Backbeat

Learning to Chop - Sam Bush Style

Now we're getting down to the Nitty Gritty(pun intended). We were muting on beats 2 & 4. We're now muting quickly, the moment after we strum, and we're doing it on the back-beat(the beats between 1, 2, 3 and 4). The back beat is often called, and counted as, "&". So, instead of counting 1, 2, 3, 4; 1 ,2, 3, 4 repeatedly, we count 1 &, 2 &, 3 &, 4 &; 1 &, 2 &, 3 &, 4 & etc.

Watch the video to see an example. Work on this as slowly as you need to. The tempo is the same as the last lesson, but since we are playing 1/8th notes instead of just 1/4 notes, you might need to slow it down even more.

Next up, we'll use this chop to play along with "Will the Circle Be Unbroken".