Welcome to your weekly 10-second tip.
This week’s tip is a simple but effective one.
It’s all about how to improve your memory and strumming by…
Hopping back and forth between strumming patterns
A lot of guitarists struggle to remember strumming patterns. One of the reasons why is because rhythms can be hard to “see”. Unlike chords, scales, frets, etc., you can’t really visualise rhythms as easily.
So one way I get students far more comfortable with strumming patterns is to do this…
- Choose 2-5 different strumming patterns
- Pick any two chords (just two – no more)
- Play each strumming pattern one at a time, using the two chords for 30-second blasts.
That’s it. It’s super simple, but switching up and hopping between each strumming pattern for short periods helps.
At first, you might need to stop, listen to the audio of someone playing the pattern, and then try again.
…But if you ever struggle with remembering patterns, little short bursts like this ideally done multiple times throughout the day will really help.
I find with strumming patterns lots of small blasts of repetition like this make a difference.
Hope you enjoyed that…
Dan Thorpe
Guitar Domination
P.S. For a workout that covers exactly this, check out my new Dan Thorpe Acoustic Academy lessons, out on the 1st of March.
One of the lessons is a 4-minute video workout, which you can do along with me.
In the video, we alternate between 4 of the most important strumming patterns and 4 x “Anti-Tension” exercises.
I call this a “superset” workout and in short, this 4-minute workout is something I’ve not seen anyone else do on guitar before, but it’s mighty effective.
Find out more below…
The Dan Thorpe Acoustic Academy
P.P.S. This post was originally taken from Dan Thorpe’s private email list. To get blog posts like this sent to you which are full of great tips to make fingerpicking, strumming, and learning guitar more enjoyable (especially if you are over 40) join Dan’s list. It’s 100% free, HERE.
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