The Charleston Rhythm aka the Can't Buy Me Love Beat

In this video I'm looking at what's known as the Charleston rhythm, which is one of the first real syncopated rhythms I've covered in my entire program. All syncopated means is something where the strong beat is on the off beat, rather than on the count of one, two, three, four. The Charleston beat puts a strong beat on beat one and the and of two - one, two and three, four, one, two and three, four.

What You'll Learn:

• What syncopation means and how to feel it

• The Charleston rhythm pattern: one, two and, three, four

• How to play "Can't Buy Me Love" by The Beatles

• The essential E minor and A minor chord changes

• D minor 7 and G6 chord voicings for variety

• Django Reinhardt's "Minor Swing" progression (A minor to D minor)

• How the Charleston rhythm relates to the Bo Diddley beat

• The importance of staccato playing in rhythm guitar

• How to use down, mute, up, down, mute, up strumming pattern

• How to add hammer-ons and flick-offs to chord progressions

Can't Buy Me Love

This is why I commonly call it the "Can't Buy Me Love" rhythm, because it's what starts this classic song - really clear guitar part from George Harrison using basic open chords E minor and A minor. That rhythm one, two, two and, one, two and three, four is very famous and very fundamental because it's putting the syncopated rhythm on an off beat as a strong beat. That's one of the most common things that rock and roll does. It's commonly done on the end of four or the push that we've looked at a bit, but because with this rhythm the strong beat's on beat one and then on an off beat, it's really crucial.

The Pattern

"Can't Buy Me Love" is absolutely the number one song suggestion. That one, two, three, four - down, mute, up, down, mute, up, down, mute, up is really, really important. Then after that, even these little stabbed strumming patterns for the verse come from a certain place.

Django Reinhardt - Minor Swing

One of the most earliest origins of this and one of the fundamental songs to seriously know about would be by a very inspirational guitarist to me personally, called Django Reinhardt and his song "Minor Swing." The two chords to that main progression are A minor to D minor. The melody basically uses three notes from the A minor pentatonic, but also the A minor chord and from the D minor chord - really fundamental.

Other Examples

This is used in other songs as well. Even a soul classic like Sam and Dave's "Soul Man" would be played with this rhythm. There's plenty of stuff you can do with that, but that same kind of - it's almost the Bo Diddley rhythm which we'll look at later, very similar, very related rhythms. But really staccato - without this staccato, things on guitar get very "one, two, three, four" or "one and two and three and four." We need something to shake it up a bit.

Practice Application

My number one song example would absolutely be "Can't Buy Me Love." The rhythm is really good for your technique, and you're learning a couple of classic songs at the same time. You can add hammer-ons if you wish - if you practice your hammer-ons and flick-offs on the two chords too. That would be A minor in this fashion and D minor if you play that D power chord with the added middle finger. What can be better than that?