TrueFire - Angus Clark's Hard Rock Survival Guide: Rhythm Edition

Essential techniques and concepts for hard rock rhythm guitar

Your buddy got you the audition. His brother’s in the band. They all have day gigs but they rock hard on the weekends working local venues, making decent money and having a blast doing rock covers from the 60’s all the way through the 90’s and beyond. They need a second guitar and it sounds like a perfect gig for you. You’re a little nervous ‘cause the other guitarist is the local hot shot with blazing pyrotechnic lead chops and that can be a little intimidating.

Fear not… we have good news and really good news for you. The good news is they’re really looking for someone with killer rhythm chops because the other dude can’t even spell the word. The really good news is that Angus Clark will hone your rhythm chops to perfection with this Hard Rock Rhythm Survival Guide.

We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again… killer rhythm chops gets you the gig every single time. Players with blazing lead chops are a dime a dozen today and most of them skipped all their rhythm classes to develop those chops. Their loss is your gain. Bandleaders, jammers, singer-songwriters, musical directors and the like will always pick the solid rhythm player over a skilled lead player. So yeah, its all about rhythm.

Angus organized this Survival Guide curriculum into two main sections. In the first section, Angus will guide you through 22 essential concepts and techniques. In the second section, you’ll play your way through 17 rhythm studies that Angus prepared to cover a wide variety of feels and grooves.

The 22 essential concepts and techniques include: Tunings, Big Chords, Rhythmic Subdivisions, Choking the… Chord, Drop D Tuning, Power Chords, Power Chords in Rhythm, Syncopated Rhythms, Triplet Rhythms and Shuffles, Power Chords in Drop D, Stylistic Touches, The "Other" Power Chord, Triads, Sixths and Thirds, Open String Pedals, Pedals in Drop D, Additional Chord Vocabulary, Accompaniment Figures, Other Time Signatures, Acoustic Applications and Hard Rock Secrets.

All of the concepts and techniques are demonstrated in context over 17 rhythm studies, which will utilize real-world rhythm tracks across a variety of keys, feels and tempos: Punk Pop Chords, Classic Hard Rock, Alice's Grunge, Kurt's Grunge, Nu Metal Ostinato, The Man In Black, Since You've Been Rockin', Downstroke Workout, Hot For Shuffles, Drop D Bullet, Ben's Staccato, Ben's Overdub, Shore Leave Shuffle, Math Rock Shuffle One, Math Rock Shuffle Two, Crazy Triads, Mean Combo.

Angus demonstrates the rhythm parts and then breaks them down measure-by-measure, technique-by-technique. You’ll play along with Angus to first learn the parts as presented and then work with the rhythm tracks on your own to craft your own rhythm parts. Everything is tabbed and notated for your reference purposes.

Hard rock influences practically every other rock genre and so, whatever style of rock you play; classic, grunge, metal, alternative, indy, grind core, stoner, psychedelic, blues-rock, power pop, folk rock and the list goes on; you’ll extract enough insight and technique from the Hard Rock Rhythm Survival Guide to whip your rhythm chops into serious jaw-dropping shape.

The gig is yours!