Hello my folkie friends!
I hope you're keeping your strumming fingers warm now that the weather has turned frightful. Remember to have a humidity plan for your instrument before it's too late! Pop into Different Strummer any time and ask for advice if you're not sure what to do.
And special thanks to those of you that who nice e-mails this week about Patti Smith, movie tunes, and other fun things. It's always great to hear from you all. Hanging out with you guys is the best part of my week, so it's great to get some bonus time.
Now onto the recaps!
Guitar 4Ever on Thursday has a very short recap--in video form!--because it was all about the Travis picking. Take a look at this pleasant young Canadian fellow's tutorial, which is more or less exactly what I presented in class: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RFh-C6upvh8
We didn't get to the slight changes/ fancy filigree stuff he mentions for the intro so don't worry if that's not familiar. Also, he doesn't break down the strumming pattern in as granular a way as I did, so my advice is to always go home to the thumb. Make sure you know where your thumb is going, and make sure it's doing its work on the beats. You've gotta get that down before you add in any other fingers. If you only get as far as the thumb on the quarter notes, you're in GREAT shape! Little bit by little bit the rest will come together. Or, as a wise bard once said, don't think twice it's alright!
On Saturday, Guitar 1 Rep continued to perfect the "Golden Strum." See last week's recap for some more detail on that if you're still struggling a little. That's also where you'll find the clip of Mahalia Jackson singing "Joshua Fit the Battle of Jericho" that I mentioned in class. Golden Strum is where you'll want to be for the new R.E.M. tune this week. Remember to read the riff at the
bottom of the page like this: top number = string number, bottom number =
fret number. If the bottom number is 0, that means you play the string
open (so you could also think of that as an "O" for "open!")
The
timing of the riff is: One...and three and. You let the first note ring
for a beat and a half. Throw that riff in instead of the first measure
of Em in the "FIRE!" section. And don't forget to add drama to other
measures of Em by doing a dramatic upstrum or "rake!"
And Guitar 4 on Sunday made some more progress on Man Who Sold the World. We didn't really introduce any new information into the tune, so see last week's post for the details. Guys, this one is going to take time. I know it's a struggle, but it's great training for your hands and brain. Be patient with yourself and with the process. And when it gets too frustrating...stop! (so long as you start up again after you've taken a break). I gave you the whirlwind overview of Karma Police. Don't despair if it didn't sink in. We'll spend more time on it next week. Just remember to use "little" F# and "little" G so that you can do the
arpeggios in the chorus part--down on the G, up on the F#. Two strums per
measure on everything else because the tune is in 2/4, and mind the split measure in the chord progression. Check out the way-cool music video for the tune: http://youtu.be/9Ay699qcSb4
See you all soon!
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