Combining Techniques in a Chord Progression

Course: Percussive Fingerstyle with Chris Woods

In this video

Lesson eleven of 'Learn Percussive Fingerstyle with Chris Woods', here we introduce more percussive elements into our strumming.

We introduce more percussive elements into our strumming.

Chords: A minor, C major, G major, F barre

The strumming pattern we're using is in a 16th rhythm (1-e-and-a-2-e-and-a-3-e-and-a-4-e-and-a"). More help with 16th strumming here.

For the first bar:

  • Downstroke and ring out the A minor chord

  • Then, play an upstroke with the strings muted (relaxing chord hand)

  • Play a snare string slap

  • Ringing out the A minor chord with a downstroke

  • Finally, at the end of the guitar, play 1 kick and 1 snare sound to finish the pattern

Second bar:

  • Ring out the C major chord with a downstroke

  • Play an upstroke with the strings muted (relaxing chord hand)

  • Play snare string slap

  • Ring out the G major chord with a downstroke

  • Lastly, at the end of the guitar, play 2 kicks, 1 snare and then, play 1 more kick to finish this pattern

We loop around these two bars before coming to the F barre chord. For this chord, we don't include the B and E strings.

  • Ring out the F barre chord with a downstroke

  • Play an upstroke with the strings muted (relaxing chord hand)

  • Play snare string slap

  • Ring out the F chord with a downstroke (leave it ringing for two beats)

  • Finally, 3 taps on the end/belly of the guitar and a snare string slap for the last beat

Next Up: Volume 1 Main Musical Piece

Well done! Let's jump into the next lesson of the course.

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