Hi everyone
Had just taken up guitar playing and would like to find out the strumming patterns for "Leaving on a jet plane" and "Country road". Also if any of you know of any quitar website which shows the strumming patterns of most songs please let me know.
Many thanks and a Merry XMas to all !
Bobby
I'm not aware of any sites that are specific to strumming patterns but there is a wealth of info on the web about playing. You can find alot of good stuff on Youtube.
Best advice I could give would be to listen for the strumming pattern. "Leaving on a jet plane" is a good song to begin developing an ear for strumming patterns.
Teamwork- A few harmless flakes working together can unleash an avalanche of destruction.
Hi Bobbychee and Welcome to GuitarNoise :D
I went to YouTube and listened to two versions of Leaving On a Jet Plane, the first by John Denver. He fingerpicked the song so that might not help you. The other version was by the Peter, Paul and Mary but John Denver was with them. :D
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4LvtDb0ZPwQ
Just listened for a momemt, but it seems like a very basic eighth note strum. This should be close.
Leaving on a Jet Plane
1 & 2 & 3 & 4 & 1 & 2 & 3 & 4 &
/ / / / / / / / / / / /
d d u u d u d d u u d u
As for Take Me Home (Country Roads) I found this video of John Denver
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DC8nDdPM_Qk
There are a couple of guitars here, one is fingerpicked. But if you watch John they show a couple of close-ups and he is doing a super simple quarter note strum using alternating bass/strum method. They didn't show him at the very start, but I believe he started with an A Major chord, I also saw a D chord. Here is an example of using this technique going from A to D.
alternating bass/strum style
A D
e------0---------0---------2---------2-
b------2---------2---------3---------3-
g------2---------2---------2---------2-
d---------------------0----------------
a-0-----------------------------0------
e-----------0--------------------------
1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4
d d d d d d d d
To my ears he starts with the Root note which he plucks with his thumb, then strums the bottom three strings with his other fingers. Everything looks to be downstrokes. Then he plays the 5th tone a string higher. You could also play the E note on the 4th string 2nd fret, but it sounded to me like he was playing the lower note a string above.
John Denver was a great fingerpicker, in this case he was probably performing this simple strum so he could concentrate on his singing. Plus, there was a backing band or soundtrack.
Hope this was helpful.
If you know something better than Rock and Roll, I'd like to hear it - Jerry Lee Lewis
Here is a site with strumming patterns. Even though your songs are not listed there I'm sure one will work. If you have to, and I do this on ocassion, just use all downstrums with good rythm, make sure can swith between chords correctly, then come up with a different pattern.
http://www.grouptherapy.guernsey.net/strumming.html
Bob Jessie
That is a most excellent site.
I can see I'm going to be spending hours there. (already spent 2 hours and came back here to . . . )
Thank you so much.
It's the rock that gives the stream its music . . . and the stream that gives the rock its roll.
Glad to see that you joined the best forum for guitar players on earth.
Welcome to GN, Bobby.
I am a huge John Denver fan, as you can guess from my soundclick.com page.
Indeed the first song I learnt was 'Take me home country roads'. This one follows a standard pick strum type playing. You pluck a string and then strum all the remaining strings (excluding the string you just plucked).
You can also start playing 'Leaving on a jet plane' this way and when you get better at strumming, you can try fingerpicking.
Good Luck !
Rahul
