Cameron Mizell

A quick take on one of my favorite bluegrass standards.

This week’s edition of Woodshed Wednesday is for beginning guitar students. One of the most basic concepts on the guitar is often the first hurdle for beginners: Consistent strumming. Physically speaking, strumming the guitar is a fairly natural motion, yet most students have trouble when rhythm is introduced. This lesson will help you get over that hurdle and realize that the physical motion of strumming can actually make rhythmic patterns easier.

The goal of these exercises is to keep your strumming hand moving up and down in steady time. If there’s a quarter note on the beat, you will strum with a downward motion. Conversely, if there’s an eighth note on the off beat, you will strum with an upward motion. If there’s no note to play on any given beat you simply continue the strumming motion but don’t hit the strings. To help illustrate the idea, here’s a video lesson where I play all of the examples below.

This idea is counterintuitive to many students. When you play a drum or piano, sound is created by striking the instrument in one direction with a single movement–you either hit the drum or push down on a key. Guitar strings, however, can be plucked from the top and the bottom. This means you have two motions: Down strokes and up strokes.

To play these exercises, mute the strings with your left hand and focus on your strumming. Keep your right hand and wrist relaxed. The movement comes from your elbow, as if you’re shaking something off your hand.

Later on you can practice with chords. Repeat each exercise for several minutes until you are completely comfortable with the rhythm and physical motion required to play it.

Exercise A covers the most basic pattern. Use a metronome set to 72 beats per minute (bpm) and strum using a downward motion on each beat, or each time the metronome clicks.

Click on the image for larger, easier to read notation. You may also download a PDF version of all the exercises for printing and sharing.

Although you are focused on strumming each downbeat, make sure your hand is moving up and down evenly, like the pendulum of a grandfather clock. Once you have a nice steady motion, start playing Exercise B. Now you are only playing the off beats with a steady upward motion. Again, make sure your hand is moving steadily, even when you’re not strumming the strings.

If it helps, count the beats during Exercise A, and then count the off beats by saying “and” between the numbers for Exercise B.

Exercise C combines both A & B. Now we’re starting to play something that sounds like an actual guitar part! Add a little emphasis on beat 1 and the “&” of 2, since that is where the rhythm changes. Do you feel the difference?

Exercise D introduces adjacent beats of eight note strumming.

Exercise E is very similar to D. In Exercise F, pay attention to the beats where you should not strum.

Finally, here are two more challenging patterns. Exercise G is a very common strumming pattern used on many rock songs. It is a good idea to practice this pattern until it feels completely natural.

Exercise H is tricky because you do not play on beat 1. Sometimes the best way to emphasize a beat is to not play it. This is especially true if you’re playing with a band.

For a related lesson, you may also enjoy Alternate Picking Exercises for Guitar.

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If you found this lesson helpful, please see my other guitar related posts, and check back occasionally for more Woodshed Wednesday free guitar lessons. I am also available for private guitar and mandolin lessons in NYC or via Skype.

Here’s a solo guitar arrangement of one of my favorite Sigur Ros songs. I’m using a Line 6 DL4 to record and loop multiple layers of guitar, emulating the orchestration of the original Sigur Ros recording. Enjoy!

More solo guitar videos are in the works. Please subscribe to my YouTube channel to see the videos as they’re uploaded!

For this week’s Woodshed Wednesday, we’ll be trading the guitar for the mandolin and look at a popular bluegrass tune, “Blackberry Blossom.”

I originally made this video for a mandolin student, but thought it could be something for anyone learning mandolin. To help you learn the tune, I’ve also written out a transcription of the arrangement in the video. Use this link to download the sheet music:

“Blackberry Blossom” arrangement by Cameron Mizell

This tune, like many other bluegrass standards, uses an AABB form. In the video I first play the song at a standard tempo (about 206 bpm) and then slow down each section to 70 bpm. Focus on one section at a time, starting as slow as necessary, and gradually increase the tempo. Be sure to use a metronome! The entire piece should be played with alternate picking. Notice the slurs in the B sections. There are several pull-offs and slides, all of which should be obvious in the video.

There are many variations of this song. For this arrangement I’ve borrowed licks from many great bluegrass players, other YouTube videos, and used some of my own. Once you get it down, try adding your own variations! Transcribing many different sources will help you develop your own style.

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If you found this lesson helpful, please see my other guitar related posts, and check back occasionally for more Woodshed Wednesday free guitar lessons. I am also available for private guitar and mandolin lessons in NYC or via Skype.

“Be Still My Love” is #34 of Guy’s 100 Songs in 100 Days.

This one is special to me. I wrote the guitar part last year sometime and wasn’t sure what to do with it. Guy heard me playing it one time, loved it, and we finally had a chance to turn it into a song. I needn’t explain more, just watch the video and enjoy!