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Strumming patterns

How to strum polkas on guitar for complete beginners!

In this week’s free guitar lesson from Folk Friend, I’ll be showing you two easy strumming patterns you can use to play along with polkas! One is the “hup-two” pattern which you see a lot in Irish sessions and the other is a more motion-efficient variant which I have borrowed from the great guitarist and music educator Steve Cooney.

Get your hands on the Folk Friend Playalongs Pack in order to practice along with 20 tunes at 3 speeds each, with on screen guitar chords, diagrams, a write up of why the chords work and loads more.

Categories
Strumming patterns

How to play triplets in jigs – Irish guitar strumming tutorial

In this week’s free beginner Irish guitar lesson from Folk Friend, I’ll be showing you how to add strummed triplets to your Irish jig guitar accompaniment! This can be quite a tricky technique for beginner guitarists, but as soon as you get it down you’ll be able to add loads of cool rhythmic variations to your Irish backing guitar!

You can find my previous jig strumming videos here:

Standard jig patterns

“Upside down” strumming

Categories
Strumming patterns

Learn this alternative jig strumming pattern for funky Irish guitar!

In this free Irish guitar lesson, I’ll be replying to a comment from Olivier Castel who wanted to know what I play in the intro to my clips. Here is a complete guide to the upside down strumming pattern, an extra percussive version of a jig strumming pattern, how I modify it to get the rhythm in the intro and how to add your own variations to it. I’ll be covering the chords in a future video.

Categories
Strumming patterns

How to strum jigs (older version)

 

Categories
Strumming patterns

How to strum Irish/Scottish Hornpipes and Reels

In this free Celtic guitar lesson I’ll be showing you how to strum along with hornpipes and reels, two rhythms which are very popular in Irish and other Celtic traditional music. You can find a complete guide to rhythms, strumming patterns, chords (including more jazzy options), music theory, ear training exercises and everything else you need to become a great backing guitarist in my e-book, available here.