Comments

• Bones Moderator

  May 2018 Posts: 3,319

  Yeah def hear the long-short in many 'western swing' style recordings.
• Jazzaferri Victoria B.C.Moderator Dunn Ultrafox, DuPont MDC20 Gretsch Chet Atkins CG

  May 2018 Posts: 3,707

  In the words of a number of great musicians
  
  Let teh song lead the way

  The Magic really starts to happen when you can play it with your eyes closed
• Buco NOVA, DCDeity Ivanovski maple/spruce

  May 2018 Posts: 4,735

  Nothing like a pompe question to get the forum to wake up.

  

  Every note wants to go somewhere-Kurt Rosenwinkel
• Bones Moderator

  May 2018 Posts: 3,319

  Well I guess that's the long and the short of it.
  
  Sorry....
• Jazzaferri Victoria B.C.Moderator Dunn Ultrafox, DuPont MDC20 Gretsch Chet Atkins CG

  May 2018 Posts: 3,707

  Hah, was waiting for someone to say that one

  The Magic really starts to happen when you can play it with your eyes closed
• Bones Moderator

  May 2018 Posts: 3,319

  I know, it was too obvious but it needed to be done.
• Buco NOVA, DCDeity Ivanovski maple/spruce

  May 2018 Posts: 4,735

  Actually what I've seen some pros do on the faster than fast tempos is instead of pumping with the left hand on each quarter beat they pump on 1 and 3 and more or less mute the 2 and 4 (which is different than pomping on each beat but semi muting the 1 and 3). This is isn't the easiest to do though and make it sound good too, but it would certainly give your left hand less of a workout.

  Every note wants to go somewhere-Kurt Rosenwinkel
• Jazzaferri Victoria B.C.Moderator Dunn Ultrafox, DuPont MDC20 Gretsch Chet Atkins CG

  May 2018 Posts: 3,707

  @Bones ROFL glad you did it

  The Magic really starts to happen when you can play it with your eyes closed
• MikeK Asheville, NCNew Altamira M-10, Epiphone Zephyr Regent

  May 2018 Posts: 383

  I appreciate the helpful tips, all of you. I think my approach to la pompe from now on will be like this:
  -rake-pop (short-short) on most tunes.
  -on some of the ballads, tastefully do some long/short comping.
  -on the really fast tunes, either practice and get better at my la pompe at fast speeds or try Buco's suggestion. Or both.
  I particularly like the notion of letting the song lead the way. Thanks for a good discussion.
• AndrewUlle Cleveland, OH✭✭✭ Cigano GJ-15

  May 2018 Posts: 541

  I think it was Robin Nolan who has a quick lesson on rhythm for really fast-tempo songs where he strummed both up and down stroke, so it was half the effort of ALL down stroke strumming. You still need to dampen the left hand appropriately, but that's not too hard.