Strumming the Guitar
Book 2 is a detailed course for intermediate level and upward focusing solely on the subject of guitar strumming. This book goes beyond the basics, covering power chords, strumming in 3/4 time, barre chords, swing feel, early chord changes, using a capo to change key, using a capo to avoid barre chords, muted strums and 16th note strumming in 4/4 time and 6/8 time. Throughout the book as the difficulty level progresses, separate sections take on strumming alone, changing chords alone and coordinating chord changes while strumming, therefore maintaining a thorough approach with components broken down at every level.
Guitar Strumming Techniques -
Advice is given on how to fret and strum power chords, barre chords (major, minor and dominant 7th) and how to refer to the root note to find them, using a capo and muted strumming. All with purpose made diagrams and professionally hand drawn illustrations.
Guitar Strumming Patterns -
There are 158 different guitar strumming patterns that can be used throughout the book, all written with easy to understand, graphical, strumming diagrams. These include 70 strumming patterns in 4/4 time, 22 strumming patterns in 3/4 time, 20 muted strumming patterns, 24 sixteenth note strumming patterns in 6/8 time and 22 sixteenth note strumming patterns in 4/4 time.
Chord Changes -
Over 100 chords are used to facilitate what the book teaches about strumming, divided into fourteen groups of chord changes. From simpler chords such as A major to more advanced ones such as A7sus2/G and lots more inbetween.
Strumming Exercises and Study Pieces -
Every section includes strumming exercises that combine chord changes with strumming, each section concluding with a musical study piece using the skills learnt and practised in styles of Grunge, UK Modern Alternative, Jig, Waltz, Pop, Swing Jazz, Blues, Pop Ballad and Power Ballad. There are 70+ strumming exercises and 15 musical study pieces, while more combinations can be found by selecting from the 158 given strumming patterns to use with them.
Audio and Video -
All exercises and musical study pieces are demonstrated with audio (downloadable 149 MB). All study pieces have a demonstration audio track and a backing audio track in which the rhythm guitar part has been removed for you to play over. Online videos (of which there are 7 in total size of 90.8 MB) are also used to enhance explanations.