GUITAR
WHY STRUMMING FEELS FASTER( EVEN WHEN IT ISN’ T) | David Harsh
If you’ re able to detect what’ s going on with the speed of sustained whole notes compared to a full-on strumming groove at the same tempo, you’ re well on your way to greater musicianship. But if it seems like the second groove sounds faster, or even more energetic, as if the tempo was increased, it might be good to grab a few minutes with me here for a clarifying conversation.
My question to you? Why does strumming more frequently sometimes make music feel faster? It’ s a great question. Let’ s go there today.
You’ ll want to check out the accompanying video for some of what I’ m unable to cover here, and to fully evaluate what I’ m doing visually as well as aurally.
Today, we’ re going to de-mystify one of the biggest rhythm illusions in music. We’ ll look at what BPM actually means and what it measures, how subdivisions work, and why our brains interpret certain strumming patterns as increased speed— even when the tempo stays exactly the same.
I don’ t just want to help you become a better
guitar player – I want to help you become a better musician. Good musicians play well with others. So, grab your guitar if you want to strum along, because it’ s about to get interesting and relevant.
WHAT BPM ACTUALLY MEANS Music can play tricks on our eyes, ears, and even minds if we’ re just passively playing along, so we’ re about to move toward active listening and learning. BPM stands for Beats Per Minute. It’ s how many times we hear beats over the course of 60 seconds.
Higher BPM means higher tempos. A tempo of 80 BPM, in Italian music terminology, is called andante, meaning“ at a walking pace.” So if the BPM remains consistent, why do some grooves feel more energetic? The answer lies between the beats.
THE SPACE BETWEEN THE BEATS Music isn’ t limited to the beats themselves, but rather, what happens between them. Subdivision is the process of dividing a measure or beat into smaller, equal rhythmic parts. This allows for greater accuracy, but also greater artistry.
Here is a breakdown of subdivision in 4 / 4 Time:
Diagram 1
Imagine one measure of 4 / 4 time as a whole pizza. We can leave it as one whole unit, or cut it into smaller slices— whole notes, then half notes, then quarter notes, where we hear one sound per beat. Getting smaller, eighth notes give us two sounds per beat, and I can strum these down-and-up or all-down and they’ re still eighth notes. We can go even smaller with sixteenth notes, which have four sounds per beat.
In the accompanying video, what did you notice as I moved from whole, to half, to quarter, to eighth, to sixteenth notes? The BPM never changed. The beat, the tempo, stayed exactly the same. But the amount of activity increased. More notes happening within the same amount
44 September 2026 Subscribe for Free...