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Resources for learning Rhythm Guitar (strumming hand mostly)?


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A lifetime ago I was trained as a Classical guitarist. After a 20 years hiatus, I'm getting back into playing guitar, this time Electric.

While there are huge differences, at least lead guitar has quite a bit in common with classical guitar, and I'm enjoying it quite a bit, but I'd like to get good (at least decent) at rhythm guitar. It's turning out to be surprisingly frustrating. My neck hand technique is OK, but I don't know what to do with my strumming hand :) I can't seem to translate the rhythm I hear in my head into a steady strumming pattern.

 

Practice makes perfect, but I think I need a few basics, especially when the "Ups and Downs" don't line up. Let me give you an example:

 

After someone in the Electric guitar forums mentioned Apache by the Shadows, the buddies I play with decide we should add it to our repertoire. I'm learning both parts, and the lead is pretty easy and good for me to practice my picking technique, but I'm having a tough time with the rhythm. The basic pattern is 8th/16th/16th 8th/8th 8th/8th 8th/8th (sorry I don't know of a better way to translate it to text).

I tried moving my hand at 16th speed for a D U D U ... pattern, strumming every other note except for the two 16th on the 2nd half of the 1st beat where I strum both the Up and Down. that works pretty well at low speed, but at full speed it's hard to keep the hand moving at 1/16th speed and seems very inefficient/tiring

So I tried to move my hand only every 8th, expect for the two 16th in the 2nd half of the 1st beat. This leads to something like D UD U D U D U D so I get two Downs in a row at the transition between each bar. Or I could go D UD U D D U D U so the two Down in a row are in the middle of the bar. Are there "rules" about how to deal with this, which way sounds better? Either way, I tend to "glitch" at the spot where there are two Downs in a row. Either I f-up the rhythm, or my hand keeps moving in the next direction and I end up swapping Ups and Downs every other measure (not sure if it all makes sense, it's hard to explain).

 

Anyhow, am I doing something wrong? is it just a matter of practice or are there "tricks" that make this easier? If so, are there good resources to learn the strumming hand technique, maybe online videos or books?

thanks

 

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[video=youtube;EzgbcyfJgfQ]

 

The strum pattern is quite clear if just a bit more articulate than a non strummer would want to tackle. You can just roll the chord as a single strum tracking the triplet snare roll. No rules.

Other than that just go slow and steady.

But you should know this

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This is one of my favorite method books. I cover some of this material in my own book but Ross has such a good method for not only teaching rhythms but technique that I run all of my students through this book when we get to 16th note strumming. Its good for any style, don't let the title scare you off.

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