Introduction and 'Strumming Family Tree' concept

Hi guys, my name's Andy Crawley and welcome to this strumming guitar course. Now I've been a guitar teacher for many years now and the number one question without doubt or the number one topic that people tend to ask for help with has to be strumming. Close second to the chords, but strumming, there's something about it that can be um very tough to deal with, whether you're a beginner, who's just starting out and trying to do any strumming patterns properly, up to people who've been playing a long time. And they still haven't quite mastered the art of being able to learn a new song and pick up the strumming pattern as quickly as they'd like. Now a couple of years ago I uploaded a free beginner's course full of real songs, taking the absolute beginner along to learning the F barcode and having a good repertoire of varied songs, uh, quite accomplished songs under their belt. What I've done in this strumming series. I've taken all the strumming patterns from that beginner's course and I've put them in order and they're all written on this sheet which will be freely downloadable either from the website down below or with the materials you've purchased along with this DVD package or downloadable package, however you choose to do it. This series is unlike any strumming course that I've ever seen. Every strumming course I've come across before has been simply a series of numbered and ordered strumming patterns. But almost none of those strumming patterns lead on from one another. They all seem to be kind of random and they don't really explain how you're supposed to use those strumming patterns in real songs, or why would you use one strumming pattern or another. The idea of this strumming course is we're gonna cover all of those things but also train you instinctively. To know what strumming pattern to go for just by listening to the song that you're wanting to be able to play. Now that is a skill that I have that any guitarist worth their salt should have, but it's a really tough thing even for people who have been playing a number of years. This does not come naturally to everyone, and my goal is to train you to be able to do it. And this sheet holds the key. As I say, this is every strumming pattern on my beginner's course and they are ordered. There's the basic 4 on the on the beat, 4 down strums on the beat to start off with strumming pattern number 1, and everyone is numbered and in order from there, from 2 to 13 in total, but. They're in different columns also, and this is how I have taught a lot of you guys that are watching this video now, how to play any of the songs that we've gone for in that beginner's course that I mentioned a minute ago. Um, all of those songs I'll teach, starting off with just strumming on the beat, and then we go on any one of these specific columns, starting off, um, with 8 all down strumming on an 18th grid. So each tier here is on different levels which goes up with the levels of the beginner's course, um, not exactly to the levels cos some people, um, learn to pick up strumming a lot faster and some need a little bit longer and I've taken that into account with this. But the real revolutionary thing is, I've taken into account the genres and the speed of the song so that you can find a strumming pattern for any song you would want to take on that will work for you. And let me try and talk you through this now but as I say, this is a pretty big concept and if you don't get it fully now, you may have to trust me and you will trust me because I've taught you to do it before in the songs that I have taught on my YouTube channel. This is simply. A visual representation for you to figure out the way that I have taught you to do strumming in the past, but to be able to do it for any song, not just the songs that I've filmed on my website. And I've done that by putting them in certain columns, in 3 columns to be precise, and the first column is a series of strumming patterns that work for slower tempoed songs. We'll cover exactly what tempos are and BPMs of song a little later on, but the slower tempoed songs mean your hands are moving in a certain way. And a different way to how they'll be moving for the faster tempoed songs which are on the middle column. And then finally the third column is full of genre specific strumming patterns such as offbeat strumming for reggae, triplet strumming for folk, the blues strumming, and another folky, Bob Dylan style strumming. If you've been playing guitar for a long time already, you may wish to just follow this sheet and pick out the strumming patterns that go along with a certain strands. The slower ones, then the faster ones, and then the genre specific ones, and you will get to your end goal of being being able to do the higher level strumming patterns at the bottom of the sheet much quicker by simply going direct down that column. If you're a beginner, I would advise just so that you're getting the skills under your belt and getting the skills acquired before you move on a little too soon, I would go through them in the order that they're written on this sheet, in the way that they're numbered. But you always have the option if you feel that this is something that you're able to do, to go straight to the strumming patterns down the column. And that is how this course is gonna enable you. So instinctively know which strumming patterns to try and go for first and also it will get you strumming the higher level strumming patterns and get you sounding better on guitar and in all the real songs that you would want to take on beyond the lessons that I've filmed. You'll be able to do those so much quicker and easier by following this method. And as I say, if you want to know a quick inkling of what that. Method is any of the strumming videos that I've already filmed on YouTube, when we've gone for real songs, that is the way I'm teaching this course. I'm just lending you into the secret of how I taught them and I've arranged them with this sheet to guide you through it and this series of videos if you choose to watch them all in order. But you've always got the option to fast track if that's what you would choose to do.