Truefire – Angus Clark’s Hard Rock Guitar Survival Guide: Rhythm Edition (2013)

Your buddy got you the audition. His brother’s in the band. They all have day gigs but they rock hard on the weekends working local venues, making decent money and having a blast doing rock covers from the 60’s all the way through the 90’s and beyond. They need a second guitar and it sounds like a perfect gig for you. You’re a little nervous ‘cause the other guitarist is the local hot shot with blazing pyrotechnic lead chops and that can be a little intimidating.

Fear not… we have good news and really good news for you. The good news is they’re really looking for someone with killer rhythm chops because the other dude can’t even spell the word. The really good news is that Angus Clark will hone your rhythm chops to perfection with this Hard Rock Rhythm Survival Guide.

“This course is packed with great ideas and concepts for classic rock rhythm guitar. Angus has exactly the right tempo with this tutorial and gets right to the point immediately he never misses to explain the essentials as well as his tricks of the trade to get the right sound for example. With a role model like him you just want to grab your guitar and follow a few miles in his footsteps, no matter what musical genre you come from. Absolutely convincing, great fun to work it through, thumbs up!” – Jens H., TrueFire Student

We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again… killer rhythm chops gets you the gig every single time. Players with blazing lead chops are a dime a dozen today and most of them skipped all their rhythm classes to develop those chops. Their loss is your gain. Bandleaders, jammers, singer-songwriters, musical directors and the like will always pick the solid rhythm player over a skilled lead player. So yeah, its all about rhythm.

“I’m an old school hard rock/metal guy from way back, and Angus has put together a great program leading through some of the styles that the masters used to get their riffs sounding amazing. I have actually thrown this course on in the background to listen to at work or home, just because of the quality of the riffs, the playing and the tone. I think it is one of the better survival guides.” – Mike P., TrueFire Student

Angus organized this Survival Guide curriculum into two main sections. In the first section, Angus will guide you through 22 essential concepts and techniques. In the second section, you’ll play your way through 17 rhythm studies that Angus prepared to cover a wide variety of feels and grooves.

The 22 essential concepts and techniques include: Tunings, Big Chords, Rhythmic Subdivisions, Choking the… Chord, Drop D Tuning, Power Chords, Power Chords in Rhythm, Syncopated Rhythms, Triplet Rhythms and Shuffles, Power Chords in Drop D, Stylistic Touches, The “Other” Power Chord, Triads, Sixths and Thirds, Open String Pedals, Pedals in Drop D, Additional Chord Vocabulary, Accompaniment Figures, Other Time Signatures, Acoustic Applications and Hard Rock Secrets.

All of the concepts and techniques are demonstrated in context over 17 rhythm studies, which will utilize real-world rhythm tracks across a variety of keys, feels and tempos: Punk Pop Chords, Classic Hard Rock, Alice’s Grunge, Kurt’s Grunge, Nu Metal Ostinato, The Man In Black, Since You’ve Been Rockin’, Downstroke Workout, Hot For Shuffles, Drop D Bullet, Ben’s Staccato, Ben’s Overdub, Shore Leave Shuffle, Math Rock Shuffle One, Math Rock Shuffle Two, Crazy Triads, Mean Combo.

Angus demonstrates the rhythm parts and then breaks them down measure-by-measure, technique-by-technique. You’ll play along with Angus to first learn the parts as presented and then work with the rhythm tracks on your own to craft your own rhythm parts. Everything is tabbed and notated for your reference purposes.

“Hard rock and metal is my passion so I really liked this one. Angus is a cool cat and knows his stuff. There is a lot fun stuff in Hard Rock Survival Guide and some really good tips that he offers. Definitely improved my playing. Angus is a great teacher and I learned a lot of different concepts from this course along with helpful tips that I wish pro players would share more. Thanks Angus!” – Scott J., TrueFire Student

Hard rock influences practically every other rock genre and so, whatever style of rock you play; classic, grunge, metal, alternative, indy, grind core, stoner, psychedelic, blues-rock, power pop, folk rock and the list goes on; you’ll extract enough insight and technique from the Hard Rock Rhythm Survival Guide to whip your rhythm chops into serious jaw-dropping shape.

The gig is yours!