This article is for those who…
・want to know how to play and practice the 8-beat stroke (basic pattern for the right hand).
・want to know tips for un-picked.
I will explain the 8-beat stroke pattern, which is the most basic pattern of right hand movement on the guitar.
(1) Basic pattern of 8 beat stroke B
First, listen to the patterns explained in this article. You can play it with the combination of downstroke and upstroke explained in the previous article.
This is what it looks like on the sheet music.
For the part (⇣), move your hand from top to bottom, but do not touch the strings with the pick (do not pluck the strings). The image is of moving your right hand from top to bottom while extending the sound. Moving your hand like this without playing the string is called “empty picking.”
(2) Tips for un-picked
The reason why we do this is to stabilize the rhythm. Since the right hand moves up and down at the same speed and plays the basic rhythm pattern, the rhythm will not fluctuate and it will be easier to add natural accents. By the way, if you play without using un-picked technique, it will look like this:
If you play this way, you will get the same rhythm, but because your hand movements are not constant, the rhythm will be jittery and the accent will be unnatural.
So, basically, play using an empty pick. The trick to playing with an empty pick is to remember that you always move your right hand up and down at the same speed. After that, I think it’s a good idea to try playing while being conscious of not touching the pick to the strings when extending the note.
(3) Practice method
If you’re having trouble getting the hang of it, try playing it in separate patterns.
i) (a) Pattern
This is the red part. One downstroke. Play once from top to bottom.
ii) (b) Pattern
Next is the blue part. Play one downstroke and one upstroke.
iii) (c) Pattern
It’s the green part. I think this is the most difficult part. Play in the order of upstroke → downstroke → upstroke.
Practice each pattern (a), (b), and (c) one by one, and when you can play each pattern, Try playing by connecting them in the order of (a) → (b) → (c). I think the pattern will naturally be un-picked pattern. In the next article, I will introduce some 8-beat songs. Find a song you like and try playing it using the 8-beat stroke pattern you learned here.
That’s all for Guitar Course II:
Thank you for your hard work.
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Guitar course III “Left hand”
