Week 1: Day 1 - Progressive Pattern 1

Transcription

1 Week 1: Day 1 - Progressive Pattern 1 Step 1 in understanding the off-beat is to look at the strumming pattern I'm providing. It may not seem like much at first, but as you practice this pattern and increase tempo, it can get a bit tricky. Important Note: I will use capital letters often, but I'm not screaming at you. When I capitalize a word it is to help you remember the message. As you move through the course you'll see what I mean. A good example below would be when I capitalize the word "FIRST" or "THIRD." Pattern 1: This isn't the actual pattern we'll be working with. Instead, this is the template FOR the first pattern. Much like with a chord formation, we'll call this pattern the "root" pattern - or - where it all begins. Examining Pattern 1: The first thing we need to do is take this pattern, which is simply a standard DUDU pattern, and create an off-beat pattern from it. An example of a popular off-beat would be in the world of Reggae. However, this off-beat pattern is NOT limited to only Reggae-style music. One thing most every musician knows about Reggae is that this style of music focuses a great deal on muting strumming patterns (picking hand) as well as muting the chords being played (fretting hand). But, that is a little too much to focus on right at this moment. The first thing we need to do is find out where the off-beat actually is within this "rooted" pattern. When we talk about the off-beat, what we are looking for is the unaccented beat. For now, we'll assume that the off-beat (or the unaccented beat) will be on the "two" and the "four" in this pattern. We also MUST assume that this

2 pattern repeats infinitely. In other words, DUDU, DUDU, DUDU, DUDU, DUDU etc. Take a look at this very simple pattern. You'll notice that I do NOT show (1) rests (2) note values (3) or tied patterns. If you aren't familiar with what these three elements of music are, don't worry. You won't need to understand those yet. I also don't count like traditional music teachers would. I don't do the whole "1 and uh 2 and uh 2 and uh..." much at all. I stick to basic numbers like "1, 2, 3, 4..." and "1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3." I'm also a drummer, and when I first learned to play drums I loathed going through the "ands" so I learned to think of the counting differently. No matter what chord you play, the very first strum on the guitar is usually the heaviest strum. We can also consider this the accent. An accent is simply placing emphasis on a particular beat/strum. So, if we can assume that the FIRST beat is the accent, then in this pattern we can also assume that the SECOND beat is NOT the accent. It wouldn't feel natural to have two accents in a row using this pattern. Based on what you just read, you'll see a pattern emerging immediately. The first beat is the accent, but the second beat is not. This means that the THIRD beat can be the accent. Of course, you probably just guessed that the FOURTH beat will not be the accent. Here's a text example:

3 FIRST - second - THIRD - fourth Because we are looking for the UNACCENTED beat, we need to remove the accented beats. The table above shows the accented and unaccented beats. Now we simply remove the accented beats: All you see now are two "ups" in the pattern, both of which are the unaccented beats. Food For Thought: If you are wondering why I didn't just show the pattern as DU instead of DUDU it's only for visual aid. This pattern can be simplified to just DU if it helps you remember it better. Just remember that Pattern 1a and Pattern 1b will build from this, so when this time comes keep that in mind. For now you CAN simplify this pattern to just DU. If you did this, the accented and unaccented beats are still the same. The FIRST beat is accented but the second beat is not. This pattern sure looks stale doesn't it? No worries. We'll expand upon it soon. For now the goal is to help you see where the accented and unaccented beats are found. By the way, we're also assuming this is 4/4 time, or

4 "standard/common" time, which for now doesn't matter. Playing Pattern 1 While I'm not ready to show you how to play a mute yet, or even how to add acoustic guitar percussion to fill in these gaps, there is another solution. Simply DON'T PLAY ANYTHING on the accented beats. At first you might find this boring at a slow tempo, but it actually gets rather difficult in a way. As guitar strummers we want to fill a song up with movement by nature, but when we work with accented and unaccented beats we must allow space for these elements to be heard. The video I provide will explain all three styles of beats as well as a rundown of various tempos, so you aren't going to be left in the dark. Pattern 1 Revealed This is the very first pattern we'll be working with in full: XUXU etc. For now, the "X" will refer to "do not play." Later we will be using the X to create mutes. Once we have accomplished playing this basic pattern, we will expand upon it with Pattern 1a and Pattern 1b. That is when the pattern starts to feel more like a strumming pattern and not a counting game. Chords Used As promised, the chords I provide for you are common chords. You can choose to finger these chords however you feel most comfortable. I play some chords differently than what might be called "traditional" so please keep that in mind. I use my thumb. I play the D Major chord in a different way. These habits, whether they are good or bad, are simply based on what feels comfortable to me. This is very important for you to come to terms with in your

5 own studies. Do what feels comfortable! The chords in this lesson are: A Major and F#m A Major The last A Major, shown with your 1st finger barring the D, G, and B strings is the easiest to play, but be sure you DO NOT strike the high E string when strumming. This produces an A6 chord, and while not too noticeable it does "change" the chord.

6 F#m This is really the only F#m chord I would recommend playing. As you can see, it is also called a Gbm (G flat minor - because of "dual names" due to sharps/flats being enharmonic) but I'll refer to it as an F#m. In the video I will be using my thumb for the Low E string note on the second fret. You can do this if you wish, but odds are you are accustomed to using your 1st finger. The fingerings don't change. I just substitute my thumb for the 1st finger. The Next Step... Check out the diagrams and form these different versions and decide which one(s) you prefer. Right now you can experiment with them if you haven't seen "my" versions before. Just be sure that when it comes to your practice regimen you stay consistent with your choices. You'll also need to know how these two chords are played within the pattern itself. It's not as tricky as it may seem.

7 Tab Legend I won't be showing you anything you don't NEED to know. This ( ) is a quarter note. In 4/4 time we need four quarter notes to equal a full measure, just like when adding money. Four quarters = $1. Rests work the exact same way, but we'll get to that in a moment. This ( ) is a quarter rest. Like I've already mentioned, it works the same way as a quarter note, but you just don't play anything. It still has the value of a quarter. This little dot thingie ( ) is a staccato note. Pay close attention to where it is positioned. It is UNDER the note in question, which is a quarter note. A staccato simply means to "cut short" the given note. You still play it as a quarter note in this case, but instead of strumming it out you just strum it once - quickly - and don't allow it to ring. If it were beside the note in question, it would be

8 called a dotted note. We aren't working with those. In this case, since the "D" in the DUDU pattern isn't played, you can place your picking hand on the strings on every "D" - or rest, depending on how you want to look at it - which will actually give you the staccato without needing to perform it. Since your picking hand stops the "U" (upstroke) from playing, it naturally provides the staccato we want. Quick Breakdown When you look at the tablature below there are four measures. This creates a bar in 4/4 time. The A Major chord will take up TWO measures, and then there is ONE measure of F#m. Finally you'll have an additional ONE measure of A Major before you repeat. This equals four measures. The F#m is only played in the third measure. Before You Begin... Now that we've assumed the first pattern to be DUDU over and over, instead of using the "D" as a marker for our pattern, we can now change the pattern using the quarter rest. In other words, the DUDU can becomes ruru if you wish, where "r" indicates rest. However, doing this might be even more confusing, so realize that you can think of this pattern as DUDU and/or as ruru.

9 EZ Version: This tablature is definitely the easiest to play. Everything shown in this tablature uses quarter notes, including the rest. As you can see, each measure contains a quarter rest followed by a quarter note. Rinse, wash, and repeat. The only thing that makes this song a bit different is that the F#m is only played during the third measure.

10 Barred Version: Nothing has really changed here other than the position of the A Major chord. These are fully played barre chords and are still very common. While I would like you to try this version out, the truth is that you'll probably not actually strum the full barre chord. Odds are you'll only hint at a few of the notes within each chord. That brings up another point... Reggae Version: Let's use the EZ one because it is one we can all play. I have removed a few notes here and there for both chords. You can still strum any of the chords provided, but this will make it fit the concept of the off-beat much better. Here's an example of how the tablature would look with quarter notes and quarter rests using the EZ version from further above.

11 Because we are working on using the off-beat, we are basically focusing on the upstroke. When playing an upstroke, our picking hand naturally moves in an upward motion, which often never contacts the A or Low E strings anyway, so in the case of F#m I just omitted those two strings entirely. I also omitted the open A string note on the A Major chord. What about the down and upstrokes? When we get to using mutes and acoustic guitar percussion this will make a tremendous difference. For now, the idea is very simple. Don't play the first or third beats (D) but DO play the second and fourth beats (U). The only strum you should be playing at all is the upstroke. This means you will have two strums in each measure, but only on the second and fourth beats. If we were to put this concept in a table, it would look like this:

12 Now we need to see how this pattern works using a visual representation without ANY tempo whatsoever.