Ok. Sound you hear the consistent pulse going on in the background.
This thing is set to about eighty beats per minute so if you get your metronome out and compare this is what you will find.
You will also notice that every four beats it is louder than the other three.
That is just letting you know where one is.
So the first thing you want to do when you're dealing with a metronome is learning how to count with it.
One, two, three, four. One, two, three, four. One, two, three, four.
For the purpose of our exercise we are only going to be switching chords
and for the most part right now only strumming on the one.
So if we go to our E chord, two, three, four and one.
Two, three, four. One, two, three, four. One, two, three, four. One, two, three, four.
That is essentially what we are going to be doing.
Let's practice our strumming on the one of each chord. We are counting
and then we are going to practice transitioning from the E to the A.
If you have been doing consistent the chord pushup idea that I've been talking about
and trying to get things clean when switching between chords this will be a little bit easier for you.
If you find this difficult don't do it at eighty beats per minute bring it down a little bit
and try it at sixty beats per minute or lower with your metronome.
What we are going to do now I'm going to strum we are going to play the E for a total of eight counts.
That will be two repetitions of four. You can also call that two measures.
Then we are going to transition to the A and we are going to play the A for two measures also.
One, two, three, four.
One.
Now what we are going to do is add a little bit more strumming to this exercise.
Every time I say one I am going to strum down.
Every time I count a three I am going to strum up.
You will get experience going down and up.
I am still going to change chords every two measures as I am doing this.
Let's try this.
Two, three, four.
One.
Two, three, four.
One, two, three, four.
One, two, three, four.One, two, three, four.
One, two, three, four.
You can really add as much or as little strumming as you want to when you are transitioning.
What I am going to do now is one and three are going to be down strokes
and two and four are going to be upstrokes.
One. Two, three, four.
One. You get the idea.
It is very helpful to play with a metronome.
Now we are going to transition to doing these same types of drills with a backing track.
Basically the way we are going to use backing tracks is going to be like you are playing with a band.
You are going to have a metronome in there.
You are going to have a drummer and a bass player.
Then for the most part you are going to be providing the guitar.
The backing tracks are always going to be available in the supplemental content which is right below this video.
You can go through and look at the notations and some of the notes we have been talking about today.
Eventually, when you get later in to this set you are going to see more chord charts, musical notation, tablature etcetera.
For now go down there and check out the audio section and you will see a list of backing tracks.
There are two tracks included with this lesson.
One of them is guitar, bass and drums.
It is the full track so you can hear how the guitar is played over the bass and drums.
You can play along with that if you want.
The other track does not have guitar on it so once you are comfortable playing without the other guitar
you are providing the guitar.
It is an added way to keep improving your rhythm, making sure you are accurate in what you are playing and it's fun.
It's fun to play with other instruments as opposed to just sitting here and strumming around.
It feels like you are making more music.
The other advantage of playing with the track that does not have the guitar is that you can take the strumming at your own pace.
Granted you still have to sync with the tempo of the track
but if you want to strum down every couple beats or every couple measures you can do that.
You don't necessarily have to stick with something and you can experiment with things over that bend.
I am going to go ahead and get the track started now.
This is going to be toggling between your E and your A string.
I'm going to play through that track and then we will talk about some more things to work on after I get done with that.