this to just bass movement, but it's a fine place to start. Movement and walking are also not the same thing, but related. Walking, as will likely be discovered, is not always practical or preferable, but it sure is fun. Other types of movement to consider could be a moving tenor line, or a counterpoint bass/third string line. This year's focus is thereby less about a strict "Freddie Green style on an acoustic archtop" approach.

How to participate: Just play some rhythm guitar and post. Post playing, thoughts, questions, revelations. There's no assignments. There's no "this week we all do this song." There's plenty of other threads here with that structure. This isn't that. Just play and talk about playing. Get theoretical if that gets you happy.

I'll be posting for the first time in the next day or two, but don't wait on me. Let's have some fun and play some music.

And now, you may all begin asking "what's rhythm guitar?"

[AllanAllen]

Here's a walkup move for Well You Needn't and the inspiration is Monk's ascending comp with Parker.

[brent.h]

Here's my entry! Hope it's ok!

0:00 head, 0:51 walking freddie green

A section:

Eb7 | // | Ab | //
Ab | Eb, Ebo | E+ | Ab

B section:

Eb7 | // | Ab | //
Ab7 | // | Db | //
Bb7 | // | Eb7 | //

C section:

Ab | F- | Ab | E
Ab | Eb7 | Ab | //

[GuyBoden]

Great thread topic.

I'm working on a Bass Note leading version of "It Could Happen to You".

I'll post a sound clip later in the week.

First 16 bars.

[JDNC64]

"After You've Gone"(17:00) "Moonglow" (36:16) from a recent concert.
(I can't get timestamps to work when posting here from youTube)

[mr. beaumont]

Excellent! Keep em coming everybody!

[Rob MacKillop]

Simple Summertime:

All 2 beats unless stated otherwise

Summertime1.pdf

Summertime2.pdf

The video should start with Summertime [3'15"], but there are other songs - I just can't find the pdfs, but you could work them out if you want to. These were for my students.

[John A.]

I do a fair a fair amount of duo stuff (piano or another guitar). I try to maintain motion via variety: rhythm guitar, comping patterns, walking + chord stabs, counter-melody

Perhaps not exactly what the thread calls for, but it’s what I do.

[charlieparker]

Here's my entry! Hope it's ok!

0:00 head, 0:51 walking freddie green

A section:

Eb7 | // | Ab | //
Ab | Eb, Ebo | E+ | Ab

B section:

Eb7 | // | Ab | //
Ab7 | // | Db | //
Bb7 | // | Eb7 | //

C section:

Ab | F- | Ab | E
Ab | Eb7 | Ab | //

Enjoyed that!

[GuyBoden]

Here is a short recording where I'm using leading bass notes into the chords to create "Forward Motion", like a bass player sometimes uses.

(Using squeaky bronze strings on my fav Acoustic Archtop, a blonde Yunzhi 18 inch.)

Edit: Played on this blonde Yunzhi 18 inch Acoustic Archtop. (See below)

[Webby]

Hey Jeff!
Cool that you got this thing started again!
Here's a short "rhythm-riff" I like to use on major chords to create some movement. When comping Freddie Green style you can get a lot of miles out of this one.

These are the voicings I use:

Important: In this style I always fret the low E-String, so those all have the 5th in the bass.


Paul

[joe2758]

Hey Jeff!
Cool that you got this thing started again!
Here's a short "rhythm-riff" I like to use on major chords to create some movement. When comping Freddie Green style you can get a lot of miles out of this one.

These are the voicings I use:

Important: In this style I always fret the low E-String, so those all have the 5th in the bass.


Paul

Did you learn from the Charlton Johnson book?

[Webby]

Did you learn from the Charlton Johnson book?

I think I have that book somewhere here, but I didn't work too much with it.
But to be fair: I brought that book kinda late in my journey so I think I just had some stuff already figured out when I looked through it.


Paul

[AllanAllen]

I comp that often. It’s a good move.

Switching to C for ease of communication.

xx555x
xx545x
xx535x

[mr. beaumont]

So nice to see everybody up and running. My hope is to post some first thoughts this afternoon/evening.

Regarding chord shapes, you can do a whole lot with "the elite 8" as i call them (really 9 but the first one isn't really as useful as you might think)

They all can function as multiple things, that's the trick.

[Mick-7]

These are the voicings I use:



Important: In this style I always fret the low E-String, so those all have the 5th in the bass.

Paul

Root position is more common....

In G major: G | 3-x-5-4-x-x | > G^7 | 3-x-4-4-x-x | > G6 | 3-x-2-4-x-x |

Switching to C for ease of communication.
xx555x
xx545x
xx535x

More like A minor? (or Vm7 for I^7)

[djg]

i played rhythm on this record many moons ago. the great ian date on lead guitar.

[Webby]

Here's another fun thing I picked up from some stuff Brian Setzer played on a tune called "drink that bottle down"

Technically this is a Blues in E with some hip substitutions.

Paul

[Mick-7]

Playing all four bottom strings sounds groovy too, as in "Hit the Road, Jack"

| 7-5-7-7-x-x | >> | 5-4-5-6-x-x | >> | 3-2-3-4-x-x | >> | 2-1-2-3-x-(0) |

[mr. beaumont]

Here's me getting too cute.

I think my summer focus is going to be the 4th string.

[mr. beaumont]

i played rhythm on this record many moons ago. the great ian date on lead guitar.

Love, love, love this.

[brent.h]

i played rhythm on this record many moons ago. the great ian date on lead guitar.

What guitar were you using?

[brent.h]

Here's me getting too cute.

I think my summer focus is going to be the 4th string.

I didn't think there was way too much going on! Plus I thought getting cute was the whole point of the thread lol

I love how walking chords create beautiful counter/tenor melodies!

[GuyBoden]

ii-V-I subs from Three-Note Voicings book by Randy Vincent.

I find these are nice to play as an exercise, but for me, there's too much going for actual songs. Maybe, someday if I improve.

[djg]

What guitar were you using?

a mid-60s ES125DC. the engineer (max bollemann) mic'ed it up. i think it was slightly amplified, too.