Strumming issues

[JaDaRu]

So I've finally gotten down some solid strumming patterns over the last few days ( down down up up down up in particular) and it seems like I can apply this to about 80% of the pop/rock songs I know. Does that make any sense? I don't want my playing to get boring with the same strumming pattern over and over.....someone help

Jason

[fatjack]

your first mistake is thinking in terms of strumming patterns in the first place. even you continue to do this, your playing will become very stiff and robotic-like. try and stop thinking "okay here i upstroke and here i downstroke" try to feel it naturally, attempt to pick out the rhythm by just listening. this may be hard at first, but if you don't try, the aforementioned problem will occur

[JaDaRu]

I get you fatjack......how would you suggest I improve my strumming? When I approach a new song, I generally try a bunch of different strumming patterns out. Is that the wrong approach? Any advice on this issue would be appreciated

Jason

[fatjack]

I get you fatjack......how would you suggest I improve my strumming? When I approach a new song, I generally try a bunch of different strumming patterns out. Is that the wrong approach? Any advice on this issue would be appreciated

Jason

that is the perfect approach, but instead of just saying up down up down (or whatever) try to pay attention to where any rhythm hits are. if you really pay attention to the song, you will see that downstrokes generally come on down beats, and upstrokes come on the upbeat (go figure!)

please direct anymore questions right back at me

[JaDaRu]

What do you mean by "rhythm hits"? And "up beats" and "down beats"?

[fatjack]

What do you mean by "rhythm hits"? And "up beats" and "down beats"?

rhythm hits are when you hit the strings while strumming in a percussive way, not all songs have them. it usually happens during muting usually (but this is not in all songs mind you)

and for the ubeats and down beats, i know only one one to explain it. f tap your foot to the tempo of the song. when your foot hits the floor, thats the downbeat, when your foot is all the way up, thats the upbeat. the up beat kinda feels like its off (because it is!) and has a feels that kinda makes your whole body wanna move upward. thats the best explanation i can give without being technical

[JaDaRu]

Gotcha, that made perfect sense. One last thing though....how could you get a percussive sound from the strings w/o muting them? By sorta striking them at a different angle or by raking them "deeper"? Anyways, I've been working on muting recently, but its definately slow in coming and not much of a feature in my playing.....all in time. Thanks for all your help fatjack.

Jason

[thejoe]

Gotcha, that made perfect sense. One last thing though....how could you get a percussive sound from the strings w/o muting them? By sorta striking them at a different angle or by raking them "deeper"? Anyways, I've been working on muting recently, but its definately slow in coming and not much of a feature in my playing.....all in time. Thanks for all your help fatjack.

Jason

its kind of all opinion
(i mean what is classified as a 'percussive sound.')

but just thinngs like striking the string differently, the way you fret the string with your left hand, and muting can make a percussive sound

just do what you think is right

i dont think there is any really "THIS IS HOW YOU MAKE A PERCUSSIVE SOUND" so you just have to do what feels right


just my $0.02

[fatjack]

Gotcha, that made perfect sense. One last thing though....how could you get a percussive sound from the strings w/o muting them? By sorta striking them at a different angle or by raking them "deeper"? Anyways, I've been working on muting recently, but its definately slow in coming and not much of a feature in my playing.....all in time. Thanks for all your help fatjack.

Jason

a rhythm hit his not done by your pick or strumming, you simply hit the strings with the edge of your hand inbetween strums. give it a lot of practice and trying hitting on the beat

[Roastbeef]

What do you mean by "rhythm hits"? And "up beats" and "down beats"?

Mayer's Why Georgia is a perfect example of a song with rhythm hits as fatjack described them. Take a close listen to that.

Anyway, fatjack is right on about not overanalyzing strumming patterns. Much of it just comes with time. You really need to "feel" the rhythm. If you're thinking about how you're going to play the rhythm, you're not going to be relaxed and you never will get into the song. It's something that just comes with practice.

Here's a clip of an original I'm working on:

http://music.gregblasko.com/mp3s/original.mp3

You'll notice the second part (starting at about the 19 second mark) has a lot of mutes. You'll also notice that my strumming hand up and down-strokes are pretty constant in terms of rhythm. Much of the melody is actually achieved with the left hand. It's basically a combination of different fret hand fingering pressure, hammer-ons (more of a full-chord hammer-on than a single note), and left hand mutes (resting the fret fingers over the string without actually fretting them). Anyway, the point is that good acoustic rhythm is achieved with both hands.

Oh, and this should really be in the General Guitar Discussion...

[JaDaRu]

Yah...my bad

Jason

[JaDaRu]

When I've seen Mayer play "Why Georgia", he sorta strikes the strings with his thumb once in a while. Is that what you are talking about Roast?

Jason

[Roastbeef]

Yup. It's those little subtleties that really defined a player's style... Dave, for instance acheives a lot of his melodies/rhythm as I described above with the left hand. His right hand always seems to keep moving. Ants is a good example.