If you want to master rhythm guitar, study Malcolm Young

something that I wish I figured out earlier is that while guitar solos are great it's everything else that we do that makes the real difference if you're anything like me when you first started playing you wanted to be like acdc's Angus Young cuz hey what's cooler than duck walking across a stage ripping a guitar solo while dressed in a school boy outfit that's two sizes too small and when I say it out loud it sounds kind of strange but if you're a guitar player chances are you've seen that and thought it's pretty awesome but the thing is the more time I've spent in music the more that I've come to realize that the true genius of ACDC lies in the brother who happily stood outside the spotlight Malcolm Young and impossible to replicate master that every guitar player can learn something from initially I know I was totally drawn to the Limelight the guitar solo the big triumphant moment when all eyes would be on me and I get to show the world what I'm made out of and don't get me wrong I still love a good guitar so but I think we all get to a point where we realize that the leads are actually among the least important things that we do and the real magic lies within the Rhythm I mean look no further than one of the greatest rock and roll guitar albums of all time acdc's Highway to Hell and as you can see quite a small fraction of this album is actually guitar solos it's everything else that really matters see I'm a firm believer in the idea that the purpose of a song is not to impress it's to create a feeling an attachment with the listener and as a guitarist the biggest thing that that we can do in creating that feeling in supporting the song is the simple stuff that we do in the Rhythm Section I got something that I want to show you in this video Malcolm is going to jam out on one simple chord but man does it ever sound good take a [Music] [Applause] lesson man it's one power chord the rhythm's not Hur but I can't get it sounding like Malcolm and I'll tell you why it's his sense of GrooVe and groove is one of those kind of ambiguous musical terms we all intrinsically know what it is but it's pretty hard to Define though some have certainly tried Groove a cognitive temporal phenomenon emerging from one or more carefully aligned concurrent rhythmic patterns at least this is how one scientist def find it I think of it as that Primal characteristic in music that makes you want to move body to it from the non-musician to the veteran from an infant to an adult everybody just knows when the music is grooving let's take another listen this time Malcolm is playing with the rest of the Rhythm [Music] Section and it's not just the fact that the Rhythm sections locked into one steady pulse it's the fact that they move and swing together as this one sturdy rock and roll unit in the sense of GrooVe I don't want to say that some are born with it some are not but everybody feels it differently and some people have an easier time accessing it than others but if you spend as much time as Malcolm did fulfilling this role with the same group of guys you're going to get to a level that few do but there are ways that every guitar player can up their rhythm game which is why I'm happy to announce that my new course into the rhythm is open for enrollment in this course we look at a number of ways that you can take your rhythm guitar playing up to the next level incorporating baselines fingerpicking Hendrick style Rhythm making sure that your groove is intact making the best chord choices thinking of Rhythm as a band and much much more I think this is the most important course that I've ever made by implementing this stuff everyone will love playing with you and throughout the duration of this course I'll be doing a number of live streams to address your specific questions and discuss anything that you guys want to once you've joined you get lifetime access there's no pre-requisites and I'm telling you this stuff is valuable to every guitar player enrollment is open now and it closes on May 13th get while you can and use the link in my description to save $30 off tuition or head over to Samurai guitar 3.com to learn more this is going to be a ton of fun I'm telling you everyone who takes this is going to walk away with upgraded rhythm guitar skills I hope to see you there I don't think anyone truly appreciates The Genius of Malcolm Young as much as his brother and I don't blame him if I had a guitarist like Malcolm to play with every day I would honestly be one of the happiest musicians on the planet here's a paraphrase quote from Angus sometimes I look at Malcolm while he's playing and I'm completely a struck by the sheer power of it he's doing something much more unique than what I do with that raw natural sound of his people like Malcolm they're doing something better than the rest of us for me it's the Rhythm thing that's way more impressive and important to a band and of course he's so right you know when you hear a cover band and it's never quite the same as the original it's because of the feel every time it's the feel and I could happily talk about Groove all day long but there's still so much more to Malcolm's playing take a listen to the isolated Malcolm track from Shoot to [Music] Thrill not only is the Rhythm perfectly dialed in to the point where you could set the world clock to it but everything is just so tight the attack is like a ravenous bear feasting on music no hesitation Crystal Clear confidence but equally important are the cut offs take a look at the waveform and first little bit here we have short staccato cords then he lets the chords bleed into each other a bit and then they ring out the variety in the Rhythm keeps things interesting and it keeps it moving forward and by all accounts all these parts that are so important to the ACDC sound were intricately arranged by Malcolm the Dynamics the touch the feel the sound oh it's so good and even though this video has very much become an unashamed Love Letter to Malcolm Young The Rhythm guitar role in ACDC is a Twan unit Angus and Malcolm working together to create something greater than the sum of their parts to illustrate how the brothers beautifully interweave let me play you both Rhythm parts to gone [Music] [Applause] [Music] shooting and you got to love how those two parts work together neither is especially complicated but you intertwine them and they suddenly just sound so powerful and I guess we also to talk about this Malcolm Young style tone that I've been trying to capture here Malcolm signature guitar which was nicknamed the Beast it was a 1963 Gretch jet Firebird that he got from his brother to recreate that on a budget I've got a Gretch electromatic jet double cut restrung with big fat old 12 gauge didario strings amp wise Malcolm would use a marshall super base but again to get there without breaking the bank account I've got the jrocket 45 caliber overdrive doing the bulk of the work the app that I'm plugged into is a REV 20 on the clean setting but really these two things are where I'm getting most of my tone from all these things are available through my favorite online music distributor Sweetwater but on top of that thanks to Sweetwater we're giving away the guitar and The Petal to one of you guys to join the giveaway it's completely free all you got to do is fill out the link that's in the description the sound is Iconic and the secret to capturing the tone is as follows a keep the overdrive in check if you use too much you lose the subtleties and the Rhythm and keeping it dialed down also allows the other instruments to come through b Bridge pickup only my friend Malcolm actually removed the other two pickups on his guitar because that's the only one you need for what he's doing C keep it simple the only other fact you might need is a sliver of Reverb and D thick strings thick pick play it hard play it confident here's my best attempt at recreating a Malcolm part with a Malcolm style tone [Music] and the last thing that I'm going to mention in this video is that besides being a great rhythm guitar player Malcolm was also an incredible writer all but two ACDC songs were co-written by him and those two songs that he didn't write were covers that's a huge swath of music that makes up a big part of the backbone of rock and roll and even beyond the stuff that Malcolm played on his fluence can be heard in metal and rock ever since ACDC hit the scene ladies and gentlemen there you have it the hidden genius Malcolm Young a guitar player that we can all learn something from remember my new course into the Rhythm Is Now open for enrollment and closes in a couple weeks so get in while you still can and use the link in the description to save $30 off tuition I'll also let you know that we're clearing everything out of my merch store making room for some new stuff so if you want to pick up any of the old designs like the pixelated guitar playing Samurai get that while you still can you can find that over shops Samurai guitarist.com thank you all for watching if there's a guitar player that you think I should make a video like this on let me know in the comments until next time look after yourselves look after each other look after the planet I'm samai guitarist and I'll see you again soon

Channel: samuraiguitarist

Views: 63,488

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Id: aBmyBBiy1x0

Length: 9min 13sec (553 seconds)

Published: Tue Apr 30 2024