Introduction to Strumming.
Whole, Half, Quarter and Eighth Notes exercises [Beginner Lesson] - (Part One)
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I get asked all the time from my students, about strumming the guitar, how to strum, how to improve strumming and different styles of strumming. So much of this has everything to do with constant practicing, ear-training and feel. It is imperative that you always practice with a metronome. If you are learning how to play a song, you must always play along with the song as soon as you can, so that your ears can be trained to listen for and expect every chord change, every strumming nuance, and most importantly, the structure of the entire song. This lesson will be a basic introduction to strumming to get you started.
Beginner Lesson
Whole-note strumming
We're going to keep things easy by using the basic open-string "C" chord. You can follow the tablature chart in the first diagram while you listen to the audio clip directly below the chart.
What is a "Whole" note?
A whole note in strumming means that you strum the chord down on the first beat of the measure and let the chord ring out for the next three beats.
This is a pretty easy to understand strumming pattern. However, I recommend that you practice it several times to get used to playing to a count and learning to anticipate when and where the next beat will be.
Half-note strumming
What is a "Half" note?
A Half note in strumming means that you strum the chord down on the first beat and the third beat of the measure and let each chord ring out for two beats.
Quarter-note strumming
What is a "Quarter" note?
A Quarter note in strumming means that you strum the chord down on the first, second, third and fourth beats.
Eighth-note strumming
What is an "Eighth" note?
An Eighth note in strumming means that you strum the chord down and up on the first beat. You must play both down and up strumming equally. Each beat gets two strums. You will play a total of eight movements per measure [down-up, down-up, down-up, down-up]
Work on each of these exercises as much as possible before moving on to the next section - Part Two.