bunbun wrote:Baldguitardude wrote:Downstrokes only, upstrokes only, alternating downstrokes and upstrokes in quarter notes, eighths and 16th to start.
Then try some drills where the metronome doesnt tick on the quarter note - it ticks on the half note, the whole note, or every other whole note. This will help you internalize tempo.
Now stop that! I am learning to play too but I cannot read music so I go by the tabs. "...quarter notes, eighths and 16 to start..." ? Is that .25 cents, 12.5 cents and three nickels and a penny? The more I read some of this the more confused I get...sigh....
LOL!
If I can add my .02 cents here... (and I know that 'cents' would be more correctly used in a discussion on tuning... not strumming)...
Simply think of a quarter note as each time your hand passes down across the strings (count 1, 2, 3, 4).
Once you have that and can get a good sound, add the eighth note - this would be when the hand is coming back up across the strings (1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and 1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and etc).
Standard TAB notation for this would be:
\/ /\ \/ /\ \/ /\ \/ /\
(1 & 2 & 3 & 4 &)
and this is really just a diagram of what the strumming hand is doing (\/ = down and /\ = Up).
Now to get different strumming patterns just leave out a strum while maintaining this up-down motion.
\/ ~ \/ ~ \/ /\ \/ ~ (repeat)
1 & 2 & 3 & 4 &
================
\/ ~ \/ ~ \/ /\ ~ /\ (repeat)
1 & 2 & 3 & 4 &
================
\/ ~ \/ ~ ~ /\ \/ /\ (repeat)
1 & 2 & 3 & 4 &
~ = move across the strings but do not strum them.
More complex strum patterns can be created by leaving other strums out - even combining two or more patterns across several measures of music.
Good luck!
