Losing my religion

Wow an active board. Or no one likes REM.

Okay so I guess what is acutally happening is the last 2 measures of the verse is a D chord for a total of 8 beats.
However, 6 of these beats are played then the mandolin lick, then six beats on C mandoling lick, to the running bass line on the EM chord. So technically the first part of what I thought was the chorus is not, its just the fininshing up of the verse.

I'm gathering this information from listening to the actual song. The organization of the lesson must have confused me in some means.

Thanks all, you've been most helpful. LOL.

Hi

i tried a couple of times to play it with regular chords (Am, E, Dm, G) and I also was puzzled at the beginning. After a few tryings here is my guess:

verse: all chords last 8 beats until the last one which is also held for eight beats but the seventh and eight are actually part of the chorus. Then in the chorus chords change every eight beats except for the last Am and G which if i remember correctly (I should have my notes in front of me!) last 4 beats

Mateto

i didnt understand how you do with versus with the BM
do you just go EM G BM EM G BM D and repeat??

Verses are, as CBones was nice enough to write out (and these are relative to having the capo on the fifth fret):

Em (8 beats)
Bm (8 beats)
Em (8 beats)
Bm (8 beats)
Em (8 beats)
Bm (8 beats)
Am (8 beats)
D (8 beats)

Then that all repeats for the second half of the verse. If you're playing this with no capo, then it's as follows:

Am (8 beats)
Em (8 beats)
Am (8 beats)
Em (8 beats)
Am (8 beats)
Em (8 beats)
Dm (8 beats)
G (8 beats)

And again, repeat.

Hope this helps.

Peace

I've just been giving this song a burl of late, however I'm having a few issues with the verses.

I know it should be quite straightforward but I'm trying to work out how to replicate that lovely strumming at the end of each chord. It sounds like a couple of sixteenths in there and David uses them to great effect. I'm having some success though it is limited.

For rest of the song I'm quite happy with the strumming I'm using though I'm not really thinking about it (probably a good thing :D). Anyhow, I'm wondering if someone could fill me in on the nuances of the pattern used: is it a case of playing eight note patterns with some sixteenths thrown in? How does one achieve this effectively, since I seem to have issues trying to speed up the pattern for that end bit just before the chord change.

Many thanks in advance. :)

A question from II Guitar Noobie II:
Hi

I'm new here and have been trying to learn Losing My Religion by REM. The problem lies in that I can't seem to get the strum pattern down right. for the intro and the verses. Does the strum pattern change?

https://www.guitarnoise.com/article.php?id=83

thanks
I made a big point of not putting the strum pattern out in notation on this lesson because of two reasons: first, this was the very first lesson that I made MP3 files for and I didn't want to worry about not copying the pattern exactly. If I remember correctly, I think I even mention this in the text.

Second, and more importantly, this is a song that can have many successful strumming patterns. If you've read any number of my lessons, you know that my goal is not to have you play like me. I'd rather you play like you.

Also, depending on where you are in your evolution as a guitarist, this pattern may or may not be something you can handle.

But enough of that, time for a "mini-lesson:"

When trying to duplicate a strumming pattern, you're a lot better off not trying to listen for a downstroke or an upstroke. Seriously. What you want to do is to count out the beats and see if the strum falls on the beat or off of it. Usually, depending on the tempo of the song, the beats will be downstrokes and the off beats will be upstrokes. So, taking that into account, the basic strum I use on both the Intro and the Verses of this song is an eight beat pattern that goes like this:
Beat:
1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 +
Strum:
D D U U U D U D(D U)

That last "(D U)" that occurs during the last half of the fourth beat of the second measure are two sixteenth notes. I don't always put them in but more often then not they are there.

What about some of the other downs and ups you might hear? Well, like every guitarist, I am not a machine and sometimes I hit strings when I don't mean to and sometimes I miss when I mean to strike. But as long as I'm keeping my wrist going in time with the song (and not stopping your strumming is a lesson in and of itself - probably a good place for most people to start), the "incidental" strikes will not detract from the basic pattern.

I hope this helps. Better still, I hope that it encourages you to count when you listen. It's the best way to learn and anyone can do it.

Peace

Great lesson and tips in this discussion, David. I especially appreciate your advice about how to suss out strum patterns. I have the hardest time with that.

I stumbled across this video about how to play Losing My Religion. It's helpful and is completely based on your lesson (it fully credits it, too):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ISJ_Qr97aEs

Keep up the great work.

Cheers,
MedaStyle