Looking for advice to play Tequila Sunrise by the Eagles
 

Hi,

I love that song but I cannot play the beginning really well with my right hand. I know what to do with the left hand but the rhythm with my right hand is not what you hear on Eagles recording. I really don't understand how they can play that so well, how they move the right arm. Is it played using a pick or fingers? Can you please help me?

Here is the video. I'm interested in the first 10 seconds:
http://youtu.be/ws-YqUcD0LY

I assume when you say right you mean picking hand/arm?

It's a pretty standard strumming pattern...keep the wrist loose and the whole arm relaxed...do you know what you have to do but just can't do it, or do you not know the pattern?

Practice, practice, practice...it's the only way.

Yes the picking hand/arm. I just cannot hear what is the strumming pattern (up and down movements). Also the way it is played is so cool and even... But you're right, I need to practice :-)

It's pretty basic, except for that delayed upstroke in the 2nd bar, which divides the beat into 3+1 16ths instead of two 8ths.

Rule #1 is: always play downstrokes on the beats.
Upstrokes then normally come between the beats, except not between every beat.
Logically, of course, your hand moves up between every beat anyway!(otherwise how could you play the next downstroke?;)) It just doesn't hit the strings every time.
IOW, a common confusion with strumming patterns is that the DUDDUD... whatever pattern represents the only moves you make with your arm. In fact, your arm moves DUDUDUDU all the time - you just don't hit the strings on each pass. That's where strumming patterns come from - from which strokes don't make contact.

Anyway, here's how I'd lay out the pattern for those first two bars:
Dots represent 16ths.
So it's a normal DU pattern for the most part (in 8ths). (Obvously the hand moves up between beats 1 and 2, but you don't hear it until bar 2.)
Peculiarities are as follows:
The (D) on beat 3 sounds like it's not actually strummed but the 6th of the chord (E) is sounded as a hammer-on (4th string fret 2). IOW, your hand still moves down on that beat, you just don't hit the strings.
Beat 4 is strummed and the E is the pulled off to the open string on beat "4-and" (the last 8th note). That last 8th is strummed however.

The tricky detail is the delayed upstroke before beat 2 in the second bar. This is on the 16th before the beat. To get this in the right place requires a good feel for where the 8ths are between the beats, so you're not just delaying the upstroke a random amount. It has to be on the last 1/4 of the beat.

One way to practice patterns with 16ths like that is to double your downstrokes: move your hand down on every 8th note (8 per bar, 1-and-2-and-3-and-4-and) so that any upstrokes you hit will give you 16ths. (You don't necessarily hit with every downstroke, and the downstrokes on the "and"s are smaller and weaker than on the beats.) It's the standard technique for slower tempos than this.
At this relaxed medium tempo, strumming like that all the way would feel way too frantic, so I doubt very much that's what they're doing. I think it's just a usual upward 8th movement that's held back for an extra 16th.

Remember the main thing is keep that arm moving - a nice relaxed updown sweep, down on every beat whether you hit the strings or not. Your arm is your metronome, the pendulum of a clock. It should never be jerky, or stop, or switch direction (up on the beat), or be stiff. (Just watch rhythm guitarists ;))
Practise strumming every single down and up, so you hear every 8th note in the bar. Then experiment with just missing the strings occasionally (without altering your arm movement). Strumming patterns will emerge!

That's very good advice and a good analysis, thanks a lot. I think the main thing for me is to keep my arm moving, you're quite right there.

"Take it eeeeeasy" at first
 

The way I figured out how to practice 16ths was to slow way down and just get the basic timing down first.

For Example:
Then add a measure of just 8ths so your exercise turns into this:
Once I had that down solid I then sped it up gradualy. I found that by doing it this way I am able to play 16ths where ever i want. :)