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Rhythm Chops from the Gristle Shop

Ignite Your Rhythm Chops with Greg Koch

Marty FriedmanTommy EmmanuelSteve VaiEric GalesEric Johnson

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Rhythm Chops from the Gristle Shop
Greg Koch

Greg Koch

Educator

country rock, multi genre, rock

Genres

About this course

Greg Koch is back and the Gristle Shop is serving monster portions of Funky Sixths Triple Stops, Pentatonic Triads, Stacked Fourth Voicings, Greasy “Adult” Chords, Lump Shuffle, Funky Shuffles, Shout Choruses, Bending Chords and lots more ‘gristle” for your rhythm chops.

”Groove is the most important thing whether you’re playing lead, rhythm, what have you … I have spent more time working and accumulating rhythm chops for a wide variety of genres because I understood THAT is where the ‘gristle’ truly lies.

In this installment of the Gristle Shop, we’ll focus on playing sweet, succulent rhythm guitar. We’ll cover shuffles, boogies and shout choruses. We’ll work on concepts like chord bending, stacked fourth voicings, Hendrixy double stops, adding “adult” chords to your blues and much, much more!”

You’ll have all of TrueFire’s advanced learning tools at your finger tips to personalize your workspace and learn at your own pace.

You can loop, slow down, or speed up any section of a lesson. Plus, all of the tab and notation is synced to the videos for the optimal learning experience. You’ll also get tab and standard notation files to print out, Guitar Pro files, and all of the backing tracks to practice with.

Grab your guitar and let’s pound the ‘gristle’ with Greg Koch!

What you'll learn

  • Apply extended chord voicings (9th, 13th, diminished) to 12-bar blues
  • Execute palm muting and pick scraping for rhythmic effects
  • Use major triads moving in minor thirds for diminished sounds
  • Create textured backgrounds using pentatonic triads over vamps
  • Transform basic blues shuffle into sophisticated jazz-blues comping
Release date: 04/19/2023 • 2h 15m runtime
intermediatelate intermediateadvancedguitarelectric guitarrhythm
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Sample lessons
Shout Chorus Approaches
Shout Chorus Approaches
Demonstration
Freddie's Shout
Freddie's Shout
Performance
Adding "Adult Chords" to Your Blues
Adding "Adult Chords" to Your Blues
Demonstration
Grown & Greasy
Grown & Greasy
Performance

What's included

43 lessons • 19 charts • 5 Jam Tracks

Rhythm Chops from the Gristle Shop
Hey, it's Rhythm Time!

Greg Koch here and welcome to the Rhythm Chops installment of the Gristle Shop!

Groove is the most important thing whether you’re playing lead, rhythm what have you …

I have spent more time accumulating rhythm chops for a variety of genres because I understood THAT is where the gristle truly lies.

In this installment of the Gristle Shop, we’ll focus on *Sweet, succulent* rhythm guitar…Shuffles, Boogies and shout choruses. We’ll cover concepts like Chord Bending, Stacked Fourth Voicings, Hendrixy Double stops, Adding “Adult” Chords to your blues and more.

So you ready?! Grab your guitar and let’s pound the gristle!
Playing Funky Shuffles
Hey folks! in this lesson we're going to discuss funky shuffling. I understand it may sound a bit odd, but nonetheless, we'll be covering how I approach playing a shuffle pattern with a funky vibe.
Welchz Grape Shuffle
Hey there folks, to demonstrate a funky shuffle pattern, I'd like to share with you one of my tunes called Welchz Grape. I often receive inquiries about the chords used in this song and its composition. Essentially, it's a variation of a Hendrix tune that I really enjoy, but I've added some extra changes to make it my own. The song is in the key of C Sharp, which is a key that Jimmy also favored, so I guess you could say it's a bit of a Jimmy Key.
Welchz Grape Shuffle
Let's now dive into a performance of my tune Welch's Grape to give you a better understanding of what a funky shuffle pattern sounds like in action.
Welchz Grape Shuffle
Alright, let's review the funky shuffle pattern for my song Welchz Grape. The chords are C sharp seven sharp nine to G13, which share the same top three notes. When transitioning from the first chord to the second, I keep those three fingers in place, move my thumb down, and add some vibrato to those chords by slightly bending the D, G, and B strings. Then I go down a half step to F13. For the next chord, I move down to E13, but I often hammer on the G string note or the sixth or 13th note as well. Finally, I move up to D13.
Chord Bending
I incorporate a technique of pre-bending chords in various scenarios. I first learned it from James Burton, whom I had the pleasure of playing with at his first guitar festival. We were on stage rehearsing and I heard him use this technique, which inspired me to experiment with it in my own playing
Bent Grape Jam
Now, I'm going to demonstrate some chord bending on my tune Welchz Grape. Pay close attention to the chords: C7#9, G13, F#13, E13, D9, and back to C#. These chords are repeated throughout the song, and I'll be adding some bending techniques to enhance the sound. Let's give it a listen, and then I'll break it down for you. Here we go, folks!

+ 36 more lessons

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Reviews

11 results

BaileyBailey

Verified buyer

01/11/26

Gristle Baby!

Great course. Bite size devices and rhythm tools that are well explained and easy to put into practice. Many of them I’ve not seen before (pentatonic triads etc) Greg Koch also shows a number of his idiosyncrasies (how he uses rakes etc) All in all, this is tool box of interesting ideas from a great teacher and player that would benefit anyone looking to improve their playing. Delivery was instant, notation is precise,

pegleg60

Verified buyer

12/22/25

Always entertaining to learn from Mr. Koch

Jcaddick

Verified buyer

09/11/25

Greg Koch is king

Fun and engaging, not for the faint hearted as it moves quickly, but a great course

Brock500

Verified buyer

09/11/25

Rhythm Chops from the Gristle Shop

Great stuff! I really like when they teach stuff I can actually use. I've already been able to incorporate some of Greg's teachings into my own music.

guitargreg56

Verified buyer

05/22/25

Mind altering Gristle-fest of blues chops. . .

As with everything that GK teaches, this bevy of chop-challenging, mind-opening, skill-building set of Koch-roachian lessons will be game changing in the way one approaches the blues. Just the lesson on 'Adult Blues Chords' alone would have been worth the $$. Truefire has hit another one out of the park with this lesson with the quality and quantity of reference material and video. Thanks again!

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