Hey, how you doing? Justin here today!
We are going to be looking at some more ukulele.
We're gonna have a look at the 2 and 4 hit rhythm,
really cool little groove. (♪)
Now the cool thing with the ukelele is it is
it's own kind of whole orchestra
You're not usually playing a ukelele as part of a band
although it's definitely very possible,
much more common is for people to be playing on their own.
So, if you've been working a little bit,
on your strumming and you're confident
with your down and up strumming,
and you're staying in time,
this is a really really cool little trick
to get under your fingers.
Basically a drummer, when they're playing,plays a kick drum
the big fat drum, on beats 1 and 3
and they play the snare drum, which is
a really loud one on beats 2 and 4
excuse my terrible beatboxing, but it kinda like:
and it's this 'ka' sound that is the...
Called the back-beat. Happens on beat 2 and 4 - Okay?
So, if we introduce that idea of playing
a little accented hit on beats 2 and 4, gives you a little bit more groove.
So, if I'm just playing regular (♪)
and then I add the back-beating
It's just like-"Oh yeah, it's moving along a little better!"
it's kinda introducing a rhythmic element
if I can learn to talk today.
So, what do we do?
So, normally we're playing 1-and-2-and-3-and-4-and
down-up-down-up down-up-down-up
1 and 2, and on that beat 2
What we're gonna do is: mute a little bit with the palm of our hand
On the strings.. and give it a little strum.
So, I'd recommend doing this without any chord at all
to make sure that you're doing it right. Just going: 1-and-2.
Just try that. So, down-up, and then let your hand fall down
and let your finger hit the strings after your hand has already hit the mute.
So, 1-and-2-1-and-2. Start-off with that!
♪
Then try and get: 1-and-2-and-3-and-4-and 1-and-2-and-3-and-4-and
♪
Now the reason for not using a chord is it's very tempting to use your fingers to mute the strings.
Which is another way of doing it... It's just not as good.
Okay, so not holding your chord down, see if you can get that little muted hit.
It will take some practice, it's not something that you're likely to go
"Oh yeah, I can do it!" - perfect straight away
or maybe you can, which would be great. But what you want to work on is
getting that hand to sit down on the string and you're strumming just behind.
I think this is almost certainly gonna be cool for a close-up.
So let's just look at this muted hit again. So we've got the palm of the hand
That's gonna touch the strings and then you're gonna strum in front of it
So it's already muted. If it wasn't there: (♪)
So it's just using the heal of your hand just to rest on the strings.
So there's nothing coming out. And then going through:
1-and-2. So try and get that hit. 1-and-2-3-and-4
Just try to get that first, so you can get your nice muted click.
♪
Then try and lock it into the whole groove. So: 1-and-2-and-3-and-4-and
1-and-2-and-3-and-4 1-and-2-and-3-and-4
and 1-and-2-and-3-and-4
Now you'll notice there as well I'm starting to put the shuffle.
♪
Okay? So it's not just straight. Straight would be:
♪
Wth the shuffle:
♪
Both of those are pretty useful. But (♪) that little kind of shuffle with the mute:
♪
Is definitely where it's at.
For nearly everyone, this kind of strumming pattern takes a little practice.
Takes a while to get used to the technique.
Which is something that you wanna work on separately- right?
Just, you know, literally working on doing that and then doing the 1-and-2 thing.
♪
You know, just making sure that you kinda get that under your fingers first
before you try and lock into the whole groove.
Okay? Really big deal. Just learning things one-step at a time and
definitely, definitely don't be trying to change chords while you're learning this.
Okay? Either do it with no chords at all, or just pick a simple chord like C or G,
or whatever, whatever chord you really feel comfy with and just stay on that
one chord while you get the rhythm. Then once you've got the rhythm,
maybe try changing just between 2 chords (♪)
And if you've got 2 or 3 chords, and you can start to mix them up,
you'll find that it's properly under your fingers and you can apply it to
any tune you want. So, have a bit of fun with that, 2-and-4 hit strumming,
I will see you for plenty more lessons on uke and guitar and maybe something else
sometime in the future too. Take care of yourselves! Bye-bye!