I’ve said it many times before, but I will say it again. I’m not a huge fan of when guitarists play a song and use just one strum pattern throughout the whole song.
It’s okay when starting out or learning the song but as soon as you are comfortable, start adding more strum patterns, variations and strum fills for a much more powerful effect. Today, I’ll show you how to seamlessly combine different strum patterns to create a piece of music that is exciting and vibrant.
Jamming, Kidapalooza, Lollapalooza 2013 by Eric Gravengaard, licensed under (CC BY-SA 2.0)
I have a rule that I enforce on myself and which I encourage students to adhere to. That rule is, for every 10 hours I practice, I must spend at least 1 hour jamming with others.
Jamming with others is not only good for your musical soul, but will make you a better all round guitarist, and it feels damn great too.
IMG_6616 by jeaneeem, licensed under (CC BY-SA 2.0)
Every now and then I will write a song, a riff or a melody that I like, play it through a few times, and then nod my head in approval, and say to myself:
“Yeah, man, that’s the sh*t” while pouting like a rock star, only to realize with horror that this little ‘masterpiece’ I wrote sounds just like another song!
Duh, duh, durn!
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