Bossa Nova Guitar Strum
Hey there, I�m Tomas Michaud and last week I taught a lesson using a four chord jazzy
progression and I demonstrate it using a bossa nova strum so I got a lot of request for that
strum and Im gonna do it. In this lesson, Il teach you a simple version of a bossa nova
strum.
For this lesson, Im gonna play a G major chord to teach you the strum. By the way, Im not
an expert on bossa nova, I love bossa nova and I know a few strums that I used to some
of my songs but I actually have to give credit to Justin Sandercoe of Justin Guitar for this
strum because I need something simpler than the one I used and this is perfect.
Im gonna start from the very beginning. One of the things to keep in mind is that you
do the strum, the base note is gonna be consistently � ba, ba, ba, bam. It�s a two bar strum
and the base note always hits on 1 and 3 so its like this 1, 2, 3, 4 -1, 2, 3, 4 - 1,
2, 3, 4. This is a good exercise by the way. I think, its a good exercise to practice to
start off with base note and then full base note, full chord 1, 2, 3, 4 - 1, 2, 3, 4 - 1,
2, 3, 4. All the chords are gonna be with the three fingers together on the fourth,
third and second strings so take a look at my right hand. Its always gonna be those strings
so you can count on that. Okay now let�s do that, first half. It sounds like this 1
and 2 and 3 and 4 and so the first two beats are 1, you hit the base note with the thumb
and the chord with the three fingers, together so its 1 and then on 2 you just hit the chords
okay and then on 3 it�s the base note again and in the end of 3 chords, nothing in the
four chord so take a look at the chart, Ill put upon the screen here 1, 2, 3 and 4 and
okay so play that along on your own with the G major chord (strumming), that�s the first
half.
Lets go on to the second half now. Okay take a look at the chart on the screen for the
second half. Its 1 and 2 and 3, 4 that�s base and 2 and 3, 4 that�s the second half
now lets put it all together. Listen slowly, one minute. Okay now try it along with me
nice and slow, and look at the chart while Im doing it (strumming) again.
Okay you can stop and practice that strum. Let me show you a simple progression. Then
once you get the strum nice and slow you can try it out so it�s gonna be G major 7, go
up 2, 3 frets. This is B flat major 7 then back down to A minor 7 now Im gonna use the
A flat major 7 and back down to G major 7, sounds like this (strumming).
Thanks for joining me. I hope you enjoyed that lesson. Take it nice and slow and its
something that youll get if you just do it piece by piece.
If you like this lesson, please give me a like if youre on YouTube and if you aren�t
on YouTube, get over to my blog Ill go ahead and put that download sheet with the chords
and that basic strum pattern in writing. By the way, sign up for my email lest you will
find something on the right hand side on the screen of my blog. Thanks for joining me.
Ill see you again later, hopefully soon.