Strum-picking with "lifted" chord changes

UkingViking

Well-known member
Joined
Oct 10, 2015
Messages
1,811
Reaction score
1,068
Location
Denmark
Hi,

I often find myself having problems with songs where some chord changes are half a measure early. My high school music teacher used to refer to that as a "lift", not sure if the word is right. It is often like every second chord change is on 4& in stead of on 1, while the rest are normal.

When just strumming, I can sometimes get it right. But I would like to do a bit of arpeggios or fills al well. Like when you strum the chord and play a few notes from a patterns before strumming again. I find it hard to do.

Does anybody have a link to some ressources on good patterns for that?

I have seen a few videos for arpeggio like picking patterns for chords, but those patterns seem even more fokused on chord changes on 1 and 3 that when just strumming.
 
Last edited:
I'm not 100% sure exactly which part your having trouble with yet I'll give you a couple of general tips.

Firstly, your fretting hand needs to start moving before the beat so that your ready for the next beat. Moving early will simply reduce the sustain of the previous note and often this works well giving some variation to the feel.
Secondly, the picking hand NEVER waits for the fretting hand. Never. The beat is the beat. If you don't get it right the note will be dampened/muffled but this is just a minor sin. The picking hand missing the beat while it waits for the fretting hand is a major sin.

If you have to slow down to practice then you just have to slow down to practice but you should also get used to the principle that the beat never stops for a mistake by the fretting hand.
 
Thanks for your reply!

I do try to keep the beat going.

What I am looking for is inspiration for arpeggios that support emphasis on off beat chord changes.

If strumming dudududu, it corredponds to every second bar I change chord on the upstrum before in stead of on the first beat of the next bar.
Only I dont want to just strum for slow songs , I want to pick. And arpeggios style picking patterns with one note at the time doesnt emphasize when the chord changes.
So I am looking for a pattern where I pick notes on some measures og half measures, and strum chords on some. One the works well when the chord change alternates.
 
Last edited:
OK, I have a better understanding of your issue now. What you should practice is changing your picking pattern on the fly and I know this isn't easy to do at first. I found myself stuck to a picking pattern at first myself.

If your alternate picking, ie, thumb, finger, thumb, finger, what you can do is break the pattern by throwing in a thumb AND finger pinch. or just another thumb pick on its own.
So it goes, thumb, finger, thumb, finger, thumb, thumb+finger, thumb, finger. I find that tapping your foot through the song helps keeping a sense of rhythm.
 
Last edited:
Top Bottom