I found this strumming pattern to be the most challenging lesson so far. It was around here that I fell off the wagon and became disillusioned when I tried Justin’s Beginner Course a couple of years ago. This time around, I’ve resigned myself to the fact that progress will be slow and require lots of practice.
Justin’s tips of using a light plectrum, muting the strings and first perfecting the strum pattern from the previous lesson were super-helpful. For me, the big problem I have is that it just feels “wrong” to not strum the third (or any) down-beat. I found it useful to compensate by tapping my feet so that the foot makes an audible sound as it strikes the floor so I make some sound on the third beat.
I’ve had to come back to this lesson a couple of times and now it feels great to eventually get it and be able to follow along with Justin. I’m now at this stage where I’m trying different beats per minute on the metronome (still keeping the strings muted). Every now and again when I try to be relaxed, I’ll strum the down-stroke without thinking about it. When that happens, I just tell myself that it’s OK, keep the arm moving and remind myself to skip the down-strum on the next bar.