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Lucille Rhythm
from Bugs Henderson’s Bugs’ Blues
If you’ve ever found yourself in a country bar, you’ve likely encountered the trainbeat groove. The train-beat groove is found throughout country music, and can ultimately trace its roots back to bluegrass. The main characteristic the train-beat shares with bluegrass is its snare pattern – a consistent, uptempo groove with accents on the upbeats. While it’s not as fast as bluegrass, the train-beat does have a double-time feel to it, making it popular on the dance floor. Because country music now borrows much of its style from rock n’ roll, the train-beat can be played as a shuffle or as a straight rock groove.
This month, we’ll look at two rhythm examples based in this type of groove. Keep in mind that these styles are very percussive – you’ll want to lock in with the drummer on these rhythms, as that is what drives the song. Keep your chord stabs staccato, almost like a horn player would. As with all comping, experiment with inversions of chords to keep things interesting – try mixing in the occasional 9th to your playing – although in the train-beat groove, the chords take a backseat to the overall rhythmic feeling of the song.
If you find yourself singing and playing simultaneously, the train-beat groove is a versatile tool to keep you sounding good. By keeping things simple and locking into an underlying groove, you can focus on singing a story. And that’s really what country music is about.
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