A quick take on one of my favorite bluegrass standards.

The goal of these exercises is to keep your strumming hand moving up and down in steady time. If there’s a quarter note on the beat, you will strum with a downward motion. Conversely, if there’s an eighth note on the off beat, you will strum with an upward motion. If there’s no note to play on any given beat you simply continue the strumming motion but don’t hit the strings. To help illustrate the idea, here’s a video lesson where I play all of the examples below.

This idea is counterintuitive to many students. When you play a drum or piano, sound is created by striking the instrument in one direction with a single movement–you either hit the drum or push down on a key. Guitar strings, however, can be plucked from the top and the bottom. This means you have two motions: Down strokes and up strokes.

To play these exercises, mute the strings with your left hand and focus on your strumming. Keep your right hand and wrist relaxed. The movement comes from your elbow, as if you’re shaking something off your hand.

Later on you can practice with chords. Repeat each exercise for several minutes until you are completely comfortable with the rhythm and physical motion required to play it.

Exercise A covers the most basic pattern. Use a metronome set to 72 beats per minute (bpm) and strum using a downward motion on each beat, or each time the metronome clicks.

Click on the image for larger, easier to read notation. You may also download a PDF version of all the exercises for printing and sharing.

Although you are focused on strumming each downbeat, make sure your hand is moving up and down evenly, like the pendulum of a grandfather clock. Once you have a nice steady motion, start playing Exercise B. Now you are only playing the off beats with a steady upward motion. Again, make sure your hand is moving steadily, even when you’re not strumming the strings.

If it helps, count the beats during Exercise A, and then count the off beats by saying “and” between the numbers for Exercise B.

Exercise C combines both A & B. Now we’re starting to play something that sounds like an actual guitar part! Add a little emphasis on beat 1 and the “&” of 2, since that is where the rhythm changes. Do you feel the difference?

Exercise D introduces adjacent beats of eight note strumming.

Exercise E is very similar to D. In Exercise F, pay attention to the beats where you should not strum.

Finally, here are two more challenging patterns. Exercise G is a very common strumming pattern used on many rock songs. It is a good idea to practice this pattern until it feels completely natural.

Exercise H is tricky because you do not play on beat 1. Sometimes the best way to emphasize a beat is to not play it. This is especially true if you’re playing with a band.

For a related lesson, you may also enjoy Alternate Picking Exercises for Guitar.

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If you found this lesson helpful, please see my other guitar related posts, and check back occasionally for more Woodshed Wednesday free guitar lessons. I am also available for private guitar and mandolin lessons in NYC or via Skype.

Here’s a solo guitar arrangement of one of my favorite Sigur Ros songs. I’m using a Line 6 DL4 to record and loop multiple layers of guitar, emulating the orchestration of the original Sigur Ros recording. Enjoy!

More solo guitar videos are in the works. Please subscribe to my YouTube channel to see the videos as they’re uploaded!

For this week’s Woodshed Wednesday, we’ll be trading the guitar for the mandolin and look at a popular bluegrass tune, “Blackberry Blossom.”

I originally made this video for a mandolin student, but thought it could be something for anyone learning mandolin. To help you learn the tune, I’ve also written out a transcription of the arrangement in the video. Use this link to download the sheet music:

“Blackberry Blossom” arrangement by Cameron Mizell

This tune, like many other bluegrass standards, uses an AABB form. In the video I first play the song at a standard tempo (about 206 bpm) and then slow down each section to 70 bpm. Focus on one section at a time, starting as slow as necessary, and gradually increase the tempo. Be sure to use a metronome! The entire piece should be played with alternate picking. Notice the slurs in the B sections. There are several pull-offs and slides, all of which should be obvious in the video.

There are many variations of this song. For this arrangement I’ve borrowed licks from many great bluegrass players, other YouTube videos, and used some of my own. Once you get it down, try adding your own variations! Transcribing many different sources will help you develop your own style.

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If you found this lesson helpful, please see my other guitar related posts, and check back occasionally for more Woodshed Wednesday free guitar lessons. I am also available for private guitar and mandolin lessons in NYC or via Skype.

“Be Still My Love” is #34 of Guy’s 100 Songs in 100 Days.

This one is special to me. I wrote the guitar part last year sometime and wasn’t sure what to do with it. Guy heard me playing it one time, loved it, and we finally had a chance to turn it into a song. I needn’t explain more, just watch the video and enjoy!

My good friend and Stellar Ego frontman Guy Prandstatter is on a mission to write 100 songs in 100 days to inspire others to make a difference.

Few people I know have pulled themselves through adversity the way Guy has, and every day he tries to inspire positive change in the world. Lucky for us, we get to watch him work for 100 days.

Writing a song is pretty hard, it sometimes takes me weeks, so to knock one out day after day is incredibly tough. To help keep the creative juices flowing, Guy has recruited some of his friends along the way to accompany him. Yesterday, for song #26, Stellar Ego got together and came up with “The Skin I’m In.” Guy is on guitar and vocals, accompanied by Danny (the drummer) on electric ukulele, Russ (the bassist) on piano, and yours truly on mandolin. Here it is:

I’m working with guy on another song today, and will hopefully be involved more over the next 72 days. Learn more and follow along by taking any of these links:

Website: iamthedifference.org
I Am The Difference YouTube Channel
I Am The Difference Facebook Page
Stellar Ego Facebook Page
Guy Prandstatter on Facebook

I first used this technique when studying J.S. Bach’s Suite No. 1 for cello (BWV 1007), which is also a popular piece for classical guitar. Two-thirds of the way through the Prelude of Suite No. 1, there are a few measures of scales, starting with Examples 1 and 2 below. These are simply D Major scales, starting on G.

Click on any of the images for larger, easier to read notation. You may also download all four examples on a single PDF.

In Ex. 1, we play the scale in a traditional, linear fashion.

In Ex. 2, we play the same scale but play only one note per string (use the TAB for proper fingering). Pay attention to the 3 note groupings.

To get the best harp-like effect, hold down each note as long as you can. Use the open strings to position your hand for the next two fretted notes. I think of the open strings as pivot points between each grouping of notes, allowing me to shift my left hand up and down the neck to the best place to play the next group of notes.

Open strings are very important when using this technique, but sometimes the right notes aren’t available as an open string. This is especially true once you start using scales with several accidentals. The first two examples utilized the open E, B, and G strings. What happens when the scale allows for fewer open strings?

In Ex. 3 we look at an E Major scale that uses natural harmonics to add open strings to our scale. Ex. 3a is a little easier to play. The harmonic for A can easily be played with your left hand. Ex. 3b rings out a bit more, but it trickier to execute. By moving your left hand down to first position to play the G# and F# you allow the A to ring out longer, and playing the final E harmonic with your right hand creates a rich, ringing cluster chord.

Finally, Ex. 4 is a more complex use of the technique as I used in an arrangement of Elliott Smith’s “Everything Means Nothing To Me.” The original recording is done on piano with a sustain pedal, allowing each note to ring out. I wanted to recreate that on the guitar. Here’s the opening line:

First, notice that there are actually two voices in this line. On piano you might play one voice per hand. Guitarists, however, have to figure out how to allow one voice to ring while the other is being played, otherwise it will just sound like a single line. This is another reason the harp technique is handy.

Example 4 is perhaps more tricky on the right hand, requiring some odd finger picking patterns that are anything but intuitive.

Here’s a video of me playing “Everything Means Nothing To Me” by Elliott Smith. Throughout the entire arrangement, I tried to sustain chords and play open strings whenever possible to create a harp-like effect.

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If you found this lesson helpful, please see my other guitar related posts, and check back occasionally for more Woodshed Wednesday free guitar lessons. I am also available for private guitar lessons in NYC or via Skype.

Calley Bliss and I will be performing a last minute show this Saturday, January 14, at Brooklyn’s Goodbye Blue Monday.

We’ll be playing music we’ve been writing for our latest project, When We Were Six. Our last show was in July, just before Calley took an opportunity that pulled her out of the city. Chances are, this will be our last show until we organize a summer tour. If you’re free, we’d love to see you!

We’ll be joined by Russ Flynn on bass and Dan Cray on piano.

Directions to Goodbye Blue Monday
RSVP on Facebook

Happy New Year!

I’m excited about 2012. Jill and I visited family and friends in St. Louis over the holidays and had a wonderfully exhausting time. We capped off the trip with a 17 hour drive with our cats, Grandma’s piano, and Grandpa’s rocking chair in tow, all successfully unloaded at 4am in chilly Brooklyn.

The pipeline is already pretty full for the beginning of the year…

In December I started playing with Shotcafe, a Spanish rock band that performs at least once a week way uptown, and I’ll continue to work with them well into 2012.

Collaborations! I’ve started some long distance co-writing with drummer Travis Whitmore for what we hope will be a new album this year. Additionally, Calley Bliss and I continue working on the project we started last Summer before she moved to Boise. We’re working on a tour for this summer.

Finally, I continue working with Dave Hahn on MusicianWages and a myriad of related projects. A couple of my articles will even be published in books this year. Once they’re in print, I’ll let you know!

Thanks for stopping by and for all your support in 2011. I wish you the best for 2012.

- Cameron

Like the rest of the music I sell, all of these albums were independently produced and distributed. When you pay for this music, most of the money goes directly to the musicians involved. The little bump in Christmas album sales helps us travel home for the holidays and spend time with our families. It’s sort of our way of earning a paid vacation.

Closer to Christmas by Montgomery Bruce (2009)
Available for download at:
iTunes / Amazon

Jazz fans will probably enjoy the jazz and bossa nova style of Montgomery Bruce. Closer to Christmas built upon the style of the Bruce’s debut, Bossa Noel, and created a wider variety of arrangements. Highlights include “The Christmas Song,” “O Tannenbaum,” and “Good King Wenceslas.”

Bossa Noel by Montgomery Bruce (2007)
Available for download at:
iTunes / Amazon

The first Christmas album I recorded, Bossa Noel found a good deal of success on iTunes when it was first released. It quickly made its way up the jazz charts before being the only independently released album in 2007s jazz Christmas feature. That same year the opening track, “O Little Town of Bethlehem” was added to iTunes’ Essentials Instrumental Christmas playlist.

Christmas from the Heartland by Dunham Van Durham (2008)
Available for download at:
Bandcamp / iTunes / Amazon

If you’re a fan of Americana or folk music, give this one a try. It’s entirely instrumental, with a chorus of guitars, mandolin, banjo, harmonica, and more playing familiar melodies over rich reharmonized accompaniment. My personal favorite is “Hark, The Herald Angles Sing,” and I think you’ll also like “We Wish You a Merry Christmas” and a very nostalgic take on “Auld Lang Syne.”

Sounds Like Snow by Be Still (2009)
Available for download at:
iTunes / Amazon

Be Still was a side project for myself and Lauren Zettler, aka Lightyear. The first track we recorded, and possibly my favorite, was “Silent Night.” That set the tone for the rest of the arrangements, all a little melancholy and nostalgic. Along with the classics we recorded one of Lauren’s originals, the title track “Sounds Like Snow,” and Ray Charles’ “That Spirit of Christmas” which we all know from National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation.

Thanks for stopping by, and enjoy your holiday!