Hey Friend,

We take a lot of time talking about chord structure and how scales play into triad construction. Very essential stuff to know if you ever want to progress past the very basics of playing guitar or get into songwriting and production.

I also provide you a lot of practical exercises to help you learn the various triad shapes that go along with each chord.

But these exercises tend to be more foundational - more like how-to type instruction.

True, there are exercises that string chords together into progressions, and every once in a while, I tab out the chords from a song. 

But most of the instruction and practice focuses on what your fretting hand is doing. Where your fingers go on the guitar neck, strengthening your hand and fingers, building up the calluses, etc.

Admittedly, the picking/strumming hand tends to get ignored.

Well not today. Today, I’ll share with you and article with a set of videos showing you a strumming technique you’ll be sure to recognize. It’s called the Gallop Rhythm.

As the article states, you’ll hear this strum in a lot of Metal music, but it’s not limited to that style. You can hear it in Pop, Classic Rock and Country. In fact, the first song that comes to mind for me (being the 80s kid I am) is “Affair of the Heart" by Rick Springfield.

This is a great rhythm to play at different tempos, and you don’t need to be a shred master to play it well. It simply takes a little practice to get the strum pattern learned.

As the demonstrations show, when you start at a slower tempo, you’re able to train your hand at a manageable pace. Once you have a consistent strum, you can work at speeding it up by practicing with a metronome. The videos are shot well, and the tabs are right there so you can visualize the concept.

You can read the Guitar World article on gallop rhythms right here. 

Have a fabulous Friday - I’ll catch up with you tomorrow!

Peace~

Dave