In early Grade 1 strumming ‘on the beat’ is strumming on the counts of 1, 2, 3, 4.
Justin often refers to the backbeat as being the 2 and the 4. He has lessons on the backbeat.
The in-between the beat parts of rhythm are the opposite of on-the-beat. They are off-the-beat.
Playing any sort of 'and; is playing the off-beat.
Paradoxically, when people say it out loud they may say what sounds like a contradictory statement:
‘Play on the off-beat.’
Which means strike the guitar strings when the off-beat, the and, the in-between the beat happens.
I am going to go in and correct the text on the lesson page.
Thanks for the updating the materials. Your explanation cleared my doubts, “off-beat” is what I was looking for. When I get to backbeats I’ll get to those materials then.
Note that some of the material still mentions “backbeats’”.
@Richard_close2u What is this counting system called? Is it 1 E & A (source)?
Does Justin’s Music Theory course cover different counting systems?
Thanks!
Repeat that pattern, substititing 2, 3 and 4 as you move along to get
1 E & A 2 E & A 3 E & A 4 E & A
That makes a total of 16 parts.
The entire span from 1 to the first A is a quarter subdivided into four equal parts.
Ditto for the span from 2 to the 2nd A, from 3 to the 3rd A and from 4 to the 4th A
Boxing them off looks like this:
I have changed capital letters to lower case.
Sixteen counts means you are looking at 16th note patterns.
I hope that helps.
Cheers
| Richard_close2u | JustinGuitar Official Guide, Approved Teacher & Moderator
For many, many years, I’ve been calling the “ands” the “upbeats” , but am now wondering if this is correct. I have the - perhaps mistaken - idea that symphony orchestra conductors move their batons up on the upbeat.
Deliberately not googling this until I hear from you folks, as I generally find the advice here is way better than the inter webs
The biggest mistake guitar player make is they thing in terms of guitar and not all musical instruments. The and on a guitar would be on the upstroke or up strum. Seeing that pianos, wind instruments and even other stringed instruments don’t have a down or upstroke/up strum this is where the confusion set in. This is also why beginner guitar player think tab are upside down and the thickest string is number 1.
In music the “and” is the off beat or the beat between the 1/4 note. In 8th notes the strumming could be all downs or down up. In 16th note the “and” is usually on the down strum.
I was going to take issue with this, but then noticed you clarify later on. It’s true for what I call 1/4 note alternating strumming, but not true for 1/8 note all down strumming (as you say later in the paragraph).
IME, the confusion with Tabs is often because people quite commonly draw downstrums as arrows pointing “down” towards the bottom of the page, when in actuality, the pick is travelling “up” towards the top of the page (from the thickest string to the thinnest on the Tab sheet…even though it is really moving down towards the floor in real space) Super confusing to a beginner.
Thanks…I’ve been using it wrong all this time…oops! Going forward, will use “offbeat” instead.
So for 4/4, the upbeat is on 4, and for 3/4 the upbeat is on 3? Or is it on the “and of 4” (or 3)?
@TRoland1911 Actually Jozsef is completely Correct. The term Upbeat in music literally means “The last beat of a bar.”
This short video will help you understand what the terms Downbeat and Upbeat mean.
Interesting video. He does mention around the 5:00 mark that many people use “up beat” instead of “off beat”, although it’s not strictly formally correct.
What he should have said is “guitar players use upbeat” Like I mentioned earlier guitar players relate everything to their guitars and don’t realize these terms apply to music in general not just guitar.
Interesting videos (and topic), thanks for having shared them.
Yes, terminology can be a bit shaky. For example, when the “and” was brought up by @Tbushell, I wanted to point out that the “and” is the off-beat and it is part of the beat, not something separate. So, when he mentioned “the “and of 4” (or 3)”, he stated to think in terms of subdivisions and 1/8 notes, adding another twist to the discussion. That’s why I said that in 3/4 the upbeat is on beat 3 as that includes the hypothetical “and”.
Wrt counting 1 + 2 + 3 etc being ridiculous I had to laugh. If you’re a ballroom dancer you learn to count (even more ridiculously) + 1 + 2 + 3 etc. The initial “and” is movement before foot placement (which is on the beat).
It reminded me of that time Harry Connick Jr. added an extra beat unbeknownst to the audience that was clapping on the 1 & 3 - to fix them so they would be clapping on the 2 & 4. (and omgoodess it’s such a great song - Come By Me - Harry Connick Jr.)
Like I mentioned earlier guitar players relate everything to their guitars and don’t realize these terms apply to music in general not just guitar.
Wrt counting 1 + 2 + 3 etc being ridiculous I had to laugh. If you’re a ballroom dancer you learn to count (even more ridiculously) + 1 + 2 + 3 etc. The initial “and” is movement before foot placement (which is on the beat).