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74 Part II: Setting Up to Play the Blues TEAM LinG
Eighth-note striking, twice per beat
Eighth notes come twice as frequently as quarter notes, in the same tempo,
or two for every beat, instead of one. Instead of the previously used slashes,
you now face slashes with stems (the vertical lines attached to the slash
noteheads — not the round, normal noteheads) and beams (the horizontal
lines that connect the stems). Quarter notes have just a stem attached to
them; eighth notes have stems with beams connecting them to each other.
An eighth note by itself has a flag instead of a beam: ‰.
For the eighth notes that appear in Figure 5-2, you strum twice as fast (two
per beat) as you do for the quarter notes (one per beat). You can do this
easily with downstrokes at most blues tempos, which are slow to moderate
(between 60 and 160 on your metronome). To make things interesting,
change chords and introduce A and B7 into the mix. Note that in the figure,
the last note of each bar is a quarter note, which gives you a little more time
than two eighth notes would for changing chords. Aren’t I a nice guy?
Figure 5-2:
Playing
eighth-note
and quarternote
strums
in downstrokes.
A
etc.
B7
Track 6, 0:12
Figure 5-3 combines downstrokes and upstrokes in an eighth-note rhythm. As
you practice this passage, keep a relaxed, free-swinging, up-and-down arm
motion going. Also work to get equal emphasis on the downstrokes and
upstrokes. You may notice that your downstrokes naturally include more and
lower strings, while the upstrokes play just the top strings and fewer of them.
Remember, this is perfectly natural.
At a moderate tempo, you can easily play Figure 5-3 with all downstrokes,
but that variation gives the figure a different feel — more driving and intense.
It may be a subtle difference, but playing an eighth-note figure in all
downstrokes — versus playing it with alternating downstrokes and
upstrokes — is a musical choice, not a technical consideration.