Would you find this strum pattern difficult?

[WonderMonkey]

Originally Posted by tonyo

Well said. I'm an analytical sort of personality. I like to understand it before I feel it. I have friends who learn by "feel" and while I can appreciate such an ability, it's never worked for me. I learn the pattern by slowing it down, getting it clean and then speeding up. With some of the patterns I've learned, I now could never tell you what the pattern is any more. It's become a feel for me, but the feel comes after the pattern for some.

As it turns out, Analytics is my profession. So maybe it's just how some people process and learn. I'd like to rewind time and get with a good instructor who may have helped me learn another way just to see.

[WonderMonkey]

Originally Posted by mattbn73

That's fine, and there's nothing necessarily wrong with strum patterns . I just think that, without a teacher, they can kind of solidify some wrong ways of thinking about things.

I can't disagree with anything you said. Maybe if I had started out with a quality teacher I could have gotten there. All I know is that when I tried to feel the music it wouldn't happen. For quite a long time. When I suddenly thought of finding out what the strum pattern was, I took a HUGE leap in my abilities to play along with a song. No illusions about being a musician, of course. It didn't take long where I could start to learn a song and come up with my own strum pattern because that's what I FELT. I had to come at it from a different direction.

Now ... the things you listed that are important, I'm still working on those. I've been a two months on, 10 months off kind of player for 20 years, and just the other day got to where it doesn't have to be like that anymore.

So .... probably because of my overly analytical nature I had to go a different route.

[SteveBurt]

I agree that for some of us the pattern comes first - the feel comes afterwards.
I had a teacher who when I asked about how to strum just looked a bit confused and said 'just go with the feel of the music'. So I spent a year not learning how to strum nicely.
Different teacher, who gave me different rhythms and strum patterns written down to practice, and suddenly I could do it.
If wonder if maybe the people who say 'just feel the music' are also the ones who learn by ear? Personally, I'm incapable of learning by ear; I have to see it written down, then it makes sense.
It's up to the teacher to find the best way of teaching; assuming that everyone learns by ear isn't good teaching. Not everyone learns the same way.

[WonderMonkey]

Originally Posted by SteveBurt

I agree that for some of us the pattern comes first - the feel comes afterwards.
I had a teacher who when I asked about how to strum just looked a bit confused and said 'just go with the feel of the music'. So I spent a year not learning how to strum nicely.
Different teacher, who gave me different rhythms and strum patterns written down to practice, and suddenly I could do it.
If wonder if maybe the people who say 'just feel the music' are also the ones who learn by ear? Personally, I'm incapable of learning by ear; I have to see it written down, then it makes sense.
It's up to the teacher to find the best way of teaching; assuming that everyone learns by ear isn't good teaching. Not everyone learns the same way.

I've also had people say "Just play your guitar!" Sure, let me give that a go.

I do think that doing a better job at feeling probably came from me practicing strum patterns away from a song and with a metronome. The strum pattern for a particular song was helpful and allowed me to get to where I could see the results of working (playing a song reasonably well) on things.

[Yendoggy]

Please go find a good teacher. This discussion actually causes me pain.

8th notes. Every pattern is in there for most western American music.

I wish you all luck. IMO any teacher that uses the phrase strum pattern should be run away from.

[rokdog49]

Honestly, I never learned any strum patterns per se, but I did learn to imitate the strum patterns of songs I was playing. I believe this taught me how to understand "the rhythm" of playing rhythm guitar.
For anyone interested, try playing rhythm and singing the song "Losing My Religion" by R.E.M.
That'll make a man out of you

[jaymarsch]

I am pretty rhythmically challenged and I have gone through teachers who would never give me any clear direction when it comes to learning rhythm. I now have a teacher who gives me patterns and breaks them down. Of course, I will get to the point where the patterns become transparent and I will no longer think in terms of patterns but, it was immensely helpful for me to get a foundation down. The only way syncopation made any sense to me was in the context of what it's playing off of. For some players, rhythm is instinctual and for others it is not. Hence, different approaches for different people.

Online resources and YouTube can be great but for somethings it can be very beneficial to find a teacher and get some one-on-one real time coaching.

Best,
Jayne

[JBCROTTY]

Originally Posted by Yendoggy

Please go find a good teacher. This discussion actually causes me pain....

IMO any teacher that uses the phrase strum pattern should be run away from.

Oh, stop it. The OP had a legitimate question about technique that he/she is trying to resolve. I don't understand this purist view of strumming - just get a feel for it, don't use strum patterns man, we never used to do it that way, etc.

I can tell you from personal experience that figuring out the rhythm and strums for songs was and is the most difficult part of all of this for me. What rhythm pattern to use for a particular song is important to get the song right, but also difficult to learn. In my opinion, it is the most difficult thing to pick up and something I struggle with. It is an underrated and difficult part of learning to play.

I use strum patterns, when I can find them, to approximate what to use for a song. What's wrong with that? Once I am comfortable, I find that I will alter the rhythm as I get confident and more comfortable with the song, and I will always listen to the song to try to figure out what the artist is doing, but this can be very difficult for many of us.