Strumming On The Beat

Beginner Grade 1 Module 2: Rhythm & Chord Changes + Your First Riff
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@jkahn @MAT1953

Thanks both for your replies, yeah I’m going to be incorporating chord changes into my tappings (probably start on the 2nd or 3rd taps for now).

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Hello @rikky_boy and welcome to the Community.

One strum per bar:

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Four strums per bar:

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Hope that helps.
Cheers :smiley:
| Richard_close2u | Community Moderator, Official Guide, JustinGuitar Approved Teacher

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Perfect thanks mate :slight_smile:

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@Richard_close2u I don’t fully understand the concept of downbeats, upbeats, etc. Does Justin have other videos where I can learn more about this in detail? He provides a picture of a music sheet in the “learn more” section. Where can I find more information on how to read this?

Thanks!

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You should check out all the rhythm lessons in the same module. Cheers.

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Hi Dante - check the video lesson @jjw linked. Hopefully it is enough for you for now. Ask other questions if you still have issues.
Cheers :slight_smile: | Richard_close2u | JustinGuitar Official Guide, Approved Teacher & Moderator

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So how important is it to doing those “fake” strums after the first strum/beat? I seem to have the foot tapping going alright, (although it gets a little crazy during the Mavericks song) but I just can’t get my hand to do the 3 soundless strums while tapping my foot and making sure my fretting fingers are in the right place. I may have missed something, but how is it going to help?

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Hi Rebecca,
The short answer is: it’s important. You’ll be hearing that over and over! But you’re at the beginning of your journey, so don’t stress about it just now. You’ll get it! When I started, I had trouble tapping my foot properly with my strumming - I think I was nearly through grade 1 before I got the hang of it. And I still mess it up when learning a new strumming pattern. (I’m mid-Grade 2 now, so still a beginner.) It takes time for everything to come together, but it will. It happens a bit differently for each of us. Oh - if you haven’t yet, take a look at Nitsuj practicing - that’s Justin learning to play left-handed. It really helped me understand what I should expect to be able to do at various stages.

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Thanks. I have watched 3 of Nitsuj’s practices and they were awesome, he was playing almost as badly as me! Kind of an eye opener.

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My experience at this stage was that keeping my strumming going was more important than the foot tapping. The foot tapping just messed up my strumming and fretting - too much going on at once.

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Merci

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but, WHY is it important, what purpose does it serve? what do I gain later on from fake strumming, I’m struggling to understand the why or the benefit. Please explain.

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Justin explains why in the video:

He also mentions later on that it’s not easy to do this for beginners, so if you are struggling with it, you are not alone!

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Thanks for trying to clarify. There isn’t actually an explanation on the why within the video. He only states that it’s so that you know what you’re aspiring to, but doesn’t actually explain why fake strokes are useful. Is it just for someone who can’t do 4 strokes, or is it to support future techniques? It’s not at all clear, can you please help explain the rationale for what the fake strokes are looking to achieve?

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To me, the part of the video that I linked to is the explanation, but I suppose it wasn’t very clear to you. Justin says:

“You’re trying to train an automatic response so that you’re feeling this downbeat with your foot, the down strum with your hand… we’re gonna do a down strum pretty much always on a downbeat …”

This makes sense to me: you want to form an automatic connection in your brain such that a down beat indicates a down strum. I don’t think it’s any more complicated than that.

A couple of remarks on what you wrote:

No, of course not, it’s for everybody.

“Techniques” may not be the right word. The rationale is to help instil this automatic association between the down beat and the down strum motion.

EDIT: Let me add that if you’re having trouble with this and you’re also having trouble seeing the value in mastering it, you should just skip it and move on. It’s not that big a deal. Good luck!

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I have to disagree with this statement. The whole lesson is on timing/rhythm, getting a player use to the beat and the relationship strumming. Skipping it isn’t going to make it go away and isn’t going to make strumming in time any easier.

it is important to understand how you strumming hand works with the beat.
The purpose is to teach to keep the beat even it the strumming isn’t on every beat. It sets the foundation for learning strumming patterns.

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Thanks both. That makes sense. I can see that this is not something that relates to some future technique etc. but is essentially trying to help people new to music learn a sense of rhythm etc. In which case I understand the purpose of this exercise a lot better now and how much focus to put on this.

Thanks!

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For extra motivation, I wanted to add that you will learn the importance of being able to skip the strums on some beats in Module 4 when you learn “THE Strumming Pattern”. In that strumming pattern you have to skip the down strum on beat 3, so this exercise will help with learning to strum on the beat and then not strumming on the beat while keeping the strumming hand moving.