Hey, how you doing? Justin back with you.
Now, we're looking at strumming on the beat.
Now we already kind of...I mentioned that most music beginner sort of stuff
is gonna be in 4/4, meaning it's 4 beats to the bar.
There are other things like a Waltz where you have 3.
[sings waltz]
This kind of thing.
Most music, though, has this: 1, 2, 3, 4 and 1, 2, 3, 4 kind of feeling.
So, as well as learning to tap your foot on the beat,
you also wanna start feeling the down strum on the beat.
So whenever you have a beat like 1, 2, 3 and 4 when you have a bar of 4/4,
"4/4 time" is what we call it when there's 4 beats in the bar.
A bar is just a grouping of the 4 beats, that's gonna be 4 down strums.
So, you'd be counting 1, 2, 3, 4,
1, 2, 3, 4.
A really great thing to practice,
is just to get your fingers wrapped around so that you've got all the strings dead,
and you're gonna do a down strum at the same time as you do your foot tap.
And count out aloud.
1, 2, 3, 4,
1, 2, 3, 4.
And I mean, you wanna be doing this a load.
1, 2, 3, 4. I'm bobbing my head as well, you don't have to be doing the head bob.
I find I naturally do that but, 1, 2, 3, 4.
Just thinking this counting to 4, 1, 2, 3 and 4,
doing the down strum and the foot tap.
So the thing to realize when you're practicing this kind of exercise,
is that we're trying to develop an automatic system in our mind.
Kind of like...some people call it "muscle memory",
but I think it's much more of a brain thing than a muscle thing.
But you're trying to train an automatic response
so that you're feeling this downbeat with your foot,
the down strum with your hand.
The "downbeat" we call the numbers, by the way.
1, 2, 3 or 4 we would often refer to as the "downbeat."
We're gonna do a down strum pretty much always on a downbeat.
There are few exceptions in way advance music,
but generally speaking, you're gonna have a down strum on the beat
which is gonna be the counts of 1, 2, 3 and 4.
So just practicing going like, 1, 2, 3, 4.
Just doing it like that and counting along. It's good to get used to the count.
1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, 3, 4.
Eventually, you wanna be able to not have to think about it too much,
and that your foot and your hand are gonna synchronize together
without worrying about it.
You shouldn't even have to think about it.
That down strum with your hand and your foot are gonna be happening at the same time.
Developing that relationship is really what we're going for here.
Because like I've said, your foot tapping becomes like your metronome.
It's the thing that's guiding the tempo and guiding your pulse all the time.
And if you trained your hand up to follow that,
once the foot gets going, the hand can feel it as well.
You can start listening to the music, tap your foot,
and then your hand will naturally start moving these down strums with your foot.
The best way of doing it is just repetition.
It's playing it over and over again. Counting it can be really helpful,
'cause when I'm teaching you songs and teaching you strumming patterns,
I'll be going like, 1, 2 and 3 and 4.
1, 2 and 3 and 4.
So if you've got used to the count already,
we're not worrying about 'ands' or up strums yet, by the way,
so just concentrate on the 1, 2, 3 and the 4
and the down strums for now.
But, just practicing that and being able to say it
will really help you pick up strumming patterns a lot quicker.
Okay? So, for now, your practice literally, 1, 2, 3, 4.
1, 2, 3, 4.
It's, again, it's one of those things where as a beginner, you might be like,
"Really? Like that's the most fun thing that you can give me for right now?"
It's probably not the most fun thing but it will be the most valuable thing.
And it'll mean that you have a load more fun in the very near future.
So, those kind of exercises, they're not that much fun,
but we're only talking about doing like a minute or couple of minutes
on this kind of exercise. It's not a huge chunk of time,
and the value that you get from doing those exercises,
will mean that you have a lot more fun when you're playing songs,
which is kind of what it's all about, right?
You're gonna find times where the song is going a little bit too fast
to strum on every beat, where you're going like
1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, 3, 4, and you're like,
"Well this all feels a little bit too frantic for a particular song."
So, your choices are strumming just on beat 1 each time,
so going 1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, 3, 4,
or 1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, 3, 4,
so just strumming on beat 1 by itself,
like 1 strum per bar would always be on beat 1.
You could do 2 strums per bar
where you would nearly always strum on beat 1 and 3.
So 1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, 3, 4.
Okay? I normally call that 2 strums per bar.
Now, you'll probably notice, well you might not have noticed,
that my hand is moving 4, anyway.
So even if I'm strumming once per bar, I'm still going,
1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, 3, 4.
Again, if you're a real beginner, you might find that a bit of a push.
I struggle to do that, still.
If I'm doing...when I'm learning left-handed,
if I flip the guitar over and I try and just strum on 1,
I find it difficult to keep the hand moving.
It's getting better, okay? But it's difficult.
You'll probably find it difficult too.
But again, I wanna give you the things that you wanna be working toward now
so you know, if you start doing, you're like,
"Oh yeah, this is a good thing. I'm gonna keep doing it."
You know what it is you're aspiring to, but don't be beating yourself up
if you find that really difficult right now.
It's your second lesson, you're gonna find that kind of thing difficult.
Nearly everyone will find that difficult.
Probably a few freaks out there that are gonna figure it out and go,
"Yeah, I can do that." Great, if that's you.
But most people are gonna find that pretty hard,
but just be aware of it.
So, just thinking about your strumming,
so 1, 2, 3, 4 and tapping your foot if you can.
2, 3 and then thinking, 1, 2, 3, 4,
1, 2, 3, 4 and then moving onto
1, 2, 3, 4 just strumming on the beat each time.
1, 2, 3, 4 getting used to the count as well.
You'll find that really helpful.
1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, 3, 4.
We're gonna make it a little bit more fancy in the future,
so the more practice that you've done on that,
the easier it's gonna be.