1. You want to know about John's rhythm playing on "All My Loving" and "Happy To Dance"? Well, those two tunes were written by Paul. It is most probable that Paul played the rhythms in that triplet manner and simply told John to play it that way.



2. That fast rhythmic playing is really just the Bo Diddley rhythm (without the tremolo). John (and Paul and George) were big fans of and heavily influenced by Diddley.



3. John's rhythm playing in those early days was rather busy. The short scale Rickenbacker he used then was definitely a strong influence in how those rhythms were played. I have a Lennon model short scale Ric and when I got it I quickly saw how some of his rhythms were far easier to play using it. The Chuck Berry floating pinky rhythm playing that John did a lot of is far easier to do on a short guitar than a normal sized one.



So what influenced John's rhythm guitar playing? Paul, Bo Didley, Chuck Berry, and his short guitar. Later on in his career John's finger picking technique was taught to him by Donovan while they were all in India for a few weeks.

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