This is a free rhythm guitar lesson by Peter Vogl. In this lesson we will explore different strum patterns we can use. Being able to create and use a variety of strum patterns and rhythms will make your guitar playing more exciting.
Watch the lesson: Quicktime or Youtube
In this lesson I am going to introduce to you a practice technique I have personally used and have had 100s of students use. It is a technique to develop your strumming and your own innate sense of rhythm. Here is how it works.
Take your left hand and lay it across the neck of the guitar muting all 6 strings. Don’t apply too much pressure on the strings.
Once you get a feel for the right amount of pressure, we can begin working on the right hand. We are going to work on rhythm with the right hand. For now, try some simple strumming. Down up down up down up, etc.
Muting the string with the left hand allows us to concentrate on rhythm with the right hand. There are no chord changes or bad notes to worry about. Try different patterns with the right hand.
One of the great right hand strumming techniques is to keep the right hand constantly moving up and down, acting as a metronome. I don’t always hit the strings, but I still keep strumming up and down. For example, strum up down up strum up down up.
I only hit the strings once in a while, but my right hand is constantly moving up and down. It is also important to keep the right hand, wrist, arm, and shoulder relaxed.
Your goal is not to imitate me exactly, but to develop your own ideas. Let your own rhythms take hold and make it up as you go. Here are a couple of tools to use. Accents help rhythm a great deal. An accent means you hit it a little harder than the others. Try moving the accent around to different beats or strums.
Another technique is faster subdivisions of the beat or faster strums. For this, I use shorter strokes, only hitting a few strings. Less distance allows you to play faster.
Sometimes leaving a space where you don’t play helps things too.
Try to develop these techniques and a sense of free flowing ideas. This has helped me play whatever rhythm I can think of. I feel so comfortable with my right hand that I can play whatever crosses my mind spontaneously. And if I can’t, I just work on it with this drill. If you aren’t coming up with ideas, pretend you are the drummer in a marching band. Imitate what he might play.
Have fun practicing and I will see you again soon with another video lesson.
E Color Chords by Peter Vogl is a downloadable Quicktime video lesson covering how to play color chords or chord substitutions. In this video we'll cover some of Peter's favorite chord subs in the key of E. In every key there are favorite shapes that players use and some work better in one key than others. We'll cover the chords themselves and also logical progressions from one chord to the next. Included in the download is a .pdf with chord charts for over 50 chords. $4.99
Watch sample clips from the lesson: Quicktime or Flash
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