Rosenberg Academy

Listening to the rhythm track, it is kind of difficult to identify exactly what Stochelo is doing. He seems to do a lot of variations, maybe a lot of rhythmic improvisation.

Any tips on how to get to the essence of this rhythm style?

I actually wouldnt take Stochelo as my role model for this rhythm. Noushe is more calm and straight forward. Just play six 8th notes with accents on the 1st and 4th note, all notes short exceot for the 3rd note which you can make long.

2nd, 5th and 6th all muted!

Thank you. That clears up the accent pattern for me. As for the right hand pattern, is it consequently down, up, down, up or does Nous'che reinforce some beats with double downstroke?

When I look at the right hands of rhythm guitarists playing these rhumba styles, there seems to be some differences.

In this video for instance:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R7JQpRVaR24

I can't quite tell if there are double downstrokes or just extra hand movement for accent which makes it appear as such.

I'd advice just doing a continuous up and down motion. That's the way Noushe does it as does Johnny Rosenberg!

That's what I settled for and it's working so far. I'm going to record my take on this song once I have a week or two more of practicing and will record Stochelos performance, improv and a take of rhythm playing.

So I'm going to stick with the advice I've gotten so far, emphasis on 1 and 4 and continous down up movement of the right hand.

What I find is that this 6/8 rhumba is a lot less tiresome to do than the 4/4 rhumba for some reason. In both styles I find the biggest challenge to eliminate excessive noise from the muted strokes. The ideal would be to retain the percussive feel while eliminating noise so that the rhythm is discreet and supportive while also driving the soloist forward. That's what I'm working towards now.

Since it's "rhumba month" I'm re-visiting Caravan. I still have no endurance to play rhythm at Rosenberg tempo, so I practice at 60-70% to get the muscle memory down so I can relax completely and gradually move upwards. For the 6/8 I'm a lot closer to Rosenberg tempo.

Thanks again, I'm going to keep working and submit a video soon.

I recorded two videos, the solo and the rhythm. I post both here so I don't make another thread in the YouTube videos forum.

Here is the performance of Stochelos solo, to the best of my current ability:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aK2ENEvJwNg

And here is the rhythm attempt:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=utvWlyVeJyo

For the rhythm I tried to follow Stochelos general idea about making the parts sound distinct, playing looser on the bridge etc...

I figured to try the different ways of playing would be better than play the straight rhythm all the way through, so I can get feedback on all aspects, since there also are stretches where I play just the basic rhythm pattern.