i know this may sound crazy for you experienced players, but would anyone be willing to post the strum patterns for The Cross and Curious Child? Serious newbie here and when I try ti work it out, it doesn't sound right. Many thanks.

my guitars are in the shop getting serviced so i can't be sure
but i believe The Cross is like
Down down Up Down up, for the acoustic part
and the regular rock part is just an down up dwon up progression,

im not sure if curious child has a chord progression i'll get back 2 u on that 1

txladykat said:

It might not be your strumming pattern on "The Cross", it might be a sneaky little chord that's not on the sheet music.

The last strum or two of the A chord measures is actually an open G chord (leave all the strings open, strum the highest four strings, D-G-B-E).

See if that helps make it sound right.

Strumming patterns?

Try to master ghost-strumming, where your hand is moving but you're not strumming the guitar. So then, you don't have to focus on when to strum DOWN or UP, just focus on when to turn the strumming ON or OFF (by bringing the pick close enough to actually strum the strings).

That's the key. When I see somebody trying to do rhythm guitar playing but looks like they're having a seizure, it's just not healthy.

Move your hand up and down to the beat of the song. Down down down down on the beats.

Watch THIS:
http://www.youtube.com/wa...HBJoyxgDb4

Once the intro is done, see how his hand is down down down down (except when he's playing the key riff). He's combining ghost strumming and muting the strings with his fretting hand. It's not that difficult.

EDIT:
The Cross by some dude watch the hands again - ghost strumming.
http://video.google.com/v...ss+%2Blive
[Edited 11/14/06 16:19pm]

beauhall said:

i didnt even know that had a name, ghost strumming huh?
lol i just did it out of second nature,
i use it as away as keepinging up with the ryhthm and emptying the strumming sound too
also add some thumps under the soundhole for effect,

I don't like mimicking strumming patterns i hear in songs,
sometimes i just feel the pattern without even examining it
when i play the cross live i usually mix it with a song ii wrote to the tune of it called Gotham City
which is basically cosmettically like the cross cept for the key change, and i add a Dsus4, at the end for effect,
but thats getting crazy with covers,
and a whole other level, just thought id add
[Edited 11/14/06 19:00pm]

beauhall said:

thanks for the great tip! i try to do that anytime i am listening to music to try to pick up the pattern. i will be driving down the road or whatever and be "ghost" strumming to the music. i never thought of actually doing it while playing. great tip, i will give it a try!

RodeoSchro said:

thanks! yep, i never would have picked that up! will give it a shot.

In my head I imagine all down strokes from the actual chords, but in between would probably be muted up strokes just for rhythm

So if Boom=down and chick=up I'd play (1st chord)boom chick boom boom chick (2nd chord) boom chick boom boom chick

That's just in my head, mind you not necessarily right.

Curious Child seems harder, more melodic than just strumming simple chords.

Hey Txlady...

Similer to what Beau mentioned on ghost strumming, another thing to help with getting your arm going up and down is to know (and count) with the beat - at least when you're practicing the tune...Tap your foot, count out loud and work them beat by beat until you feel the pattern.

You downstroke on the beats 1 2 3 4 and upstroke on the "and" of the beat (ex. (1) AND (2) AND (3) AND (4) AND).

If you google strum patterns you'll see them written in several formats
(ex. D U D U D U for down/up, 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + for the 1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and mentioned above).

Most will put parenthesis around the beats that you do not play, as in this example 1 (+) 2 (+) 3 (+) 4 (+) (you're only playing the downstrokes).

For the Cross (yay, i finally got to your question). Play it like this:

E
1 (+) 2 + (3) + 4 +

Asus ..... G/A (open strings 2-5 played on the "and" of beat 4 as you switch back to E)
1 (+) 2 + (3) + 4 +