"Hard to Handle" - awesome lesson

Right on Rich! Zoning in on the rhythm might make all the difference.

Here's a bit of help on that for the lick:

The first bending part uses quarter notes right on the beat ... so if you're counting 1 2 3 4 .... you come in with the first bend on the 4th beat of the last bar of the previous section. It's a total of 3 strums with that bend, right on the beat, so you are hitting on 4 1 2.

Then, on the third beat of the bar, the lick switches to 16th notes for the rest of it. So, rhythmically speaking, the phrasing would look like this:

4 1 2 3-e-and-a 4-e-and-a 1-e-and-a 2-e-and-a

REMEMBER: the first 2 16th notes (at 3-e) are a bend up at the 9th fret of the B string, then back down at 9. I would treat that separately from the first 3 bends on 4, 1, and 2.

Make sense?

Mike - that does make sense and I think you hit on why I'm having a problem. I must be coming in on the 1 and not the 4. That would explain why coming in a little early last night helped.

I'll have to practice and focus on that. I'm playing the rhythm part that slides from the A chord up to E and then play the B chord, so I have to transition quickly. Last night that flowed. Now at least I understand why what I did last night worked :-).

Thanks so much for the help on this!
Rich

Excellent, good luck with it!

Mike