We explore how in many ways, the rhythm of whatever you are playing is even more important than the notes your play. This lesson is designed to make sure your strumming and rhythm is up to par with the rest of your guitar playing.
16th strumming is where we play 16 strums per bar using semi quavers, meaning there are four strums per beat down and ups alternating. The accented beats are shown by the > which means they a should be played louder (in reality, non accented strums played quieter sounds more natural).
Exercise 1: Strumming On the beat, 8ths and 16ths
The trick here is realising that between 8ths all down strumming to a count of 1 - & - 2 - & - 3 - & - 4 - & - is that the 16ths are just the Up-strums between each of those beats, so...
In a way, we're already doing the 16ths, we just need to add them in at the same tempo as the 8ths pattern - to a count of 1 - e - & - a - 2 - e - & - a - 3 - e - & - a - 4 - e - & - a - around 100bpm
We are not playing any faster than the 8ths pattern, it's just filling in those beats with the Up strums.
Exercise 2: Strumming with accents
Essentially the same exercise we started with except now want to add an accent on every strong beat > .
Main beats are 1 - 2 - 3 - 4
Accent > 'louder' those main beats (or weak beats quieter)
This helps us feel the music and not rely on counting ' 1-e-&-a-2-e-&-a... '
Small movements in the wrist by just twisting rather than a full arm movement is key to making this all feel much smoother!
