Most of the time, the first venture that a guitarist makes into
playing rhythm begins with strumming. This is the way I
started playing guitar and I think it is a great introduction. It's
relatively easy to memorize one or two open position chord
shapes (like the ones diagramed on page 1), and
strumming usually comes pretty natural to most (but not all),
so being able to quickly begin to strum a couple of open
position chords can be quite fun and satisfying.
To help keep this lesson flowing in a logical manner, let's
take a moment to talk about strumming, and to review some
basic concepts.
Strumming is a technique that requires striking a
number of strings simutaneously with downstrokes (striking
the strings in a downward fashion, away from the body, from
the lower strings toward the higher ones) and/or upstrokes
(striking the strings in an upward motion, toward the body,
from the higher strings toward the lower ones). Strumming
is usually associated with using the plectrum (a.k.a. the
pick), but it does not require you use one. You can strike the
strings with anything you like (preferably not the cat), but
generally either the pick or the fingers are used (I like to use
my thumb). What really is the defining element is the
upward and downward, flailing type motion of striking the
strings.
Although it is acceptable to play strumming rhythms purely
by ear, this is also a good way to develop inefficient, bad
habits. It's a good idea to become familiar with the count of
the rhythms you are playing. But what exactly are rhythms?
Rhythms are sequences or patterns of percussive
events that collectively define a meter, beat, or groove.
To be able to string together events to create a rhythm, you
must be familiar with the building blocks of rhythms: beats
and note durations. This means knowing what meter and
time signature mean, (i.e. 4/4, 3/4, etc.) and how to
subdivide a beat.
A
Meter is the basic, defining pulse of a piece of
music. The indicator of meter is called a
time
signature. A time signature is written as a fraction in
which the bottom number represents what type of note gets
one beat and the top number represents how many of those
beats are in a measure.
Let's use the most common and familiar time signature in
western music as an example:
4/4. The bottom
number tells us what type of note gets one beat. The
number 4, or more accurately, 1/4, tells us that a quarter
note receives one beat. The top number is how many of
those beats are in a measure, so 4/4 tells us that there are
four quarter note beats per measure. This is the basic
pulse, or
meter, of the musical piece. 4/4 meter is as
simple as tapping your foot, in equal increments, four times
per measure. This should be familiar to most everyone. We
count this simply as
1 2 3 4, 1 2 3 4, etc.
Subdivisions of the beat are exactly that: note
durations which are created by dividing the beat. Divide the
beat in 4/4 by 1/2 and you get an eighth note (an eighth note
is exactly one half the duration of a quarter note), divide it
again and you get a sixteenth note, and so on. By the same
token, adding beats together creates additional note
durations: two quarter notes equal a half note, four quarter
notes equal a whole note (no pun intended), and so on.
So, in 4/4 time, in the same space of time as four quarter
notes, a measure of eighth notes are counted as:
1
+
2 +
3 +
4 +
Sixteenth notes are counted as
1 e + da
2
e + da
3 e + da
4 e + da
It is always best to tap your foot or have a metronome sound
(very good and important tool to use...highly recommended)
on the basic beat of the meter, such as quarter notes in 4/4
time. Then you can count aloud the subdivisions until you
learn to
feel them and recognize them.
So, how does this relate to strumming? Well, by examining
and understanding beats and rhythms, we can improve our
ability to play and improvise different rhythms while
strumming. Also, by disecting rhythms into small,
managable pieces, we can better digest them and begin to
execute them on our instruments. You will also begin to
recognize certain rhythmic elements which are commonly
used in different styles of music.
A few notes about strumming technique. The majority of the
motion should come from your right wrist, NOT your arm.
Your arm should serve to support this wrist motion by acting
like a sort of "shock absorber" - it will move together with the
wrist to keep the motion smooth, but the focus of the
movement is in the wrist. Try to keep your right arm and
wrist firm, but relaxed. Try to avoid building up tension in
your hands, wrist, arm, elbow, shoulder, neck, or back. If
using a pick, grasp the plectrum firmly enough to keep it
from slipping out of your hand, but keep your wrist as
relaxed as possible. Experiment with strumming while
holding the pick at different angles to the strings, and also
try varying your position between the bridge, soundhole, and
neck of the guitar. You will find that these variations will
produce differences in tone and timbre which you can learn
to control and use to great effect for getting different desired
sounds. When you angle the pick, you will notice less
"attack" (the percussive element of tone which
occurs when you initially strike the strings). You will also
notice that the tone becomes
brighter the closer you
strum toward the bridge of the guitar, and
warmer
toward the neck.
Typically, the most widely accepted method of
correctly strumming is to use downstrokes on the
downbeats (i.e. beats 1234 in 4/4 time) and upstrokes on
the eighth-note upbeats (the
ands or
+ of the
beats. i.e., the bolded beats shown here:
1
+2
+3
+4
+). If you stick to
this arrangment, you will be able to more easily recognize
beat subdivisions and more comfortably and accurately
execute rhythms. A common method to use when
decyphering rhythms is to always keep your right arm
moving up and down in a steady eighth-note rhythm, only
bringing it down to strike the strings on the desired beats.
Try strumming thru the following sequence (set the playback
to loop!) and try to count out and recognize the rhythms. I will
provide analysis on the following page:
*A good portion of the examples in this lesson will use the basic chord shapes shown on page 1.Whenever a new chord shape is introduced, I will
provide a diagram. In this example you will encounter these
two new shapes:
