Guitar Lesson Nine

Time Signature and Strumming

Generally the songs you want to do are going to be in 4/4 time or 3/4 time.What do those fractions mean? well, 4/4 time means 4 quarter notes per measure and you can count one measure like this:

“one two three four“

The next measure, and every successive measure would be the same- you are just counting from one to four over and over again. We can strum down on those beats, and use the space between the numbers to do our up-strums.

The video at left is a challenging piece for sure, but all I want you to do is notice that the same tune sounds entirely different when it’s played 4/4 that it does when it’s played with a 3/4 time signature. You might try to count along with the music – 1/2/3/4/1/2/3/4 for the 4/4 part and 1/2/3/1/2/3 for the 3/4 part.

Metronome

You should be using a metronome for part of your practice at least. A metronome makes an audible “click” that you can play against to improve your sense of timing. You can download a free one on your phone or use a mechanical or electronic one.

Your challenge: download the strumming pdf and do the exercises on the sheet. Then strum between at least two chords, alternating on each measure. Try to move smoothly from one chord to the other without interrupting your counting.