Chords for Guitar Lesson: How to Play In the Pocket

_ _ _ _ Do you have any tips for aspiring players to help find that pocket and really groove in it?
I do.
You know, it's so important when you're playing blues to be really focused and really clear with your rhythm parts.
And that's what we refer to as playing in the pocket.
That's where every musician, including bass, drums, guitar, keyboard, whoever's in the band,
you know, takes their, adds their component to the band while leaving room for the other musicians.
And that is so important because in some of the lower level ensembles, for instance, at Berklee or whatever,
wherever I see players that aren't as experienced, perhaps, you'll see people playing like, playing too much.
And playing over their space, basically.
I think of it as sonic airspace, basically.
So I've got to leave room for the people next to me.
That's very important.
And so I think part of that is learning how to edit, you know, and knowing it's just as important to know what not to play as to what to play.
A few things that come to mind if I was going to talk in just a very short period of time about playing the groove.
One of the real important elements when you're playing blues, jazz, funk, or any style such as that would be playing with the backbeat
and learning how to lock in and focus and really groove along with the backbeat.
So as a musician, as a guitar player and the bass and everybody kind of zeroes in on those backbeats.
So I'm going to do that.
I'm going to demonstrate that for a second.
If I can get a click going here.
Turn down the reverb just a little bit on this since it's a little obnoxious.
Now I'm going to take you through a shuffle and then a, say, a jazz groove and then a funk groove all at the same tempo.
And these, I'm going to, these clicks represent the backbeats on two and four.
So this would be, if I was going to count that in, it would be one, one, two, one, two, three, four.
Okay?
So let me get [E] a sound happening here on the guitar and I'm going to do that now.
Here's a shuffle to begin with.
One, two, one, two, three, four. _
_ _ _ _ [Dbm] _ [G] _ [A] _ _
_ _ [Dbm] _ _ _ _ _ [D] _
_ [Am] _ [Eb] _ [E] _ [Eb] _ [Em] _ [B] _ [G] _
_ _ _ _ [E] _ _ _ [Em] _
[A] _ _ _ [Gb] _ [Dbm] _ _ _ _
_ [G] _ [Am] _ [D] _ [E] _ _ [Am] _ [C]
[B] Okay, now here's a jazz groove, same tempo.
[Bb] One, two, three.
This is [D] B [G] flat blues [Ab]
[Bb] with more [G] _ [Db] [Bb] two fives in [Eb] the changes and [Ab] such, but [A] still locked [C] in with that backbeat.
[E] _ [Dm] _ [Bbm] _ [Ab] _ [B] _ [Cm] _ [Cm] _ [F] _
[Ab] _ [Bb] _ [G] _ [C] _ [F] _ [Bb] _ [C] _ [D] _
[Eb] _ [Am] _ [Ab] _ [Bbm] _ [B] _ [Bb] _ [G] _ [Ab] _
[Bbm] _ [Db] _ [F] _ [Bbm] _ [D] _ [G] _ _ [D] _
[Em] _ [G] _ [A] _ [Bb] _ [Em] _ _ [Fm] _
So it's more or less, and that had the two five turnaround [E] and such on it, okay?
But again, way different than that shuffle in E, but still those backbeats are just as essential, okay?
Now I'm going to take you into a little bit of funk and I'm going to do this [Bm] in E.
Okay, and this is like a, maybe a little bit toward the James Brown thing.
One, two, one, two, [Eb] three.
[E] _
_ _ _ _ _ _ [Bb] _ [Db] _
_ [A] _ [Db] _ [E] _ _ _ _ [Eb] _
_ [D] _ [Db] _ [G] So [Am] _ [Gm] _ [Eb] _
[E] _ _ _ [G] _ [E] _ _ _ _
[Ab] _ [A] _ [A] _ [Db] _ [E] _ [Bm] _ [B] _ [E]
in [Eb] _ _ [Db] _ _ _ _ [Dbm] _
[Bm] _ _ _ all three of those styles, those backbeats are just really pretty essential.
So if you're going to be working on your groove and you want to work on your tempo and really locking in,
working on your time, which is essential, do practice with the backbeats, okay?
It takes a little getting used to, but it's very important. _ _ _