Building Better Acoustic Rhythm #3 - How to Make Your Rhythm Sound Like a Drum Beat (Percussive Hits)

Building Better Acoustic Rhythm - Percussive Playing

Learning Jack Johnson songs and playing them over and over again with the record is what really brought my acoustic rhythm playing to a much higher level. One thing I picked up from him was the way he could created a rhythm that almost sounded like a drum beat was playing. He did this by matching the snare drum with a percussive hit, or muting strings then accenting them. Once I learned this I was able to find it in varying forms from many other artists. For this lesson we will be looking at 3 different songs from 3 different artists who use some form of this technique.

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Sitting, Waiting, Wishing - Jack Johnson

Jack Johnson uses a very aggressive percussive hit on muted strings at the exact same moment when the snare drum hits. This is marked by "x" on the TAB below. This is a difficult technique to learn, but I will do my best to describe how its done. Make sure to also check out the video for this lesson below. To make the snare sound on your guitar you will need to:

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Mute the strings with your fret hand by very slightly lifting up the Am7 barre chord that is being held. Make sure to still be touching the strings but not fretting them.
With you strumming hand you will need to use the palm of your hand along with you thumb and hit the strings with a diagonal motion.
You pick will be hitting the top of the muted low E string. This is what gives you the snare sound

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If you do all of the above correctly and after a lot of practice you should have what sounds like a snare sound in your rhythm playing. Again, be sure to follow along in the video below.

Put it into practice by learning the opening and verse section of this song below.

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Have You Ever Seen The Rain - CCR

In this song we have the same technique that is just a tiny bit less aggressive that what we saw in "Sitting, Waiting, Wishing". The main difference is really the fact that you are using open chords, and in order to mute them you will need to take the pressure off the strings with your fretting hand and slightly and lay your fingers across them to stop them from sounding out. Check the video to see how this is done.

To make the snare sound on your guitar you will need to:

Mute the strings with your fret hand by very slightly lifting up then laying them down across the strings.
With your strumming hand you will need to hammer down the palm of your hand along with you thumb/pick and hit the strings with a diagonal motion.
Your pick will be hitting the the strings as you do this creating a snare sound.

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If you do all of the above correctly and after a lot of practice you should have what sounds like a snare sound in your rhythm playing. Again, be sure to follow along in the video below.

Learn and get proficient with the verse section of the song below and check out the video to see more of how its done.

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I'm Yours - Jason Mraz

Last, we look at "I'm Yours" by Jason Mraz. In this song, there is no percussive hit. Instead, we get a bongo style sound by palm muting the bass strings then opening up for some accented strums then repeating. The snare sound is still implied here except it is the non palm muted hits that bring it out. There is still a very slight palm mute that happens on the opened up accented hits. This helps to give us that acoustic reggae sound and feel. You will have to experiment with varying degree's of palm muting to see what works best.

To make the bongo sound on your guitar you will need to:

Paul mute the E, A and D strings with your strumming hand.
Strum only those 3 strings.
Release the palm mute and strum deeper into the chord for the accent part of it.

If you do all of the above correctly, and after a lot of practice you should have what sounds like a bongo sound in your rhythm playing. Again, be sure to follow along in the video below.

Learn and get proficient with the verse section of the song.

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