Question about Dhodge lessons and strumming

Djanvk

First of all, a very warm welcome to GuitarNoise. :D

I am guessing you are talking about??

If so, these is a very basic eighth note strum. The count is;


1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and 1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and
D U D U D U D U D U D U D U D U

1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and 1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and
D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D


So, you can use either an alternating downstroke/upstroke or all downstrokes. Either way, you will want to mute the "and" when you count.

Myself, I would probably use all downstrokes. On the "and" you want to lay the side of your picking hand across the strings very close to the bridge. This is palm-muting. You can also assist your picking hand with your fretting by letting up on the notes you are fretting and quickly laying your fretting fingers flat across the strings. This is a very small movement, just enough to let the underside of your fingers mute the strings. It will feel like your fingers are bouncing off the strings. Takes a little practice, don't get discouraged.

I also like David's comments, about keeping your strumming hand very close to the strings and using very minimal movement. This is the secret to good control when picking.

Here's a site with a time counter. Just click on the note values. Then hit play below. Works pretty good.

Music Time Counter

Thankyou for the welcome, and what a great community this is.

Well what I've been trying is the Wish you were here Tutorial, and I'm trying to figure you how you decide it the stroke is a Up or down stroke by looking at the Notation? Listening to the mp3 file he tells you but I want to be able to apply this knowlege to other songs. I don't read standard notation but from what I'm gathering you can tell if its a down or up stroke...or am I getting this all wrong.

Thanks for any input.

I am no teacher, but here is how I see it.

Lets take Example 1

You have quarter notes, eighth notes, and sixteenth notes. All even numbers right?
So the general rule is simply alternate.

If you played straight sixteenth notes you would count and stroke like this:


1 e and a 2 e and a 3 e and a 4 e and a
D U D U D U D U D U D U D U D U


So, apply this pattern to the music above. The first quarter note will start with a downstroke. The second strum occurs on beat 2 and so would also be a downstroke. This note is a sixteenth, so you must immediately upstroke the next note which occurs on the "e" of the 2nd beat. With me? Now, this note is an eighth note, so you must hold it until the "a" of the 2nd beat which is an upstroke. You must immediately play the note that occurs on the 3rd beat, so this must be a downstroke.

Actually, just note the the 3rd and 4th beats are played exactly like the 1st and 2nd beats. So you play it exactly the same.

Hope I explained that well. So now you have: The slash lines are your strokes.
1 e and a 2 e and a 3 e and a 4 e and a
D U D U D U D U D U D U D U D U
/ / / / / / / /


So you end up strumming down, down up, up down, down up, up down etc.....

But I hope I have shown you how to figure out when to play up and downstrokes.

Now..... after all that, there is no rule written in stone on this stuff. You could play this with all downstrokes if you wish. It is how it sounds that is important. It is like Punk rock. They use all downstrokes generally because it sounds more consistent and heavier. So, it is breaking the rule, but you do it to obtain a certain sound. So don't be always concerned about playing downstrokes and upstrokes properly. Go for the good tone.

Hope I haven't confused you.

It's very much as Wes is explaining. The thing is you want to apply it throughout.

First things first, though - this method does not work for ALL notation. Individual guitarists have different strumming styles. Different genres of music have their own strumming styles. So you will find exceptions (hundreds and thousands of them) to this, but for beginners I find it to be the best way to work on strumming while keeping the timing and tempo accurate.

If you're dealing with a strumming pattern involving eighth notes, divide up the timing into eighth notes, just as Wes showed:

1 + 2 + 3 + 4 +

Most strumming is done in eighth note patterns, so you think "down" on the beats (the numbers) and "up" on the offbeats (the "+"s):

1 + 2 + 3 + 4 +
D U D U D U D U

If you're working with a rhythm patter that has, for instance, a quarter note (beat 1), an eighth note (first half of beat 2), a quarter note (second half of beat 2), an eighth note (second half of beat 3) and a final quarter note (beat 4), then you'd play that pattern like this:

1 + 2 + 3 + 4 +
D D U U D

Working with sixteenth notes, you simply expand on this idea, playing downs on the beats and the offbeats and ups in between those.

I'll have to find the link for it, but on the beginners page you'll find an excellent article called "Strumming for Beginners" that goes into this is great detail. You should find it very helpful.

The thing to remember is that neither notation nor TAB is going to show you strumming patterns. But if you can break down the timing of the pattern, as one can easily do with notation, it's easy to come up with a strumming pattern that makes sense using this method.

And again, it doesn't work for everything. A lot of rock is all downstrokes. That doesn't mean you have to play it that way, though! Each to his or her own.

Hope this helps and welcome to GN.

Peace

Hey thanks for all the great information, Its getting a bit clearer now...one thing that helped is the fact that neither notation or tab will tell me how to strumm, this I was confused about...I know tab didn't but figured notations did. I personally do not know how to really read notation but I am trying to learn a bit.

Thanks again.

one thing that helped is the fact that neither notation or tab will tell me how to strumm, this I was confused about...

So, try Guitar Pro or Power tab .. it's helping a bit. But, that's still heavy for me too, to understand strumming ... :shock: