strum direction

where can I find which direction to strum on a given piece.Its hard to tell by watching
thanks

Paul

to add to the request can you add the metronome beat speed as well, alot of lessons (core progression) don't have them yet were told to use it to help rhythm. can you also modify the metronome to increment in 1 not 2, i tried to get a 99beat to 3doors down, kryptonite and discovered i couldn't.

cheers

peter

There's no universal answer to this question. If we're lucky, the sheet music will tell us which direction we should strum or pick, but most sheet music doesn't.

There is a basic system that will help you decide between an upstroke or a down stroke. The system requires that you know how to read rhythms and count a measure. Here are some rules:

1. Use a downstroke on the beat.

2. If eighth notes are your fastest notes in the measure, use upstrokes for half-beats.

3. If sixteenth notes are your fastest notes in the measure, use upstrokes for quarter beats and three-quarter beats. Downstrokes on the beat and half beat.

For example, if you counted the rhythm as:
1 2 3 & 4
your alternate picking would look like this:
d d d u d

If you counted the rhythm as:
1e&a2 &a3 4
your alternate picking would look like:
dudud dud d

I hope this helps clear up some the of the confusion.

Earle Wood
www.ewguitar.com