strumming

How To Nail A Hard Strumming Pattern by The School of Feedback Guitar

Yesterday, I worked with a brand new student. She was such a natural with guitar that I barely had to help her learn strumming. She was so able to get into the flow of strumming that all I ended up doing was simple:

  1. Show her the strumming pattern
  2. Play the mp3
  3. Play along with her

In a matter of an hour, she went from never having played a song to playing Tugboat by Galaxie 500. It was a blast!

So, what does that have to do with strumming in general? For many of us, strumming can be a challenge. When strumming does become a challenge for you, I have a couple of suggestions:

  1. Play the strumming pattern at a slightly lower tempo. If you play it well, take it slowerthan that.
  2. When you get as slow as you can go and you're close to making a mistake, stay at that tempo. That tempo is where you'll get your best practicing in.
  3. Take the strumming pattern faster, and faster, and try to top it out at just a little faster than the original tempo.
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Strumming need not be hard, but one mistake that many beginners make is the idea that it must be fast, right out of the gate. Don't do this! Take your time and slow down, more, and even more. This helps you get your mechanics together. Then, once you speed it up afterwords, you'll get your flow. Finally, when you play the strumming pattern at the desired tempo, it'll be with mastery.

Not all of us are naturals like my student was yesterday, but that doesn't mean we have to struggle with practicing. Adjust your approach, and you'll learn quicker.

Do You Have No Rhythm on Guitar? by The School of Feedback Guitar

IMG_8096 by Jay Roc, Public Domain Dedication

Do you have rhythm on guitar? I think you do.

In fact, I think you have a lot of rhythm. Don't believe me?

Rhythm is what you feel when you hear a song. Strumming, however, is how you play rhythms on the guitar.

You're born with rhythm, but you need to figure out how to strum rhythms on the guitar.

This blog and video shows you how you have rhythm inside of you, and it will give you pointers on how to strum rhythms on the guitar.

Interested?

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Do You Suck At Guitar? by The School of Feedback Guitar

Expression by Fe IlyaAttribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic

The critical inner voice is at it again! What is it? It's that malicious little brat of a voice that kicks dirt on your mental shoes, spits on your thoughts, and leaves a flaming pile of dog poop at the door of your mind for you to stamp out.

It's the ding-dong-ditcher that rings up at 3 am, wakes you up, and then quietly laughs at him or herself for fooling you. 

No matter where this voice comes from, or how it started for that matter, it's important that we engage the voice and try to get at the heart of the judgements it sends to us.

It might be saying that we need to work on some skills that have escaped our attention.

This means we ought to figure out what skills we need in order to change and get better at guitar.

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