Jazz and Funk
The simple four-to-a-bar rhythm is associated with Jazz guitarists such as Freddie Green, although they may subtly vary the chord on each beat.
A simple eight-to-a-bar rhythm is known as "straight eights" as opposed "swung eights", in which each pair are played as the first and third notes in a triplet.
The fretting hand can also be lifted off the fretboard to damp a chord, creating staccato and percussive effects. In reggae and ska, a few staccato "chops" are played per bar. In funk rhythm playing, the strumming hand keeps a fairly steady motion in 16th notes, while the left hand, basically holding down a jazz chord damps some of them in a syncopated pattern.
Read more about this topic: Strum
Famous quotes containing the word jazz:
“The basic difference between classical music and jazz is that in the former the music is always greater than its performance—Beethoven’s Violin Concerto, for instance, is always greater than its performance—whereas the way jazz is performed is always more important than what is being performed.”
—André Previn (b. 1929)