Strum Pattern help

Hi hilch

there's a topic in the Easy song database about this song, also you an check the following link where there's a lesson about it: http://riff-o-matic.com/riff-a-day/bad_moon_rising/index.htm

Having said so, if I can give you a tip, do not focus too much about the exact sequence of strums: what really matters to play a song is to get the feel of the kind of rhythm of the song.

I tell you this because I threw away almost all my first year with guitar trying to replicate songs which I'd love to play, focusing on the exact sequence of strums. People told me which sequence of strums to play but still my versions did not resemble to the song i was playing: what I did not understand was that the sequence of strum did not mean anything if I did not know (and was not able to play) which was the basic rhythm of the song.
To give you an easy example If i'd say play D D, this could mean play one downstrum on beat 1 and one downstrum on beat 2, or it could mean play both strums on first beat, or play them on beat 1 and 3 only, play them straight or in a triplets feel...as you would imagine in each case the resulting sound would be totally different.

Only when I learnt to play some basic rhythms and learnt to recognize them in the songs, I've been starting to play songs which were recognizable and resembled to real music!

Anyway enough talking, going back to Bad Moon rising, this particular song is quite tricky to play because it employs a shuffle-like rhythm (triplets feel), that's why if you play the downstrums and upstrums straight it won't sound good at all.

I play it with dowsntrums only in a shuffle-kind feel (check david Hodge's "before you accuse me me"lesson to get the hang of it), and I can assure you that it works very well.

so the sequence for the verse would be

D : d..d d...d
A: d..d
G: d..d
D: d..d d...d d..d d...d

for the chorsu

G: d..d d...d d..d d...d
D: d..d d...d d..d d...d
A: d..d d...d
G: d..d d...d
D d..d d...d d..d d...d

N.B. the d..d means that you have to play the second downstrum with a bit of delay like ig you would play the 1st and 3rd note only of a triplet (if you count 1,2,3 for each beat play on 1 and 3)

Cheers

Matteo

p.s. if you're into CCR i suggest you to try songs like Have you ever seen the rain, who'll stop the rain, up around the bend or Fortunate son which are quite easier to play and works well with a simple du/du/du/du strumming (accenting 2nd and 4th beat downstrums). All these songs are avaialble ine the Easy song database

Thanks Matteo

I went looking in Easy Song thingy but I don't know where to start looking and am I into CCR ...

YEAH if I could ever learn to keep time ..

I'll have another look , and thanks mate

Trevor { Hilch}

hi trevor try these ones:

have you ever seen the rain

https://www.guitarnoise.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=21036

who'll stop the rain

http://forums.guitarnoise.com/viewtopic.php?t=13664

green river

http://forums.guitarnoise.com/viewtopic.php?p=275371

thery're some of the best and easiest CCr songs around and they're quite well explained (well a couple of them had been posted by mysellf so at least I hope to have explained them clearly :-)!)

you could also try "Up around the bend": if you forget the intro and play the rhythm guitar only, it is always (each slash divides a measure from another):

verse: D/D/A/A7-D/ (2 times)

chorus: G-D/A/G-D/A/A

You could also play it with a simple DU/DU/DU/Du strumming

Cheers

Matteo

Thanks again mat