#1
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Help with strum pattern
Struggling beginner, but I keep trying and hope someday it all clicks. I have been learning Rod Stewart's Mandolin Wind because it's simple and I like the song, but I can't seem to find the strum pattern online so I am improvising as I go along. Any help would be appreciated.
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#2
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Best advice I ever got was from one of my guitar mentors when I asked a similar question. I was frustrated with his answer and didn't understand it but slowly tried to do what he told me which was:
"you guys need to stop trying to figure out the strum pattern and just *FEEL* the music" This made all the difference.
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#3
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Quote:
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#4
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Quote:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3xlo1NvEdAw Watch Rod's right hand - not Ron's because he's picking the chords. You'll see the mandolin player is (mostly) strumming the same way. It's just about keeping the beat with downstrokes (1-2-3-4), keeping that hand moving. The upstrokes come with occasional hits on the strings as the hand moves back up. And you can accent different strokes to convey rhythm. Eg, in this tune (as in most rock music), the 2nd and 4th downstrokes are more accented than 1st and 3rd. It's a real mistake to get too bound up with strumming patterns, and try to emulate some prescribed pattern you've seen spelled out somewhere. That's really not how it works. Players don't plan strum patterns, and they certainly don't write them. They just keep the beat, at whatever speed is comfortable, and suits the song - with that regular down-up swing of the forearm from the elbow (or the hand from the wrist at faster tempos). Strum patterns emerge as they accent (or miss) particular passes of the strings - and normally that varies throughout the song. Some songs do have distinctive strum patterns, but Mandolin Wind (great song!) is not one of those. (It does have a picking pattern, on the guitar intro at least, but that's a different matter. It still fits within the beat, of course, but the picking hand may have to move in a less regular way.)
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