Mobile Rhythm Guitar

Jamie Taylor teaches the art of "four to the bar" rhythm guitar — the moving, swinging counterpoint that players like Freddie Green, Jim Hall, and Bucky Pizzarelli created behind soloists. The focus is harmonic: how to actually generate mobile rhythm parts, not just keep time.

Jamie's approach is built on three-note shell voicings played on just the 6th, 4th, and 3rd strings — reduced drop-three inversions that are easy to grab, agile, and thin enough in texture to stay out of everyone else's way (including the pianist's). Think of Jim Hall's rhythm work behind Bill Evans on "My Funny Valentine" from the Undercurrent album. As contemporary exponent James Chirillo puts it, the rhythm guitar's role is to supply a tenor part to the bass player's line.

In this 50-minute session

• Accompaniments for two familiar progressions — "Minor Swing" and "Autumn Leaves" — using one, then two, and finally four shapes per chord
• How the more elaborate versions are derived from the basic ones
• A quick grounding in drop-two and drop-three inversions and how the shell shapes are reduced from them
• General principles of rhythm guitar: time, sound, and ensemble awareness, not just chord shapes
• Everything is fretted on the 6th, 4th, and 3rd strings — you can even drop the 6th string when a bassist is present

The class is linked via on-screen captions to an accompanying 13-page PDF booklet with notation, TAB, and chord diagrams — no music reading required. The simple accompaniments are accessible to inexperienced players, while the elaborate one-shape-per-quarter-note material will stretch more developed guitarists. Basic / Intermediate. Running time: 50 minutes.