Acoustic Rhythm Guitar Playbook

A Comprehensive Hands-on Guide for the Acoustic Rhythm Guitarist

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Corey Congilio

Educator

acoustic, singer-songwriter

Genres

About this course

Most acoustic guitar players, including working pros and even accomplished singer-songwriters, have a very limited vocabulary of rhythm patterns and grooves. Having a comprehensive range of strumming patterns at your command translates into many more opportunities for playing with other musicians, getting gigs, all while expanding your creative potential for composing your own music.

Corey Congilio’s Acoustic Rhythm Guitar Playbook dives deep into the art of acoustic rhythm playing with a massive curriculum, which he organized into 6 sections featuring 60 rhythm guitar studies and grooves.

ATTENTION Electric Players! Don’t let the “Acoustic” in the title fool you — this mega-course will cure all that ails your rhythm playing as well!

"This is the guitar course I´ve been looking ever since I picked up the instrument. I especially love incorporating the licks and fills intro rhythm playing. Thanks!" - Andrew Moses

Each of the 6 sections focuses on a specific rhythm guitar approach and each section features 10 rhythm performance studies (60 rhythm studies and grooves in all). Corey will first perform the rhythm performance study and then break it down note-for-note explaining the underlying rhythmic and technical approach used in the study.

All of the performance studies are tabbed and notated for your practice, reference and study purposes. You’ll also get Guitar Pro files so that you can play, loop and/or slow down the tab and notation as you work through the lessons. Plus, Corey includes all of the backing tracks for you to work with on your own.

Grab your guitar and let’s exponentially expand our rhythm guitar playbook with Corey Congilio!

Corey Congilio's Preferred Gear

Below is a list of Corey Congilio's preferred gear including guitars, amps, pedals, accessories, and more. What you see in Corey's lessons may or may not be this actual gear, but if you are trying to capture Corey's sound and tone, the gear listed below is recommended by Corey and it's a great place to start!

Guitars

Amps

Pedals

Accessories & More

What you'll learn

Perform a complete 2-5-1 progression in the key of G
Apply natural muting techniques to avoid unwanted string noise
Execute a syncopated strumming pattern: down, down-up, down-up, down
Understand how common tones create melodic movement between chords
Recognize and apply voice leading concepts in chord progressions

Release date: 12/21/2017 • 3h 37m runtime

intermediate late intermediate acoustic guitar guitar electric guitar chords rhythm

Start Course

Sample lessons

Good Together

Demonstration

Acousta Soul

Demonstration

Outlaw Vibes

Demonstration

Big and Open

Demonstration

Good Together

Demonstration

Acousta Soul

Demonstration

Outlaw Vibes

Demonstration

Big and Open

Demonstration

What's included

69 lessons • 60 charts • 51 Jam Tracks

Acoustic Rhythm Guitar Playbook

Hi, I'm Corey Congilio, and welcome to the Acoustic Rhythm Guitar Playbook.

Most acoustic guitar players, including working pros and even accomplished singer-songwriters, have a very limited vocabulary of rhythm patterns and grooves. Developing a comprehensive range of strumming patterns can mean many more opportunities for playing with other musicians, getting gigs, all while expanding your creative potential for composing your own music.

I've organized this massive collection of 60 acoustic grooves into six sections. In the first section, we'll work on ten essential acoustic rhythms to get you up to speed with accented sixteenth note strums. Section 2’s rhythms will inspire you with ten more versatile song building grooves, and in the third section we'll expand your acoustic rhythm playbook with ten movable chord grooves. The fourth section focuses on incorporating major and minor seventh chords as well as dominant shapes into your grooves, and the fifth section focuses on ten ways to add riffs to your rhythm parts. Finally, in the sixth section of the playbook we'll work through ten song-based acoustic grooves that contain multiple rhythm parts, giving you the recipe for creating your own songs.

I'll break down each groove note for note, you'll get tab and notation for each, and you'll get all of the rhythm tracks to work with as well. You can also loop and slow down any of the performances so that you can work with the materials at your own pace.

So, grab your guitar and let's get started!

Corey Congilio's Preferred Gear

Guitars

Amps

Pedals

Accessories & More

16th Note Rhythm Primer

In this video, I'll talk more about what we're going to cover in this course and the theory behind the examples. We'll work with many popular open chords but more importantly, we'll use quarter, eighth, and sixteenth note rhythms throughout. Dissecting the 16th note grouping 1 e and a is incredibly important and I'll make sure that I've gone through every beat and how to attack it.

SECTION 1: Basic 16th Strums

Let's start with some basic 16th note grooves using standard open chords. Don't skip through this section...it's the foundation of all of the other examples!

Am to C

We're using the Am and C open chords here. We'll play the first and third groupings of 16th notes with a quarter rest in between them. You'll get a 1 e and a rest 3 e and a rest sound.

D to A

This example combines 8th and 16th notes while the quarter rest at the end of each measure gives us time to changes chords.

E to A

There are no rests in this example using the E and A chords. We're playing one grouping of 16th notes followed up by six 8th notes. Take this slow as there are no rests to help with the chord transition.

G to C

This example can be tricky, as we aren't starting on beat one. We have a quarter rest at the beginning of the measure. You'll see this happen from time to time, so it's important to pay attention to how this is played.

+ 62 more lessons

Reviews

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Greg S.

Verified buyer

04/01/26

Nice Rhythm Instruction

This book has me moving forward with my basic to intermediate guitar skills. Each lesson is well-explained with plenty of time to practice along. I recommend this book to all who are interested.

TrueFireG13

Verified buyer

11/16/25

Great method for improvising.

This course is something I was wishing to find long ago. Not intended to teach you specific songs but instead a series of techniques of how to improvise and create by your own. It is pleasant to take my guitar and start playing at the given moment something different every time or to make my songs better. Thank you.

Leendert 2.

Verified buyer

03/03/25

Great for beginner like me. True Fire provides value!

LeonardoDacumos

Verified buyer

02/10/25

Nice, It's very good lesson

Marijo08

Verified buyer

12/19/24

Great course!