Free Falling – Guitar Lesson 2
Hey guys welcome back to lesson 2! If you missed the first lesson, no worries, just click here to catch up. Today I'm going cover the second part of this song. In the first installment I covered the chords that we play in the song, and in this installment we will focus on the rhythm or when we play those chords.
But First...
I want to acknowledge Niels and Cintia for watching and making their own videos of playing the chords. Watching the two of you playing the D, Dsus4, and Dsus2 chords was very rewarding for me, and congrats on doing a outstanding job! Niels did have a question in his video, so I'm going to try and answer it the best I can. It's a question a lot of beginners ask. He asked:
I found it very difficult to... to get the proper sound every time. I mean like, sometimes you play it and it's like bur – ruh – ruh! It's terrible and uh...sometimes it just goes smoothly and you think, Wow, wow I'm really good.
- Niels
Sorry, that was too much fun to do, and a great use of my time. Niels does bring up a concern that many beginners will ask me about. The best answer for this is practice and time. It's probably what new students don't want to hear but it's true. Although there is an exercise I came up with that might help the learning process.
Warm up Exercise
This exercise is great for beginners and it can be used as a warm up. Please do not spend more than 5 to 10 minutes on this, it will defeat the point of the exercise! First grab your guitar and start in a resting position, that means your left hand is resting on the neck in first position, and your right hand is ready to strum. Next, close your eyes.
You heard me, close them.
Next while your eyes are closed make a chord that you know. In this situation, make a 'D' chord. While your eyes are still closed, try strumming the chord. How did it sound? If it sounded bad, that's good! Make sure not to move your hand as you open your eyes and look at your chord hand. Make a mental note of the inaccuracies and try this exercise a couple more times. Again this is a warm up exercise that I have found helps beginners start to visualize the chords without using their eyes.
Hope that helps Niels!
Rhythm is Gonna Getcha!
Rhythm is so important and yet so often overlooked with beginners. I always tell my new students, “Playing the right notes is only half of the equation. You have to play the right notes at the right time.”
They are always awe struck with my wisdom.
**
Crash Course!**
This is a down and dirty explanation of rhythm. First, I want you to visualize someone clapping their hands to a steady beat. You know what? I'll do it for ya...
Now there are two kinds of beats. The down or on beat, that's when the clap is actually happening. Then there's the up or off beat, that's when the hands would be furthest from each other. Depending on the time signature (Don't worry about that just yet) we count the down beat with numbers:
| 1 2 3 4 | 1 2 3 4 | 1 2 3 4 | 1 2 3 4 |
The up or off beat is counted in between the numbers. We use the word, “and” to count the offbeat.
| 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + | 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + | 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + | 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + |
Clear as mud? Let us proceed...
Rhythm to Free Falling
The main pulse or accents in Free Falling are as such:
Simple Rhythm
| 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + | 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + |
These are the beats where the chord changes happen. The first step is to count out loud, “1 + 2 +...” and see if you can make the chord changes happen on the right beat.
Spice it up!
Once you can count and play the main pulse of the song and some extra strums in it!
Complex Rhythm
| 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + | 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + |
This would mean you would strum down on each of the underlined beats but still changing the chords on the beats that they change on.
Putting it all together...
If you listen to the song, Tom Petty uses the first rhythm in the opening verse. After the drums come in, he switches to the complex rhythm and stays with that the rest of the song. Practice the rhythms separately and then try to play simple, followed by the complex patterns.
Once you can do that, you can play your first song! Stick around for my next lesson, “Playing Multiple Songs With One Chord!“
...probably should have started with that lesson, huh?
NickelNDime Out!
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