Strumming: How to Practice Counting the Beats | Guitar for Beginners
Hey, how you doin'? Justin back with you for a little talk about "ands". Yeah, "ands". When we count in music in between the beat we have an "and". It's usually written as a little "plus" sign. So I'm sure you're familiar already with this idea that we talked about having 4 beats in the bar. So we're strumming 4 beats to the bar or strumming on the down strums, we're playing 1-2-3-4. And our hand would generally move down with that.
So we'd have in this: 1-2-3-4 1-2-3-4 Now in between each one of those down strums, our hand is actually coming up as well. And we might want to strum with that up strum. Like, later this lesson. So we want a way to write that down and we use the "and". In between the numbers where the up strum comes. So we'd have: 1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and. 1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and. Now, one thing that I'd really recommend you get used to saying is: 1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and. 1 and… Just practice saying it. I know it seems ridiculous. Okay, if somebody have told me that when I was 15 that I should practice going home and go: 1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and I would have thought they were absolutely crazy. But I've seen really great results from people getting better at rhythm guitar just by being able to count. And count evenly. So have a go at doing that, tapping your foot along and thinking, 1 and 2 and, 3 and 4 and.
Tapping just on the 1 – 2 – 3 – 4, but counting: 1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and. 1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and. Trying get used to being able to say it, it doesn't want to be… scatty, rhytmically. It wants to be consistent. 1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and. Not: 1 and 2 and-3-and 4 and. 1-and-2-and-3-and… Okay? We're after consistency here. Nice flow is: 1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and. Tapping a foot is always a great thing to be doing. Okay? You definitely want to be trying to train yourself up to tap your foot whenever there's music on.
That's a really great thing to be working on. You might want to try doing this as well, just moving your hand and go like: 1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and. You could do that even without a guitar. I mean it might look a little bit weird if you were to do this at the bus stop. But, Anytime you're more or less on your own. There aren't people to look at you and think you're a bit peculiar, just practicing the 1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and. Trying to train up this little kind of I don't know what we call it, "sub routines" in your brain, that connect this 1, 2, 3 and the 4 with the down strum, and the "and" with the up. So, 1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and. Practice saying it as much as you can. Really, it will pay dividends as we get going through this course a little later on.
So have a bit of a practice on that We're now gonna have a look at the "up strum"..
