Jam Track 1 - One String Thing

In this video we're going to jam along to our first jam track. Now these jam tracks are really crucial because they check your timing and then a more accurate assessment of where your skill level is at at each level, even more than the songs that we look at, because those songs were not written or recorded to teach you anything. I've tried my absolute best to choose the right songs at the right level to show a variety of genres and. Styles for the most popular bands and most popular guitar songs, but those songs were not written or recorded to teach you anything, and these jam tracks are that crucial stepping stone between the skills that we look at and being able to nail those songs and even perhaps come up with your own songs and riffs in even the near future. And it all starts with this first one where we just play string 6 of the open string. At fret 5. And at fret 7. Now if we can play fret 5 with the index and fret 7 with the third finger. Then that is preferred, that is fantastic, but it's not essential. We can play just with the index. And then just do a slide in this fashion. But they're the only 3 notes we're going to play, there's no chords in this jam track. Just gonna play the open string. Threat 5, Fret 7. And then back. And we're going to repeat that for a couple of minutes, and at the start we're gonna play each of those once and have each note let ring, and then we're gonna pick it 4 times on something called the beat. So just to quickly explain about bars and beats, we have this underlying pulse in all songs and all music called the beat. That we generally count to a count of 41234. You guys are familiar with this, right? That count of 4 is called a bar, B A R, and this is how we measure or structure the music that we play. When we have a note that rings out for the whole bar. 2341234. We tend to call that a spread, as in the note length spreads the whole bar. And when we play on every beat, we're playing on the beat strumming, a bit like a drummer. Playing 4 to the floor, everything on the beat, 12341234, just repeat all the time. So all we're gonna do with this jam track that we'll hear in a second and we'll have the visual help to help you play along is play. 123412341234. Repeat all of that again. And then play 12, on every beat. 12. 412. 412. 4, and the real advantage here is if you can play along to this, even though it's super simple, we're working on all these essential skills such as rhythm, timing, feel. Getting a good sound, sliding around the fretboard, all the things that we later rely upon when we might want to play a song that we recommend at this level, one such as Seven Nation Army for example, or songs at the up and coming levels like Satisfaction or many Beatles songs, that sort of thing, that we require these skills to be able to. Play along to the original recording, which is the end goal of all the songs that we learn really, that's the acid test. That's how we know we can do this well, and we can play it along to the original recording. And sometimes there's no better way than just jumping in and having a go at and making sure the skill level is low enough so that we can jump in and start swimming. Ready to swim? Let's do it, let's have a go at this together. You're in charge of the guitar sound, I'm on the crunch setting. That's what I recommend for this, if you wanna add crazy effects and go crazy, you do, you, you're in control. But we're just gonna play spreads to begin with atres 0575. Repeat that again and then play the same threats, but on the beat. You ready? Join in with me. Starting off with spreads, single notes. 2 123. Index finger for both notes is preferred. Spreads again. Index and 3rd. Is even better and should be encouraged. By to index. On the beat. Slide with that first finger. We're over halfway, keep it going. Third finger is an option as well. Repeat At exactly the same time as me. Keep that rhythm good. One more. A small twist of the wrist. emotion as possible. Finish one last pick. And that is our first jam track, now hopefully that went well for you, but it's expected that you'll need to practise this, so repeat it, but along to this jam track, and therefore, we've got that jam track separate, there's a separate export of video in the description below, and that's the one that you should come back to to. practise this, just jump straight into it, and I encourage you to get straight into that video and just jump straight in and have a couple of attempts at this and see how much you improve, almost straight away. Every repetition gets a little bit better, you're paying attention to different things and calibrating your rhythm and timing. When we're trying to keep good timing and play in time, we don't just start and then continue on. We're constantly listening to that beat. And trying to keep our strums at the same time as the beat and hit every one of them. And what you're listening out for is two sounds and then one sound. If you can hear the beat and then your strum, or your strum, then the beat, that's not what we're looking for, you don't want two sounds, we want the same time, same time, same time, same time, and if you hear bum boom, bum boom, bum boom. Then you know you're off cause you've heard two sounds and we want same time, same time. Get straight into that video below, don't wait for it to be perfect to move on, but please have a go 2 or 3 times of that one string wonder, that jam track, and then I'll see you in the next video where we'll keep improving your skills.