Syncopated Strumming

Hello everyone! For my third blog post, I'll be learning how to do syncopated strumming! Syncopated strumming is a type of trick to make our strums more funky and will also allow us to create other patterns.

Syncopation means to accent weak beats. DuBrock says "The strongest beats happen on beats 1 and 3, so if you highlight beats 2 and 4, you're already playing a syncopated pattern" (DuBrock 26). At first I was confused about syncopated strumming. I didn't really follow up on when to strum stronger and when to strum without any power (weak strums). But looking at the measure makes me understand a little bit more about syncopated strumming because I am a visual learner.

The thing that is hard about syncopation strumming is keeping up with the rhythm. "Like many syncopated strums, the last example is pretty tricky pattern to get a handle on. Remember to play with a metronome and slow it down to where you can play the strum pattern. Then, gradually increase the metronome's speed until you can play it comfortably at a moderate tempo" (DuBrock 28). Being synced with the rhythm is the most important thing when playing the guitar. But even though i had a hard time keeping up with the rhythm, I still managed to do this trick. I just need to practice more and maybe I'll be a decent guitar player! :)

If you were/are a guitarist, would you ace at syncing with rhythm?

DuBrock, Andrew. Play Acoustic Guitar in Minutes. Milwaukee, WI: Hal Leonard, 2014. Print.