Please help me with singing and strumming and timing - plus updates on my success and progress

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I am the person who posted about a month or so ago when I was having terrible trouble with the metronome.

I stuck with it.

And, as Justin mentioned, the metronome truly became my friend

When I started this strumming SOS class I truly went back to basics

I mean all the way back to the basics. Instead of tapping with my foot, I forced myself to use my heel, as Justin suggested.

Strange at first, but now I see why he said it’s the best way to tap

Here’s what is so fascinating about my progress: I am now obsessed with rhythm. This is on an acoustic by the way.

I had struggled with one particular song. I got it all the way down to 50 BPM‘s practice there, and now I can play it comfortably at 110, also singing, if you want to call it that

Understanding rhythm, and making it part of my soul also makes it easier to learn new songs.

And I’m starting to mix up different kinds of batteries. Eight notes from him, and dabbling with 16th note strumming.

What’s fascinating is I’m understanding why the rhythm works. That might not make sense, but I break it down and realized oh there’s the eighth note and there’s a 16th strum

And the more I do this, it just becomes part of how I play a song, even change the strum of the song as I play on different days

I feel more than think

And I make sure to play with the metronome daily

Anyway, just a word of encouragement

And thanks to Justin and this great community.

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Its great hearing about ‘big wins’ like this.
An being obssessed about rhythm is a good thing…I agree its about 80-90% of music.

Cheers, Shane.

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Instead of big win I’ll call it mile one in a musical marathon! But I’m making progress. Thanks, Shane

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Well done Tom, love these eureka moments folk have here.

:sunglasses:

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This is so good to read Tom! I’m so very happy for you and I can relate to most the things you wrote including getting obsessed with Rhythm!

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Awesome progress, Tom! Congratulations!

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Hi Thallman.

It’s nice to know that this can be done.
This has been my Achilles Heel for a long time now to the point it’s caused my guitar progress to virtually stop.

Chord change speed and accuracy and finger-picking are all pretty good now but my rhythm always has and still does let me down.

Songs I would love to be able to play cannot be played because of this disability.

I have been considering the strumming SOS course to help me with this.

What’s your take on this course as someone who’s been doing it?

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I relate to this thread so much. I also went back to basics so I could fix my timing . I had been playing for a few years when I decided to do this. In the past year or so I took a class to review chord changes. I also took a strumming class and started at the beginning. I must have spent hours playing to a metronome. It was hard to play to a metronome at first but it has become easier over time. I took me a long time to be able to just strum and play chord changes with quarter notes to a metronome in time. I got frustrated and discouraged at times. It makes me feel better to hear about someone else doing something very similar. After a lot of work I am starting to be able to play songs a lot better. It makes me feel better to hear that it becomes enjoyable once I learn rhythm better.

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Great post

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