Free Guitar Lessons

Birmingham, AL Guitar Lessons from guitar teacher Zac Sullivan.

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On Friday, you’ve been working hard for the weekend (or should have been) all week long, and now the Sabbath’s almost here and you’re ready to play some seriously soothing strumming on your guitar. No worries – Fret Zero’s free Fretty Fridays is here! Let your frets and cares fall by the wayside when you begin your day of rest.

Each Friday look for a new Fretty Friday video, which will at first be dealing with basic strumming. Requests will be queued for future posts.

Starts today (April 8th, 2011)!

Strum Patterns
Note: The first 6 are in 4/4, then 7 thru 9 are in 3/4, and 10 is in 2/4. Remember, all your numbers are down strums and all your &s are up strums.

1) Down up down up down up down up – Count: 1&2&3&4&
2) Down (miss) down up down up down up – Count: 1 2&3&4&
3) Down (miss) down up down (miss) down up – Count: 1 2& 3 4&
4) Down down up down down – Count: 1 2& 3 4
5) Down down down up down up – Count: 1 2 3&4&
6) Down down up up down up – Count: 1 2& &4&
7) Down down up down – Count: 1 2&3
8) Down down down – 1 2 3
9) Down down up down up – 1 2&3&
10) Down down up – 1 2&

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Birmingham, AL Guitar Lessons – Lesson 1, Strum Pattern 1

Birmingham, AL Guitar Lessons – Lesson 2, Strum Pattern 2

Birmingham, AL Guitar Lessons – Lesson 3, Strum Pattern 3 & Strum Pattern 10

Birmingham, AL Guitar Lessons – Lesson 4, Strum Pattern 4

Birmingham, AL Guitar Lessons – Lesson 5, Strum Pattern 5

Birmingham, AL Guitar Lessons – Lesson 6, Strum Pattern 6

Birmingham, AL Guitar Lessons – Lesson 7, Strum Pattern 7

Birmingham, AL Guitar Lessons – Lesson 8, Strum Pattern 8

Birmingham, AL Guitar Lessons – Lesson 9, Strum Pattern 9

The 2 chord progressions used in the above video are:
D D G D
D D A7sus4 D

Unfortunately, I forgot to mention that the Bob Dylan song The Times They Are A Changin’ is a great song to play with this strum pattern. Down Down Up Down would also work (1 2&3), but I prefer strum pattern 9.

Birmingham, AL Guitar Lessons – Lesson 10, Parts 1 & 2 (Review of the 10 Strum Patterns / combining patterns):

Birmingham, AL Guitar Lessons – Lesson 11, Strum Pattern 11 – How to play in 5/4
How to play in 5/4 strum pattern lesson:

Birmingham, AL Guitar Lessons – Lesson 12, Strum Pattern 12 – How to Play in 7/4 Time – To Be Redone

Birmingham, AL Guitar Lessons – Lesson 13, Strum Pattern 13 – Triplet Strumming in Drop D Tuning for that Irish Folk Feel

I was a bit tired from working all week and I combined Pattern 9 – 1 2&3& with pattern 2 – 1 2&3&4& – still adds up to 7 beats though.

Alternate Tunings and the Circle of Fifths:

Once you’ve practiced these patterns well enough, check the Strum Pattern Compendium to see what all famous songs you can play now. You can get the Vh1 100 Greatest Songs of Rock & Roll songbook at the FZG Amazon Music Store.