Crash Into Me

[clayek]

it was hard for me at first too... this may help

B=bass note
S=strum

B S SS B SSSS B S SS B SSSS B S SS B SSSS B S SS S

alternate up and down strokes

Not to put anyone else's advice down but this little bit here has helped me tremendously. I came to the boards because I just could not figure out how many strums inbetween each of the bass notes. One thing though, I seem to remember it starting out like this B SSSS B S SS B.... I could definitely be wrong though. Any thoughts?
BTW I am terrible at discerning strum patterns from listening to the song. Maybe for some people that works, but I get caught up in the lyrics more than the music when I try to listen and then averything else just kind of gets lost in the mix. Plus the recordings are always way too fast for me to keep up with. I am a very visual learner, but unfortunately alot of the tabs on this site do not show the actual strums. Does anyone know of a good source a decently accurate tabs that show the strums as well? Please do not tell me to just listen to the recording that drives me nuts and I've been working on some of Dave's songs for going on two years now. God, just writing that makes me feel terrible about my guitar playing. Oh well, I'm just a slow learner I guess.
Thanks for the help though

[Kukini]

it was hard for me at first too... this may help

B=bass note
S=strum

B S SS B SSSS B S SS B SSSS B S SS B SSSS B S SS S

alternate up and down strokes

Not to put anyone else's advice down but this little bit here has helped me tremendously. I came to the boards because I just could not figure out how many strums inbetween each of the bass notes. One thing though, I seem to remember it starting out like this B SSSS B S SS B.... I could definitely be wrong though. Any thoughts?
BTW I am terrible at discerning strum patterns from listening to the song. Maybe for some people that works, but I get caught up in the lyrics more than the music when I try to listen and then averything else just kind of gets lost in the mix. Plus the recordings are always way too fast for me to keep up with. I am a very visual learner, but unfortunately alot of the tabs on this site do not show the actual strums. Does anyone know of a good source a decently accurate tabs that show the strums as well? Please do not tell me to just listen to the recording that drives me nuts and I've been working on some of Dave's songs for going on two years now. God, just writing that makes me feel terrible about my guitar playing. Oh well, I'm just a slow learner I guess.
Thanks for the help though

Listen to the recordings!

Just messin... I don't know of any sites with good tabs to read from but for your problem, I have a question... do you not listen to the guitar at all when listening to the songs? It's almost hard to not be able to know how to strum if you can listen to a song. I myself am one of the least gifted people I know musically and I can get it down. I'm not trying to put you down, like I said, just a question. Ever try just listening for the guitar?

[xan.]

it was hard for me at first too... this may help

B=bass note
S=strum

B S SS B SSSS B S SS B SSSS B S SS B SSSS B S SS S

alternate up and down strokes

Not to put anyone else's advice down but this little bit here has helped me tremendously. I came to the boards because I just could not figure out how many strums inbetween each of the bass notes. One thing though, I seem to remember it starting out like this B SSSS B S SS B.... I could definitely be wrong though. Any thoughts?
BTW I am terrible at discerning strum patterns from listening to the song. Maybe for some people that works, but I get caught up in the lyrics more than the music when I try to listen and then averything else just kind of gets lost in the mix. Plus the recordings are always way too fast for me to keep up with. I am a very visual learner, but unfortunately alot of the tabs on this site do not show the actual strums. Does anyone know of a good source a decently accurate tabs that show the strums as well? Please do not tell me to just listen to the recording that drives me nuts and I've been working on some of Dave's songs for going on two years now. God, just writing that makes me feel terrible about my guitar playing. Oh well, I'm just a slow learner I guess.
Thanks for the help though

Thats how I play crash, i hit the bass note then i strum d dudu hit the next bass note strum d du and keep repeating the process. but just because you know the strums doesnt really mean you can play the song. you really need to get the flow and the rythm down. knowing the strums does give you a little bit of a guide tho.

As for a good site try this http://www.geocities.com/ericwormann/SongList.html in his tabs he puts how many times a chord should be strummed. they are really good tabs. good luck.

[xan.]

This may just be me so please dont hammer me for it. I would listen to the song and "hear" the strumming pattern. I think its pretty distinctive in Crash. Then i would close my eyes , hum the strumming and just imagine your hand doing the strumming. This may sound rediculous but it genuinly works for me. I used this for LLD and Granny too. Hope it helps, if not, ignore me!

Thats exactly what i do and it works great. i just close my eyes and just focus in on the guitar and strum the air with my hand so that it flows with the song. this has helped me with a lot of songs. just keep doing this over and over and when you go to play it just sticks with you.

[clayek]

Listen to the recordings!

Just messin... I don't know of any sites with good tabs to read from but for your problem, I have a question... do you not listen to the guitar at all when listening to the songs? It's almost hard to not be able to know how to strum if you can listen to a song. I myself am one of the least gifted people I know musically and I can get it down. I'm not trying to put you down, like I said, just a question. Ever try just listening for the guitar?

I would love to be able to just listen for the guitar, but the way my ear works that seems pretty hard for me. When there are vocals, I still hear the music but especially with rhythm guitar (even Dave's percussive style) it kind of gets lost behind everything else. Maybe I need to listen to more solo Dave or D&T. In the instrumental parts I don't have a problem, except with discerning between upstrokes and downstrokes or if it is really fast. This is why I love reggae and ska music because the strumming seems really obvious to me, but with Dave's playing I have a really hard time. Thanks for the help

[Sciaracastro]

Listen to the recordings!

Just messin... I don't know of any sites with good tabs to read from but for your problem, I have a question... do you not listen to the guitar at all when listening to the songs? It's almost hard to not be able to know how to strum if you can listen to a song. I myself am one of the least gifted people I know musically and I can get it down. I'm not trying to put you down, like I said, just a question. Ever try just listening for the guitar?

I would love to be able to just listen for the guitar, but the way my ear works that seems pretty hard for me. When there are vocals, I still hear the music but especially with rhythm guitar (even Dave's percussive style) it kind of gets lost behind everything else. Maybe I need to listen to more solo Dave or D&T. In the instrumental parts I don't have a problem, except with discerning between upstrokes and downstrokes or if it is really fast. This is why I love reggae and ska music because the strumming seems really obvious to me, but with Dave's playing I have a really hard time. Thanks for the help

at first i just dont mind if dave using upstrokes or downstrokes, i just try to get the rhythm

[The Scarlet Pimpernel]

yeah, just practice and patience my friend, thats the best way to get around something like that, because you can't really explain it over the internet.

[jalapena]

When I had trouble getting a strumming pattern down, (now it's singing while getting the pattern down), I'd listen to the cd while driving or something and just keep my hand strumming up and down (not stroking!) and imagining when the pick would have to hit on a downstroke or an upstroke.

By the time I got to my guitar I could usually tell I've improved.

Also, don't focus "too much" on the strumming pattern. A little variation usually sounds good with the song.

[charliemike]

The best way to help yourself is to never let your hand stop strumming ... It should always be moving ... A smooth rhythm up and down.

[clayek]

Alright, I have a confession to make: alot of you were right about what I needed to do. I realized that my ADD was getting the best of me again. After practicing a song and getting frustrated with my lack of progress the last thing that I have wanted to do was listen to the recording, especially when Crash is not even one of my favorite DMB tunes. So long story short, I listened to the studio recording for the fist time since I heard the song live at Alpine this year and it helped a whole lot. I mean tremendously. So, I really need to start actually listening to the songs that I am practicing. This probably seems terribly obvious to all of you but I was half spacing it out and half assuming that I knew the songs that I was playing well enough to just hear when I was playing them right. I guess I found out the truth on that one. Thanks alot for everyone's help hear, its been great. Maybe I'll see some of you at the Target center this November.
Peace,
Jesse