Tips that have helped me with the Wish You Were Here Riff:
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keep your strumming hand moving in an 8th note down strum rhythm
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when starting the song, always count in to the first note (on the “and of 3”), strumming in the air
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Justin picks individual notes with all downs, but I find it better to pick the 16th (on the “e of 4”) with an up-pick…that keeps my hand in time. (In the original song, this is a hammer on.)
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Justin doesn’t mention it in the video, but if you watch him during the strumming sections, he often does an air strum on the notes that are held
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if you can’t do the strumming patterns, just do a down strum on the beat, with an air strum in between (I still have to do this in the Em7 - A7sus4 section)
I’ve been working on this - on and off - for months, and it still isn’t at the point where it “feels good” to play. But I’ve learned a tremendous amount by tackling it, and know I will get it eventually.
Hope this makes sense, and helps some of you!
-Tom