Intermediate Rhythm Guitar 1 (Guitar Lesson IM-115) How to play IF Stage 1

Justin's Completely Free, Intermediate Guitar Course Lesson IM-115.
Stage 1, Lesson 5.

This guitar lesson looks at 16th note strumming. It's pretty basic, but it's important to get this basic skill real good before we continue onto harder stuff!

Find the related course notes on the following link:
http://justinguitar.com/en/IM-115-Rhythm16-1.php

This is part of Justin's Intermediate Guitar Method, Foundation. A series of lessons available free online!

http://justinguitar.com/en/IM-000-IntermediateMethod.php

Taught by Justin Sandercoe.

Full support at the justinguitar web site where you will find hundreds of lessons on a wide range of subjects, and all the scales and chords that you will ever need! There is a great forum too to get help, no matter what the problem.

And it is all totally free, no bull. No sample lessons, no memberships, no free ebook. Just tons of great lessons :)

To get help with this lesson (and for further info and tabs), find the Lesson ID in the video title (like ST-667 or whatever) and then look it up on the Lesson Index page of justinguitar.com

http://www.justinguitar.com

Have fun :)

.

Hi, how are you doing?
Justin here.

Welcome to IM-115,
which is a first look at rhythm guitar

as part of this intermediate foundation series.

Now, what we're gonna be looking at today

is an introduction to 16th note strumming.

As part of the beginner's course

we mainly looked at 8th note
strumming patterns.

Now, 8th note strumming patterns
have kind of 8 avaliable strums in a bar.

So, you don't have to strum
all of them of course.

You could choose which ones you played
out of those 8.

But there were kind of 8 options,
if you like.

We always strummed down
on the beat,

which was the 1, 2, 3 and 4,

and we had in between each one of those
an up strum.

So we kinda had

1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and

They were all options.

And we could choose

1, 2, 3, and, 4

or 1, and, 2, and, 3, and, 4

Whatever, it didn't matter.

That was how our hand was moving.

We just had

1, and, 2, and, 3, and, 4, and

And it suits a lot of styles,
that 8th note strumming

and it sounds really good

that's an important part
of playing guitar.

It's not like an beginnery kind of thing,
you know.

It's an essential skill that every one uses.

But there's another slightly more
interesting type of strumming

which is a 16th note strumming.

Now, the first interesting thing
about 16th note strumming

that you can look at

and it's nice introduction to it

is instead of playing 8th notes
with a down and an up

you strum them all as down.

So instead of having,
if we have here a beat

1, and, 2, and, 3, and, 4, and

down, up, down, up, down, up, down

we go

1, and, 2, and, 3, and, 4, and

down, down, down, down,
down, down, down, down

So it's essentially the same rhythm.

We're still just looking at 8th notes

1, and, 2, and, 3, and, 4, and

But instead of going

down, up, down, up,
down, up, down, up

we go

down, down, down, down,
down, down, down, down

And it's got a slightly different
kind of feeling too

as soon as you start using
all downstrokes.

Always think you kind of pushing it forward

or it allowes you to seat on the beats
slightly differently.

And you can feel a little more energetic,
you know.

So, if I just do it again now

and if you just listen

so here is the first one

. . .

here is all downs

. . .

Still strumming the same

still

sorry, still tapping the foot the same

. . .

still only taping the foot
on the 1, 2, 3 and 4

1, and, 2, and 3, and, 4, and

It's really important that you've got
that foot tapping

still just on the 1, 2, 3 and 4

Now of course some of you
probably already realized,

that if I'm doing all of those downstrokes

then there's an up strumming
between every one of those.

I'm just not playing it
at the moment.

So eventually what you end up with

instead of having a beat

like 1, 2, 3 and 4 being divided by 2

with a down and an up

we end up being able to divide it by 4.

So down, up, down, up.

1, e, and, a, 2, e, and, a
3, e, and, a, 4, e, and, a

there is our 'ands' (plays)

1, and, 2, and, 3,

that's all downstrokes

then we're adding the ups as well

1, e, and, a, 2, e, and, a,
3, e, and, a, 4, e, and, a

Now we've got a new counting system for this.

We still keep the 1 and the 'and',
or the number and the 'and',

but we also add now an 'e',
and an 'a' for the upstrokes.

So the count that we end up having is

1, e, and, a, 2, e, and, a,
3, e, and, a, 4, e, and, a

That's a very good thing to practice.

It might seem funny to be doing that,

but is a good thing to actually
just practice speaking and saying

1, e, and, a, 2, e, and, a,
3, e, and, a, 4, e, and, a

It will help you later,

when the patterns start to get
a bit more complex.

If you can vocalise it,
it does make it easier.

So that's a first little thing to practice.

Is practice just saying:

1, e, and, a, 2, e, and, a,
3, e, and, a, 4, e, and, a

Get it so rolls of the tongue

and you'll feel comfortable with it.

Now, what's really important here is that

and it's a mistake that a lot of people make
when they start doing 16th note strumming

is that they've built up a connection

between a down strum and a foot tap

which when you're doing
8th note strumming is great,

that's a really important thing to be doing,

but when you start going moving
into 16th note strumming

you need to be remembered
that you're just tapping your foot on the beat

on the 1, 2, 3 and 4
not on the down strum

Because this

Remember when I were doing a down strum
on the 'and' as well?

So, we end up here with

I'm going to call over exaggerate
the foot tap now

and I'm going to knock my head about

I know it's gonna look a bit silly
but hopefully you'll get the idea.

So, what you want to be doing now

just really slowly

is making sure that
you tap your foot on the beat

an you've got the 4 strums

so down, up, down, up
in each beat.

So you have here

1, e, and, a, 2, e, and, a,
3, e, and, a, 4, e, and, a

Just make sure that you tap your foot

on the number

1, e, and, a, 2, e, and, a,
3, e, and, a, 4, e, and, a

. . .

Really give it a good solid tap
with your foot.

That really makes sure
that you're feeling where that beat is.

Now something that can help you
doing that as well

if you're struggling with the foot thing:

leave the foot for a little while

and just try and accent the beat.

So make the one that is on
1, 2, 3 or 4 louder with your strum

and the other
or make the other ones quieter

it's often a good little trick to think of it,

or both:

make your accent louder
on the 1, 2, 3 and 4

and make the other ones
quite softly strummed, you know.

We've experimented a bit
with dynamics already

and this is kind of puting it into use.

So, in that case forget about the foot
and just have

1, e, and, a, 2, e, and, a,
3, e, and, a, 4, e, and, a

. . .

Learning to do this accent is really important.

Later on we're going to move
that accent around a little bit

It won't always be on the beat

but you need to be able to do it
on the beat of course first.

So that would be your next step,
you know

after trying having to go it
doing with the foot

as well and/or you want to start doing this
with the accent patterns.

So just

accenting the the first of every group of 4.

. . .

Maybe add your foot in as well.

. . .

Try to keep it as even as you can.

. . .

And once you feel kinda comfortable with that,
start with a friend.

Say hello to your friend,
Mr. Metronome!

Now, probably what I'd recommend
is about 60 BPM

And I'm gonna show you
how to get through with your metronome.

There we go,
it's on at 60.

And what you can start of with,
just strum on the beat.

This is an easy way
to get into working with a metronome.

Just with the downstroke.

Then add the 'ands'.

Just all downs.

1, and, 2, and,
3, and, 4, and

And when you feel comfortable
with doing that

add in the upstrokes.

. . .

And with the accent of course.

. . .

And, hopefully, your foot as well.

And your foot should be clicking

exactly along with the metronome.

. . .

Now, lot of people struggle with this,

especially getting the foot
to just tap on the beat.

It's not difficult.

As with most of the things on the guitar,

if you can't do it,
the trick is to do it slower.

So even if you end up going like:

. . .

Tap!

. . .

Tap!

You know, like really, really slowly

or even slower if you want.

It's not about the speed,

it's about getting the coordination.

Once you're doing it right,
it's quite easy to speed up.

It's doing it right,
that's the most important bit.

Doesn't matter the speed.

Just make sure you get it right,
practice it really nice and slow.

Once you've got it with your foot, and the strum,
and you can do an accent

then put it to a metronome.

And that is enough practise for now.

That's what we're kind of trying to get you into.

This is introducion to 16th note patterns,

so in the next few weeks,
we can start adding interesting

like interesting accents

and/or leaving out some notes

adding in some extra things

It get's really good fun.

16th note strumming is pretty cool,
I'm thinking.

Most of the popy/rock stuff
that you're gonna get

is done with this 16th note style.

It even applies to picking
and lead guitar later on,

but let's not get ahead of us,
I would say.

So, that's your practise now is going through
practising your 8th note strumming

merging it into 16th note strumming
with all downstrums

and then adding in the proper 16ths
with the downs and the ups

with the metronome.

That's your work.

Have fun with that and I'll see you
for another lesson sometimes real soon.

Take care of yourself, bye bye!