Chris Lay

Yes, that’s the idea. Obviously, some will sound better than others, but it can work with many of these different options. As you said, the most important factor is the length of the measures. Is the song in 4/4 time, 3/4 time, or 6/8 time? Once you have that determined, then you can fill in those measures with whole note strumming, half note, quarter, 8th, or 16th note strumming.

Cheryl, that is a great purpose, and should keep you motivated to continue learning.

I agree that music is a universal language, and transcends other forms of communication. It is a wonderful thing to be able to create your own music, and I hope you are able to achieve that one day as well.

Thanks for sharing your story with us!

Wow, what a great live class!

We discussed the 4 steps to develop persistence:

1. Define a purpose
2. Define a plan
3. A mind closed to negativity and discouragement
4. A friendly alliance

If you would like to post your purpose & plan for the community, you can do see

Be sure to subscribe to the thread, so you can be notified when people post their purposes and plans, to give them…Read More

Hey Cheryl, thanks for the heads up. I’ll look into it and maybe on Friday I can give a screen cast of how to navigate through it.

Hey James, great question. For me, that number is really relative. It’s not set in stone. I begin to play the song, and then I’ll put on a metronome to match near the speed that I play it at. When I perform, I never actually use a metronome or BPMs, however, I know for practice, it’s useful for people to know the BPM, so you can practice the song away from the computer on your own with a…Read More

Hey Rich, the G family chords are what I think is tripping you up (G, Cadd9, D/F#, and Em7), as opposed to the traditional C, D, and Em. Probably the main issue is with your pinky and ring finger getting that clear sound. If you could solve that problem, then I’m assuming you would be fine with these chords.

Your ring and especially pinky finger will be your 2 weakest fingers, and will…Read More

Hey Rich, so glad to have you back in the swing of things.

Is there anything in particular about strumming that you’re still struggling with? If you can make it to the next live class that would be great, so you can explain visually. We do them now every week, and I announce on Monday the day and time.

For the C and Cadd9 selection, Cadd9 will be really only used when you’re playing a…Read More

Hey Cheryl, that is a good question.

The chord variations are definitely for more advanced levels, and wouldn’t really apply at the beginner stage. And it was a thought of mine that it might end up being too confusing to have all of that information up.

One thing I was thinking of doing was only putting up chords and variations that I actually use in songs, and only put up new…Read More

Hey Cheryl, that’s a great question, and it is a common problem to miss that first note on the 1st beat of each measure. In general, it’s a good rule of thumb to keep your strumming hand relatively still, and just move the wrist and fingers to make your strumming and plucking. This allows you to memorize what angle of the wrist will allow you to pluck which string. If your whole arm is…Read More

Here’s the replay from this week’s live class:

Hey Adela, I’m working on getting the audio up for all the chords. It’ll take a little bit of time, but just know that it is coming:)

And I’ll add that song suggestion into my list. I’ll see if I can get to it on this week’s live class.