question for Mike Olekshy

Hi Mike, Just finished your lesson for Seven Bridges Road (made easy).

I really enjoyed the lesson, my stumming is still not very good but with this song it was ok. Just wondering what the correct strumming pattern is or could you give me one I could use with this song to push myself a little more. Thanks again.

John

Hi John - glad you enjoyed the lesson!

The actual strum pattern is more of a bluegrass style strum. It goes pretty quickly, so you'll want to practice it slowly at first.

The made easy version plays one strum per click (or hi-hat strike). To get more authentic like the record, you'll want to play 2 downstroke strums in the time of the first made easy strum. That's 2 downstrokes per hi-hat strike.

The second made easy strum needs to have 4 strums - so it would be a downstroke, upstroke, downstroke, upstroke in the spot where the second made easy strum plays just one.

Repeat that pattern for the next 2 clicks (or hi-hat strikes).

So your strum pattern for an entire bar of 4/4 would be:

D / D / | D U D U | D / D / | D U D U

Note that the first and third set of D / D / have slashes in between - that's because you have evenly spaced the strums for the time between the first and second click, while the D U D U are played faster because you are playing 4 strums in the same amount of time (between the 2nd and 3rd click).

Hopefully this makes sense - let me know how it goes!

Mike

Originally Posted by: Runner360

Hi Mike, Just finished your lesson for Seven Bridges Road (made easy).

I really enjoyed the lesson, my stumming is still not very good but with this song it was ok. Just wondering what the correct strumming pattern is or could you give me one I could use with this song to push myself a little more. Thanks again.

John

Thanks Mike that was very nice that you got back with the great info. Since we have plenty of time to practice right now hopefully I'll get it. Everyone stay safe and make sure you wash you're hands before you pick up you're guitar.