GUITAR
STRUMMING WORKOUT 1.0 | David Harsh
Are workouts only for athletes ? What about guitar players ? I think this deserves some consideration .
My wife works out on a rowing machine and gets guided through a 25-minute workout by a coach in video format , so I thought I ’ d replicate that process on the guitar , giving it my own personal touch . This includes ramping up the difficulty gradually and incorporating large doses of encouragement .
If you want to experience this in video form , please do take 25 minutes to go through the workout with the video , which you can access here , or by clicking on the thumbnail .
Right out of the gate , we ’ re going to warm up with some quarter notes ( see diagram “ a .”) To keep things simple , we won ’ t be playing chords today . I ’ ll invite you to take your fretting hand and gently rest it against the strings to mute them . No need to press down . It should sound pretty dry without any notes .
it ’ s more like ping-pong . Too much elbow and it ’ s more like tennis . What we want is badminton , the best of both worlds . This is sustainable , because with the elbow and wrist working together to carry the weight , we can literally strum for hours if we want to .
Now it ’ s time to switch to 8 th notes at the same tempo ( b ). We ’ ll be moving our strumming hand at the same speed . The only difference is
that we ’ ll be making contact with the strings on the way down and on the way up .
Next level is offbeat 8 th notes ( c ). The offbeats are the second half of the beats . So , if we have a quarter note for each beat , the second 8 th note of each quarter is the offbeat . These are only up strums .
Now we ’ ll play all down 8 th notes ( d ). This is useful for a variety of styles , including worship music . It ’ s also a great way to get our wrist and arm going . Same tempo as the original 8 th notes , but because they ’ re all down strums , our hand will move twice as fast .
Feel like your hand is getting nice and limbered
Today , our tempo will be quarter note equals 92 beats per minute . Our time signature for this entire lesson is 4 / 4 time .
As you watch the video of my strumming hand wrist and elbow , you ’ ll see that I ’ m distributing the action between both of them . A good amount of wrist , and a good amount of elbow . It ’ s a lot like badminton , if you ’ ve ever played that racquet sport . If we have too much wrist ,
58 November 2024 Subscribe for Free ...