Ukulele for Guitar Players

Song Rhythm

Vamping

Vamping is a form of improvisation. It's about filling the space between two chords when the timing is flexible.

Queen's Good Old Fashioned Lover Boy is a good example and I demonstrate the technique in the following clip.

Used in these songs

Instead of moving immediately to the next chord, you stay on the first chord and use an ad-hoc picking pattern to maintain musical flow until the beat — or the singer — signals the change.

I typically use this during the intro and first verse of piano ballads, before a steady rhythm is established. The singer performs in their own time, and the accompaniment follows their phrasing. Vamping allows you to support that freedom without losing control of the song.

Even without a fixed beat, the goal is still control — you are shaping time rather than reacting to it.