Strumming/Singing epiphany

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I understand that it won’t work for everyone but I had a moment of realization with this and I felt that I should share it with you all. I have been concentrating on strumming today as my fret hand knuckels are pretty sore from going a bit too hard on practicing speeding up my F to C transitions.

Anyway, I was really getting into a song with the “old faithful” strum and sort of started moving my shoulders and whole body with the rythm like dancing in my chair and noticed that strumming suddenly got a lot easier, I have been tapping my foot but the eggagerated movements of the “dancing” I was doing made a huge difference for me. Well, I started to get into it and I decided to try to sing along and all of a sudden it all started to fall into place. This one little change allowed me to strum and sing as I transitioned pretty perfectly. It was weird and sudden so it felt magical and I felt that I should share it. My poor wife was wondering why I was running around the house like Tom Hanks after he started a fire in Castaway :laughing:

This little change made a big deal for me, so I wanted to pass it along in case it could help someone struggling which I found out many others do. It was sort of like when my dad showed me to start patting my head BEFORE I started rubbing my belly and magically I could do both at the same time.

Have a great day!

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:+1: :+1: This is where the tern feeling the groove comes from. Music is a whole body experience this is why it makes people dance, tap their foot or
https://thumbs.gfycat.com/AcademicDiligentBarnswallow-max-1mb.gif

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That’s awesome. It reminds me of a delightful day when my wife finally was able to strum old faithful after struggling with it for some time. I still remember her voice singing out as she ran down the stairs 'I can strum! I can strum!

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Congrats Richard, the first time it clicks with singing to a proper pattern feels so good :+1::clap:

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This is great to read, thanks for sharing it! :grin::blush::star_struck:

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Lol, I love this image!
Glad you shared your moment of realization. I’m having difficulties singing along with one particular strumming pattern, so I’ll try your method and see if I can finally nail it

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That’s fabulous, Richard. Bravo!

It is a moment to celebrate when one first begins to play and sing less mechanically, feeling the music.

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Sometimes its great when you can shut down the brain and just let the body flow

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I LOVE this! Thanks for sharing :smiley:
It made me smile

…and this made me laugh :laughing:
Have a great day too!

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HaHaHa!!! Good mental image & congrats on the breakthrough!!! Remember that moment the next time you’re struggling with something & know that the next “happy dance” moment may very well be just around the corner!!!

Tod

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Congrats! the simple to key to singing AND playing is to not be thinking about playing…which it sort of sounds like you did. Once you get to that point you are playing but you’re only allocating a small part of your thought to it…so you can focus all of the rest of it on singing. Even now when I’m learning a song I learn to play the song first then add the vocal in.

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