"Crash Into Me" Strumming

[taylordb]

Look at CWMCALL's post several posts up...that should help you.

[DSeibel]

Hey

One of my teachers once told me that the right hand (strumming hand) was as important as the fretting hand. If you have no rythym you can no chords inside and out but noone would recognize your music. He told me to cut a CD with some favorite songs...or listen to any CD for that matter....then with the fretting hand mute the strings. Just play the rythym with your strumming hand...no sounds come out obvioulsy but you will be suprised how quickly you progress. I also have a habit that I'm positive has helped me...in the car I will strum on my right leg to the rythym of the song.....sounds funny but it really gives you a feel for the song and I think "feel" is the most important thing for strumming and rythym...no counting or upstrokes vs downstrokes. After all when your at a bar...who's the better dancer..someone counting there steps...or someone that is truly feeling the music.

Anyway, just my 2 cents.

DS

[brandtmarc]

Nice advice there Dseibel, almost like one of those Karate Kid Movies... You gotta learn to polish cars before you can fight....
On the other hand, why not just play the guitar and practice that way?

[DustyDave]

Well i'll say that i do agree on DSeibel's post , i often tell people to not even sit with their guitar , just play some air guitar on the side or your leg or stamp in the floor with your feet , you can learn a lot about the rhythms that way .... But of course , practice is the only way to move forward

[DSeibel]

Main reason for the muted strings, or no guitar at all is I found that I would get frustrated when I tried to fret a song because the sound was no where near what it should have been. I found if I broke it down a little I learned alot quicker. It really helped me.....I've shown it to a few people and they have had sucess to.

BTW - crash into me was one of the first songs I tried this excercise with.

DS