In this video
This rhythm workshop cuts through the mystery of strumming patterns by making a simple but important point: there are really only a handful of core rhythms, and almost everything else is displacement or variation of those fundamentals.
The lesson starts with a clear breakdown of eighths, sixteenths and triplets, then introduces the concept of displacement: moving a rhythm away from where you'd expect it. The Charleston rhythm is the first main focus, using Can't Buy Me Love to show how two pulses per bar can be endlessly adapted, then tracing it back to Django Reinhardt's Minor Swing and forward to My Favourite Game by The Cardigans, where the same groove is shifted by one beat.
The Bo Diddley clave rhythm takes up the second half, with a bar chord muting technique that makes the pattern far easier than it looks, and a string of songs that all use the same long-short-long pattern.
Songs covered include:
Can't Buy Me Love — the Charleston rhythm broken down beat by beat
Minor Swing by Django Reinhardt — where the Beatles got it from
My Favourite Game by The Cardigans — displacement in action
Another One Bites the Dust — four to the floor explained, and why it's harder for guitarists than it sounds
Bo Diddley, Faith, Not Fade Away, Desire and How Soon Is Now — the clave/three-two rhythm across five decades of music