Help I am stuck with Eighth note strumming
Brad
wrote:
>I had my first lesson today after teaching myself for about the last 10
>months, and my teacher verified what I already know, that my strumming is
>pretty much the same for all the tunes I play. I find it really hard not to
>strum the same pattern over and over again. I have been trying to strum
>differently. For instance when playing early mornin' rain I will skip a few
>of the upstrokes and just strum on the downstrokes and also speeding up the
>strumming but trying to keep it at the sameB.PM. of about 104. I also just
>bought a metronome to try and help myself.
> Does anybody know of a good way to break the habit of always strumming
>in a simmilar fashion?
>
Heres a couple of sites for you just find links for lessons and
strumming or chords. You have the right idea when you find the
patterns you will see that up strokes are skipped etc but its usually
done in pattern and the only way to break the habit is to learn
different patterns and practice them until they are second nature to
you. Also accents are very nice to throw in like say the downbeat of
two and four you accent or hit the strum a little harder. Many of the
online lessons dont discuss accenting beats but it really adds some
color to your playing.
http://www.people.fas.harvard.edu/~desmith/guitar/index.html
http://www.harmony-central.com/
Brad
"It's important to listen. Listen and learn
from other players, but also put yourself in
a position where you can listen to yourself."
Joe Satriani
Paul D.
that you like. Try to find ones with obvious rhythm tracks that you can hear
distintively.
Currently I am trying to learn some reggae rhythms found on music by Toots & the
Maytals. This stuff is really difficult for me, but a lot of fun.
Another source of cool rhythms are the following:
"The Band"
"Stephenwolf"
"The Who"
Like Brad said, listen for the accented beats. Also try to listen for the
upbeats. In addition, a lot of rhythms use muting and muted strums to create
accents.
These examples may be a little advanced. I am still struggling with some of
then, and have been playing for a while now.
What they will do is show you what can be done with the guitar for rhythm.
BTW, to learn rhythms I have been using Winamp and the "Loopback" plugin. It
works great, allowing you to loop over and over and section of a song.
Paul D.