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Old 02-11-2017, 07:53 AM
Gateway40 Gateway40 is offline
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Default Acoustic Strumming pattern for Hotel Calfornia

I am trying to learn the strumming pattern for HC. I am still learning a lot about rhythm and strumming patterns. I am struggling a little with my up downs and palm muting to get what my teacher is looking for. Any suggestions? This is one of the greatest songs ever imo. Love to get this pattern down pat
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Old 02-11-2017, 08:22 AM
reeve21 reeve21 is offline
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Hi Gate,

This is probably not what you are looking for, but I'll say it anyway

Like many tunes, there are a lot of guitars playing on that recording. To try and copy any one of them isn't going to give you the overall feel of the song.

You've got to internalize the groove and express it in your own way. I hear one groove on the verses (arpeggios-single notes of the chords played individually-which I am inclined to finger pick or hybrid pick) and another on the chorus which is straight strumming. On the first line of the chorus ("Plenty of room at the Hotel California") you can pretty much strum exactly what you sing (or better put, emphasize the strums where the words are) and you will feel the groove for that section.

Unless you want to play in an Eagles tribute band I think you are safe putting your own spin on it--the tune is very recognizable and folks will know what you are playing

I hope this helps.
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Old 02-11-2017, 10:54 AM
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Blueser100 Blueser100 is offline
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Have you looked around on You Tube? Check out this guy's video with a close up of the entire song on acoustic guitar, including second guitar accompaniment.

I love this guy's videos. He's in France and most of his site is in French, but he has a lot of great videos.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ITT9JpofEUA
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Old 02-11-2017, 11:14 AM
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I will repeat my favorite piece of advice, given to me from one of my guitar mentors over three decades ago. He chastised me "you guys need to stop trying to figure out the strumming pattern and just FEEL the music".

I embraced this idea, although it was hard to absorb at first, and it has made all the difference.
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Old 02-15-2017, 07:00 PM
Timon Timon is offline
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Feeling the music comes easier to some than others.
Until that break through happens a little help keeps the frustration level in check.
Like the link provide above I strum the following for each chord.

D D D DU|DU D D DU

Try this pattern than change it around a little.
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Old 02-16-2017, 06:40 AM
JonPR JonPR is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Timon View Post
Feeling the music comes easier to some than others.
Until that break through happens a little help keeps the frustration level in check.
True enough. But the important thing is to keep the beat with downstrokes. Feel doesn't come from struggling to copy specific strum patterns.
Songwriters very rarely compose strum patterns. They just strum as they feel it, and the pattern may change, randomly, throughout the song.

In the case of Hotel California, there is certainly an overall rhythmic feel or style to the original recording (in the verse and chorus), which is what you might call pseudo-reggae. That dictates the strumming quite strongly - namely, tightly fret-muted partial chords on the top strings, in this pattern:
Code:
|1 . . . 2 . . . 3 . . . 4 . . . |
     du      du      du      du
(That's assuming a bpm of 74)
But of course, that's not really enough if we're playing it on one acoustic guitar! So we invent our own strum pattern which fills out both the chords and rhythm a little more. Which is what I guess you did, which is fine.

E.g, the video linked above shows a good way of combining all the guitars in the intro (which is rhythmically different from the verse): a mix of strumming and picking the arpeggios.
If you really wanted to emulate the arps on the original intro, you'd use a 12-string with capo on 7. But then you wouldn't (easily) be able to insert the line played by the other guitar. So some kind of compromise (ie "arrangement") is required.

What comes down to "feel" - in essence - is keeping the beat. That's a fairly slow 74, but the downstrokes would be double that, to be able to maintain the steady tempo. Naturally not all the downstrokes contact the strings... The variety in which Ds and Us hit the strings is what creates strum patterns, of course, but getting the beat steady first is what matters.
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Last edited by JonPR; 02-16-2017 at 06:49 AM.
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Old 02-16-2017, 12:02 PM
panrzem panrzem is offline
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The way I have done it has been with the consistent folk strum

D, DU, U, DU

Sounds great for a single guitar.
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