Hi I'm Tomas Michaud from Real Guitar Success. This lesson on the Island Strum for guitar
is a sample of one of a hundreds of lessons that are available on my Real Guitar Success
membership site. I hope you enjoy it.
This is I can honestly say one of my favorite strums, not that it's one that I used the
most but I just like the way it feels. I like the groove and it also seems to add a little
color to some songs that I would normally just do as kind of a straight down and up
strum. It doesn't fit everything but I highly recommend you add this to your repertoire
so of course learn it now and then try to practice it with some songs. I like to use
it with this song .. I can see clearly now the rain is gone and anything you think could
use a little island feel or maybe a little kind of a latin groove to it. So with that
said, let me break down the strum for you step by step. We're going to use two chords
by the way. A G chord and I'm using a C, Cadd 9. Let's just call it a C chord. It takes
the place of a folk style C chord. And if you want to make the chords the same way as
I do, I’m using the four finger G. So I've got my third finger and pinky on the third
fret of the first and second strings and then I'm stretching over my second finger to the
sixth string third fret, first finger on the fifth string second fret. You don't have to
do that. You could just use a regular G and a regular C. One thing I like about this is
it's easy to go to the Cadd9 version of a C just move these two fingers over. Now the
second finger goes the fifth string, first finger goes the fourth string. The pinky and
third finger stay where they are and back. So since this is mostly about the strum I'll
leave it up to you if you want to use those chords or if you want to just use a regular
G and a C chord.
Now first of all, I'm going to break the strum down into kinda three parts. First of all
the basic motion then we're gonna add the mute technique and finally this rake that
sounds like that if I'm not making a chord so the basic strum part is all down up. I'm
using this pendulum motion. Everything is down up, although occasionally I'll hit the
strings and sometimes I'll pass them so watch.
Here's the basic motion down, skip, down, up, down, up, down, up. If I were to count,
it'd be one, two and three and four and. You could say and on one two but it's a skip.
I'm not hitting those strings. One and two and three and four and. So I guess you figured
out the strum has four pulses. We could say it's in 4/4 time. Don't worry if you don't
know what that means but I'd like you to hear it a few times. Now we're gonna first to that,
well let's just do that together. Let's just try it a few times just to say we kind of
got that under our belt so it's going to be down, down, up, down, up, down, up. Ready,
on just the G chord. Any G you want. Ready, go. Down, down, up, down, up. Okay that one's
for free. Let's do it together now. A couple times in a row. Ready, go. Down, down, up,
down, up. Down, down, up, down, up. Again. Down, down, up, down, up. Again. Down, down,
up, down, up. One, two and three and four and. Again. Last time. Down, down, up, down,
up.
Now we're gonna add a mute technique. So one great thing about this strum is if nothing
else to practice the mute because this technique you can use in many places. Now I'm doing
a palm mute. What that means is I'm doing it with my right hand and I'm going to palm
the strings and then pick at the same time so it makes a muted sound, not really the
full chord just a muted version of the chord. You see I'm not making a chord here. It sounds
like that. I'm making a chord that still pretty much sounds the same okay.
So let's just practice that without a chord. Put your left hand over the strings and we're
gonna strike down and palm the strings at the same time. I'm putting my palm just next
to this bridge part right here but not on top of it just so it's on the strings but
next to the bridge that's where I can get good leverage for that and so my picking hand
is up and I'm kinda twisting it down. It's not you know my arm only goes down to here
and then the fingers keep going. See that? Try that with me. Just palm and then pick
down. Try to get it. Palm. Again and again. So you might want to practice that. As a matter
of fact, I'll show you an exercise I'd really recommend. Make a chord and then do that and
then let the chord ring on the way up down and up. Just try it with me. I'm not worried
if you get it now. I just want you to kind of go through the motions. Ready down and
then up. The chord ring. Again down, up, down, up, and one more time down and up. Now this
alone could be another strum which I'll give you a demonstration.
In case you don't recognize it, that's Obladi Oblada by the Beatles so it's a strum in and
of its own right. It makes a great exercise to just practice that muting part.
Now I'd really recommend if nothing else you get out of this lesson just get that mute.
It's really a very useful technique and if you can't get that off the bat just try that
a little bit each day for a week or two and it'll start getting easier and easier and
then go ahead and add it to a strum any strum just to use it once in a while. So let's say
we're okay with that mute part for right now. We're going to add it into the strum so it's
going to be down, skip the strings and then mute up, mute up. Let's see I'm missing a
beat so it's going to be down, skip, down, up. There's one down up that's where I was
missing so counting has to be one and two and three and four and there's four beats.
That's one of the advantages of knowing how many beats there should be. Let's try that
together. So we're going to go down. Skip the strings on the way up and then a regular
down up then the mute up, mute up. Two mute ups in a row. G chord. Here we go. Ready,
hit it. Down, down up, mute, up, mute, up.
How'd you do? It'll work? Okay let's do it again. Come on. And again, I'm not worried
about you getting it down just well enough that you could practice it on your own. Let's
do it. Ready, hit it. Down, down, up, mute, up, mute, up. One more time. Ready, go. Down,
down, up, mute, up, mute, up. Oh one more. Come on. Ready, go. Well matter of fact let's
do two in a row. Okay so you'll know how it feels when you actually go from one to the
other. Ready, go. Down, down, up, mute, up, mute, up. Again. Down, down, up, mute, up.
Let’s do it again. And I’m counting one, two and three and four and. One more time.
Down, down, up, mute, up, mute, up.
Okay so again that's a strum so if you're practicing this just the mute technique and
you want to go a step further that's a good strum to use it for. Here's what it sounds
like a little faster. I call it a double mute strum that might have another name I don't
know about. This strum can often be used for anything that kind of sounds like pop rock
and you know there's a few strums that would fit any pop rock song so you can kind of decide.
Have a few in your repertoire and then pick and choose which one you think fits best for
what you're working on.
Now we're going to add that last technique which I call a rake so what I'm doing is going
slowly down the strings. Slowly compared to at least you know a regular strum so when
I go slower you hear the individual strings more like a raking cell just do that with
me. Try it. G chord, go. So you hear each string. If I do it too slow it doesn't even
sound like a strum. It's almost like an arpeggio. Arpeggio is a chord one note at a time a little
faster than that. So we're going to add that into the strum now and of course you can practice
that and try practicing it with just down, down, up, down, down, up.
Now one tip I want to give you is when you do that raking I'm actually starting the strum
just a teeny bit early so I end up on the beat when I get all the way down and go on
to the next part of the strum. If I went down, down, up I'd be a little late when I got to
the bottom so I'm going down anticipating down, up. See. Down, down, up. A little ahead
of the beat down, down, up.
So let's just do that rake and then the down, up and come to the mutes in a minute. Ready,
go. Down, down, up. Do it again. Ready, go. Down, down, up. Again. Ready, go. Down, rake,
up. Let's do two in a row. Ready, go. Down, rake, up, down, rake, up. How was that? Let's
do it again. Come on. We got this. Ready, go. Down, down, up, down, down. So you get
to decide a little bit of how long that rake is. It doesn't have to be, it could be just
a little more than a straight down strum. Again. Two in a row. Ready, go. Down, down,
up. Again. Down, down, up. Again. Down, down, up. Again. Now let's add the mute that beats
one and two. The mutes are on three and four so it's going to be mute, up, mute, up. Right?
Obladi, Oblada.
Here we go one and two with the rake. Ready, go. Down, rake, up, mute, up, mute, up that's
the whole strum. Again. Ready, go. Down, rake, mute, up, mute, up, down, rake, up, mute,
up, mute, up. I've got you off guard there huh. Didn't know
I was going for a second one. Let's do it together now. Two in a row. Ready, go. Down,
down, up, rake. Hold on down, rake, mute, up, mute, up. Okay a little faster. Come on.
Ready, go. Down, rake, mute, up, mute, up. Okay I'm gonna leave you with that. Time to
practice.
Well thanks for joining me. If you'd like to know more about my Real Guitar Success
Program head on over to realguitarsuccess.com. I'd love to see you there. Bye for now.