The percussive hit combines a mute with a strum! It’s all in the strumming hand and adds loads of fun to your guitar playing!
I’m loving this lesson. I had been trying a percussive hit already but it wasn’t clean and I was at the point of giving up. Going back to the mechanics has really helped. I’ve also found moving up the guitar a bit so that the pick is slightly in front of the sound hole has helped a lot. Once I’ve got it really solidly there I’ll try moving back to my more normal position.
Would love any suggestions on songs to try this with.
“Have you ever seen the rain” is a good one to practice the percussive hit.
Proud Mary
Hi Mandy, interesting to read your experimentation with positioning. I’m continuing to work on consistency with percussive hits at the moment.
As for songs, Lightning Crashes is a good one for starting with as you only need one hit in each riff section, on the first E chord, and it can be quite soft.
My main one at the moment to try and master a full song with the hits is Macys Day Parade by Green Day, with the added “bonus” of that being a barre chord workout too
Thanks Notter! I’m still early days on barre chords - sometimes they are successful and sometimes… So I might try practicing this on something easier. But I will look at Macys Day Parade for some barre chord practice
Hi Mandy, not sure what music you’re into but Bruce Springsteen- Atlantic City is a good one and uses open chords.
My personal favourite is Reality by Lost Frequencies.
Only 4 chords repeated for the full song, played using ‘old faithful’
Non-capo version lets you get some barre practice along the fretboard in as well.
F (A shape barre at 9th fret), G#m (E shape at 4th fret), C#m (A shape at 4th fret)
Alternatively Capo at 4th, C, Em, Am, F
Thanks for this @mc I had not come across this song (or in fact Lost Frequencies at all). Really nice to play.
“I’m the only one” by Melissa Etheridge. This is a good one where all the different back beat techniques can be used. Its slow enough, too.
I found this course to be a perfect diversion between beginner level 2 and 3 and has helped with getting past the plateau that I hit after completing level 2.
Stand By Me is a good one to practice this on. It uses the same 4 basic chords over the whole song Gx2, Emx2, C, D, Gx2.
Means you can focus on technique without having to remember chords or strumming patterns.
It works for the previous two lessons as well.