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In the previous lesson we've seen the most basic strumming patterns in EX1 and EX 2, in this lesson we're going to move to a more sophisticated ones.
Exercise 3:
ONE and TWO and THREE and FOUR and (repeat this)
The first exercise is the play 1 downstroke followed by 1 upstroke with every number
ONE and TWO and THREE and FOUR and
down UP down UP
Exercise 4:
ONE and TWO and THREE and FOUR and (repeat this)
The first exercise is the play an upstroke with every number
ONE and TWO and THREE and FOUR and
UP down UP down
You have to play these strumming patterns slowly to memorize them and after that you can speed up a little.
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If you want to
learn strumming you have to begin with the most basic patterns and move to the more complicated ones and here are some exercises that you can make use of to improve your strumming.
Exercise One:
As i told you before you can use a metronome or even count in you head if you don't have one and the count will go like this:
ONE and TWO and THREE and FOUR and (repeat this)
The first exercise is the play a downstroke with every number
ONE and TWO and THREE and FOUR and
down down down down
Notice that you can repeat this 3, 4 or even 10 times, and you can fret a chord or just play open strings.
Exercise Two:
ONE and TWO and THREE and FOUR and (repeat this)
The first exercise is the play an upstroke with every number
ONE and TWO and THREE and FOUR and
UP UP UP UP
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Another key factor to master guitar is to
learn strumming, strumming gives a song its unique color, so make sure you learn it before you move to
learning guitar scales or anything else.
Some people say that rhythm is something you have or you don't and you can't acquire it by learning, i say this is the most ridiculous thing i have ever heard of, because every person on this planet can learn guitar including the theory behind it as he can learn anything else as well.
The key factor to
learn strumming is to develop your musical ear so you can differentiate between an "Upstroke" and a "Downstroke" and when i say develop you ear, i don't mean that you have to develop a perfect pitch ear that can identifies notes by listening to them, because differentiating between an "Upstroke" and a "Downstroke" is so easy, a small child can do it.
You don't have to fret a chord if you're learning strumming, just play with open strings or mute the strings with your left hand if you pick with your right, the next thing to do is to grab a metronome if you have one (even on your computer or mobile) and set it let's say at 80 bpm. If you don't have a metronome, just count in your head.
Listening to your favorite music can develop your ear, so make sure to listen to great artists and by time you'll be able to know what they are playing and how they are strumming.
To learn strumming you have to begin with the most basic strumming patterns, read this post about "
guitar strumming for beginners".
