Lesson #044, Rhythm and Counting VII

Hi Everyone,

In this lesson I played a little bit of guitar for you so you can practice your banjo using the whole note, the half note, the quarter note, and the eight note. You'll be using this guitar track for some of the upcoming lessons as well. I will be putting down different guitar tracks from time to time to help you progress as the lessons become more and more involved.

In this lesson I'm using 8 measures in 4/4 time. I'm repeating those 8 measures a number of times as well. Heres how the 8 measures go with the chord changes and the count of 4 beats go.

G 2 3 4 = the first measure
C 2 3 4 = the second measure
G 2 3 4= the third measure
D 2 3 4= the fourth measure
G 2 3 4 = the fifth measure
C 2 3 4 = the sixth measure
G 2 D 4 =the seventh measure
G 2 3 4 = the eight measure

Those are the chord changes we are dealing with in the guitar example. Remember to tap your foot along to the count of 1 2 3 4. Again the down beats being the 1 and 3. The only thing you have to watch out for in these 8 measures is the seventh measure. There is a quick chord change between G and D in the seventh measure. If you look at the seventh measure you can see it happens right in the middle of the measure. There are still 4 beats but we just happen to change chords in the middle of the measure on the count of 3.

So practice using the four notes we discussed... try to get your notes nice and even... just like that pie.

Before long you'll be tapping your foot along unconsciously and wont be counting at all. You'll just be playing! How cool is that!

Rock On

David