Acoustic Guitar 101

with Scott Law

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Acoustic Guitar 101 - Section 1

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Acoustic Guitar 101 - Section 2

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Acoustic Guitar 101 Lessons: Lesson 21: Left Hand - Part 5

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[MUSIC]
We've learned about connecting

these chords in a strategic way,

[SOUND] the A, D and
the E in the left hand.

Now, let's just take a look at the right
hand for a second and just revisit that.

We're gonna keep on moving the right hand
and the left hand along separate and

then we're gonna put them together.

So we can play what
are known as quarter notes,

just a very basic rhythm just
to get us through the chords.

That would be like counting one,
two, three, four,

two, two, three, four, three, two, three,

four, four, two, three, four, etcetera.

And, I'm just gonna show you right off the
bat that a way that I sometimes will keep

track of that if I'm trying to understand
it is I just have this little system here.

One, two, three, four in a knuckle,

three, right in these knuckles here,
these creases in my hand.

Say, one, two, three,
four, two, two, three,

four, three, two, three, four.

Four, two, three, four, etcetera.

That just becomes super handy when you're
trying to map out what you're doing and

understand a rhythm, let's say.

So we'll get to that in a minute.

That was just a short introduction of it.

But here would be just the corresponding
rhythm for these chords.

[MUSIC]
So

A, A,

A, D,

G, G,

G, D,

G, A.

[MUSIC]
I can slow

this down.

[MUSIC]
Now, I'm hitting all six

strings on the E chord but on the A chord,

I'm just hitting those middle,

from the fifth string up.

[MUSIC]
D string,

I'm hitting the fourth string up.

[MUSIC]
And the E string, like I said,

hitting all six.

[MUSIC]
Now, you see,

my left hand isn't

working that hard.

[MUSIC]
To make those changes,

it's getting easier.

[MUSIC]
Okay, so

this is the basic.

These are just quarter notes,

four notes in each bar or
measure or group.

Four notes, and
we're just playing on those

down beats, one, two, three, four.

And, there's the implied upbeat.

Because in order to reset for
the downbeat, there's an equal and

opposite reaction, but
we're just not playing it.

There's one, and two, and three, right?

One, and two and three and four.

And one and two and three and four.

And one, and so for
every action is a reaction.

There is a mirror to each of these
downbeats, these quarter notes.

It's called an eighth note.

And we're gonna get more into that
stuff later, but I'm just trying

to introduce the idea that this is just
a steady kind of pulse rhythm in 4/4.

All right, four quarter notes per measure,
per bar, per group.

Kinda the same idea, they have a group.

Four, one, two, three, four, so and

then we also have four measures,
right on your hand there.

So you have one, and two,
and three, and four, and

one, and two, and three,
and four, and one, and

two, and three, and four, and
one and, and three, and four and.

Okay, so one, and two, and

three, and four, and one, and

two, and three, and four.

Now, you see,
I put a little upstroke in there.

And that's where we're gonna be heading.

Cuz what if I

take this one

[MUSIC].

Now
[MUSIC]

I'm adding some

up strokes.

That's kind of interesting.

Now,
[MUSIC]

for some variations,

and I'm introducing

the upstroke in that right hand,

and playing some of

the in-between notes,

the in-between rhythms,

and just giving a little

bit more interest.

And actually that might remind
us of a song or something.

We might even write a song that uses
a rhythmic idea along those lines.

We'll see what happens.

[MUSIC]

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