We look at playing 16th rhythms. You may recognise '1-e-and-a-2-e-and-a-' which we use to speak out the rhythm as we learn it.
In this lesson, we are looking at playing 16th rhythms. You may recognise '1-e-and-a-2-e-and-a-' which we use to speak out the rhythm as we learn it.
Lesson aims
Exercise 1 - Building up strumming
For this exercise we will be building up our strumming through subdivisions.
Pick a chord (a barre chord will help with exercise 2!)
Start with playing the chord on the beat
Then, half this beat to 8th strumming
Now we can divide 8th strumming again, noticing the gaps between our strumming
This is where '1-e-and-a-2-e-and-a-' really helps us to identify the sound and feeling of 16th rhythms.
Exercise 2 - Muting
In this exercise, a barre chord will be really helpful to use as this means all strings vibrations are controlled by our chord hand.
We can now try using muting, by relaxing our chord playing hand, at the right moments to accent beats. If we break up the roles that our hands have when playing, we can make this task easier.
This means, trying to keep our strumming hand nice and relaxed with the swinging motion of 16th strumming and then try to concentrate on the pressure on the strings by our chord playing hand. Then the whole process will can come together smoothly.
